Sunday, July 5, 2009

[Electric Boats] Epod for sale



Submersible electric drive to suit 20ft displacement boat, or 25ft sailboat.

This Epod 2000 was imported last year from Re-E-Power in the USA and has been upgraded in many ways. Its not powerful enough to suit my 43 ft trimaran which means you have the opportunity to get into a electric motor at a discount - who knows how much. You can see more about this epod on my website at http://www.currentsunshine.com

It would suit displacement boat around 20ft or a barbecue boat, or a sailboat up to 25ft. It has been set up on a carriage so that it can be raised and lowered easily - and in this configuration would ideally suit a sailboat with an outboard motor well.

The manufacturer claims it to be equivalent to a 7 to 9 hp outboard and this feels about right for its cruising capability, but it has more thrust than this available for short bursts, such as when manouvring.

The manufacturer claims regenerative power and this is only available at sailing speeds above 6 knots and so in practise its not easily achieved on the boats it would suit.

For a boat that is used occasionally it would be ideal - solar panels, or shore power can recharge your batteries between trips. You may want to carry a small genset to give added range.

As a guide to range, you could expect to see 2 to 3 knots when drawing 20 amps of power, and considering a 200 ah 48v battery pack, this would give you a capability of 5 hours running for 50% deplection. (or 10 hours in an emergency when you could totally flatten the batteries). Of course this may better or worse for your particular boat, depending on how easily driven it is.

You can see details of this motor on the manufacturer's website at http://www.re-e-power.com

It comes with two propellers so you can experiment to find the best match for your boat.

You can simply bolt the Epod straight onto your boat's outboard well. To use the lifting carriage you'd need to add sail tracks or other suitable tracks.

It cost me $4185 (Australian dollars) to import the basic Epod 2000 and then I spent over $2000 on the lifting carriage and other improvements, such as two new props.

I'm including the following:

Submersible Epod 2000 complete with lifting carriage to suit outboard well
Two Solas props, 12.2x7, and 12.2x5
Navitas controller
Remote throttle control
Various cables for batteries, and quick release Anderson connectors.

What you'll need in addition to what I'm providing is a 24, 36 or 48 volt battery bank, a means of charging it, an ammeter to monitor current to the motor, and the mounting arrangements may require some fabrication.

The Epod is located in Brisbane, Australia, and it would be good to find a home for it downunder. But it could be shipped elsewhere.

Cheers

Chris

__._,_.___
Recent Activity
Visit Your Group
Give Back

Yahoo! for Good

Get inspired

by a good cause.

Y! Toolbar

Get it Free!

easy 1-click access

to your groups.

Yahoo! Groups

Start a group

in 3 easy steps.

Connect with others.

.

__,_._,___

No comments:

Post a Comment