T-Pain Is On A Boat: [Electric Boats] Re: New member

Thursday, October 8, 2009

[Electric Boats] Re: New member - 37' sailboat

JB,

Welcome! 37' is a little larger than most completely compelling conversions. More HP, more battery issues, more complexity possible, and usually a lot more money.

Not always though: I've just installed an all electric propulsion system in my 55' Herreshoff Marco Polo, and ran it for about 45 minutes this morning (still tied up in the slip). I need a cooling fan and cooling shrouds for the direct-drive motor and motor controller, since they were heating up quickly with a 50 amp DC draw. I've only spent about $1,500 on it (motor/controller/batteries), though I would recommend a newer motor controller with regeneration capability for your boat (since it is fast enough to spin a large prop while sailing). The electric car market has a new much more efficient AC drive system for under $6000 with batteries (they used to be $30,000) in a perfect power curve for your boat.

I plan to blue water cruise, but first sail the SF Bay. I accept the limits of short range power from an all electric system for now, but eventually plan to add an highly efficient generator for sustained motoring.

more info on my boat:
http://rabblebabble.org/node/3

Enjoy the learning,
Mark Stafford

--- In electricboats@yahoogroups.com, "jarrodjbailey" <jarrodjbailey@...> wrote:
>
> Hi all,
>
> What a great group!
>
> My partner and I are re-building an old 37' sailboat to go cruising offshore and I am very interested in learning how to make an axillary electric engine for her.
>
> Glad to be here and welcome any feedback or information on where to get started.
>
> Best,
> JB
>