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

Sunday, December 6, 2009

[Electric Boats] Re: Electric Catamaran

Hei Bill

I don't have an electric system myself, but much like you I am also dreaming of installing one on a sailboat. There is a couple of providers which might be interesting for you checking out. One is the often mentioned Bellmann (www.bellmann.nu) which has recently been taken over by mastervolt. They sell all kinds of systems (pods, saildrives and conventional shaft drives) and all kinds of sizes. Under the roof of mastervolt they are probably able to provide "the most complete system" including batteries, chargers etc.
Another interesting link for you might be www.e-jet.org. Although they are not in the marked yet, they might be some day. And the pictures they have of a yacht look quite nice though it is only a monohull http://picasaweb.google.com/Bieschewski/EJETAdaptionAnSegelyachtAusfahrUndDrehbar# I don't have any clue how efficient it is. Somewhere on their website they also claim to be working on regeneration... I like this alternative since it is easily retractable and includes very few moving parts. However, I am not sure if it is going to be available soon.
In any case I believe you will need a powerful generator to drive the electric engines, but thats only one ICE instead of two and you will be able to efficiently use it to power all the rest of your electric equipment while charging the battery bank independent of propulsion. On a sunny, windy day you then might end up running the generator very little ;-)

Matti

--- In electricboats@yahoogroups.com, "Bill Gow" <billgow@...> wrote:
>
>
> From: Eric
>
> PV panels don't generate any heat, but they do collect it. Hard panels over
> a hard bimini actually lower the temperature on deck, underneath the cover.
> The panels need a small air gap for cooling so the hard bimini ends up in
> the shade. Many people use the panels as their bimini with nothing
> underneath, these act similar to a regular hard top, though probably a
> little warmer underneath because they're black on top. Putting an additional
> layer between you and the panels, perhaps even canvas, should mitigate that
> issue.
>
>
>
> You can probably guess, I'm trying to save a couple pounds wherever I can. I
> was thinking of going with a targa style arch in the back for my traveler
> and attaching the panels to that with aluminum supports and tying it
> altogether with a walkway down the center (basically an aluminum frame
> holding up everything). I can't have exposed wiring under the bimini so I'll
> probably have to go with the continuous hard bimini, front to back.
>
> I've just spent the last couple hours shopping for electric motors. I'm
> wondering if I can get away with something in the 36 volt range. These guys
> (www.kraeutler.at) have a couple that look interesting. They make a variety
> of power systems, including sail drives. I know the Volvo diesel sail drives
> have been a nightmare on the bigger charter cats. I don't think these are
> regenerative either, unlike the Asmo.
>