Hello everyone,
I have had my new Torqeedo Cruise 4.0R on my 24 foot pontoon for about 3 weeks now and am very happy with it. It easily propels the boat to the typical cruising speed (4 to 5 MPH) using 500 to 1000 watts depending on the wind. I typical outing lasts a few hours and uses no more than 30% of the battery capacity (4 Group 31 AGMs - 105 AH @ 48 volts).
However, being an engineer, I am never satisfied that things work well - I always want to understand *how* they work. That brings me to a question about the Torqeedo. I started off assuming that a particular setting of the throttle coresponded to a particular power input. For example, if I set the throttle such that power input was 800 watts, the power usage would stay at 800 watts. However, that is clearly not the case. If I am heading with the wind at 800 watts and then turn around to head into the wind, the boat slows as expected, but the power usage also rises significantly. For example, the speed might slow from 4.5 to 3.8 mph while the power input rises from 800 to 1100 watts. Can I assume the controller is trying to maintain a certain prop speed? I guess that would make sense. The power goes up to maintain the prop speed while the boat slows down due to increased propeller slippage. Can anyone confirm that?
Thanks,
Pat
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