On Tony's behalf and mine and everyone else unsure of the consequences, Thank you for all of your great answers. I am the risk taker and my wife is the grounded what if person.
This answers all of our questions and will allow me to get a smaller less expensive and less consuming system that what I thought would be necessary.
Sincerely
Randy
--- In electricboats@yahoogroups.com, "Eric" <ewdysar@...> wrote:
>
> Tony,
>
> My short answers are as follows. You can read some of my previous posts for more depth on these topics.
>
> Good luck with your conversion.
>
> Eric
> Marina del Rey, CA
>
> > My questions are:
> >
> > 1) Did you buy an off the shelf product?
> I bought Propulsion Marine's 5kW open frame drive.
> >
> > 2) How much did you know about Electric Propulsion and the issues of design and safety before you bought?
> Lots. Background in technology, project management, successful electric conversions of cars 20 years ago, installed multiple solar systems, etc.
> >
> > 3) How had you learned when your project was done?
> More info about battery chemistry. Specific attributes of A/C drives versus D/C drives. Info about propellor efficiency related to displacement boats. The importance of matching drive capabilities to specific installations, one size does not fit all.
> >
> > 4) How long did it take you to build your system from first idea, to motoring away from the dock?
> First idle contemplation, a decade ago. Bought Torqeedo for dinghy 2 years ago. That physical conversion took 15 minutes. This project; diesel in my 30' ketch failed last September, work started in March. Hope to be operational by Memorial day (less than 20 hours a month available for this project)
> >
> > 5) A 10 hp diesel engine delivers about 7500 watts of energy. What size electric engine would be appropriate as a replacement?
> Typical conversion ratios for auxiliary sailboats are 1hp electric = 2-3hp ICE. A conversion that I find more consistant is 1kW per ton of displacement (not weight). For both of these conversion ratios, I would round up to the next available motor size. Other boat types have different requirements.
> >
> > 6) If you were going to purchase an electric boat, would you be more or less likely to purchase based on home brew vs commercially purchased?
> A commercial system will have a better resale value. I would not be interested in most of the homebrew conversions that I have seen.
> >
> > 7) What are the biggest gottchas when designing and installing a home brew electric propulsion system?
> Matching the drive to the boat. Finding good places for the batteries (they're bigger than you think).
> >
> > 8) How much time have you spent using your new electric yacht?
> N/A
> >
> > 9) Have you ever found yourself out of power, or feeling you had too little power to get yourself out of a difficult situation?
> The Torqeedo 801 runs like the 2hp it replaced, but will run flat in a weekend of ship to shore dinghy runs at Catalina. I had to row ashore with a dead battery when I first got it. Now, I monitor my usage more closely and opportunity charge whenever possible.
> >
> > 10) Are you happy with the results? Would you do it again if you could start over again? If you answer yes, what would you change about the system you installed?
> TBD. I expect the system to meet my expectations, but I've done extensive research on my options. Given my investment, I can't afford a do-over. Alternatively, I would not convert my F-27 trimaran to electric, electric is not a universal replacement for ICE. But for some boats, electric drive is a viable alternative, the boat you describe falls into that range.
> >
> >
> > Tony
> >
>
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