Thanks for the pointer to the message... the Samba is an interesting-
I do think converting existing jet skis to electric makes at least as much sense as building a brand-new platform. Lots of people have old jet skis sitting around, and would be thrilled to convert to electric if there was a reasonable path to doing so. I was hopeful when I saw this article last year on ECO Watercraft:
http://www.engadget
But since then, I haven't heard anything from them. Their website is dead and the proof-of-concept video wasn't that impressive. The boat seemed to be traveling at 1/4 the speed that it would move with a gas engine.
The Tesla, with its 1000 lb battery pack and 70 lb motor, gives me hope... I'd only need a quarter the power, half the RPMs, and could live with half the run-time if necessary, so a 200 lb system that runs for an hour or so doesn't seem completely pie-in-the-sky. Of course, if I needed to spend $20K or more to get there, it's probably a non-starter, for me anyway.
Anyway, I'll keep looking. Thanks again for the help. So far I'm gathering that powering the motor is a bigger issue than the motor itself.
Rob
From: Eric <ewdysar@yahoo.
To: electricboats@
Sent: Mon, July 12, 2010 1:47:07 PM
Subject: [Electric Boats] Re: Jet ski conversion tips?
Check message number 14326 "eJetSki - Green Samba" for some information about a company that has built successful proof-of-concept vessels that are tackling the idea of an electric Jet ski. They found that trying to swap in an electric motor for the IC engine really wasn't delivering any reasonable sort of performance, so they started from scratch and focused on a design that is optimised for electric propulsion.
If you do a wider internet search on their efforts, you can piece together some of the issues that they've come across and how they've tried to solve them. The big trick is to drop the power requirements to a range that electric drive and batteries can support.
I won't say that it can't be done, but this is pushing the limits of what electric drives can do practically.
Fair winds,
Eric
Marina del Rey, CA
--- In electricboats@
>
> Hi,
>
> I'm a new member and joined to learn what I can about converting a 2-stroke jet ski to use an electric motor. Is it even possible to convert such a boat to electric without sacrificing performance? Or is this a complete pipe dream?
>
> Here are the current performance specs for the sake of comparison. The current engine is a 650 cc motor that makes around 90 hp, turning a 15 degree impeller at around 6000 rpm at full throttle. The hull is about 7 ft long by 2 ft wide, with around 6 inch draft when moving at half-speed or faster. It has a top speed of close to 45 mph.
>
> Any thoughts? I'm mostly interested if this is theoretically possible, so for now, cost isn't the issue.
>
> Thanks,
> Rob
>
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