Elco is located here on the east coast, NY I think, and is one of the oldest companies dedicated to electric boating. However, they have gone through many ownership changes and challenges with one very recently. I tried contacting them this past year for my project and after several phone calls and the total lack of information, I gave up. I do hope they have figured it out and got beyond their troubles.
--- In electricboats@yahoogroups.com, David Goldsmith <suntreader@...> wrote:
>
> I don't have any more info than is available from Hunter or from a brief
> article in Sail:
>
> http://sailmagazine.com/boat-reviews/best-boats/hunter_27e/
>
> I know I gave that last boat a hard time, so let me make it up by saying
> this is a pretty sweet little set up. Elco is a very good name in electric
> boats, I'd love to have their systems and expertise designing my set up. The
> batteries are six 210amp/hr AGMs (4d?), which is a good compromise on cost
> and easy of maintenance. This is just the right sized boat to have a system
> like this, small enough that the motor and battery requirements are
> reasonable, but big enough it can handle the weight and room. Their claimed
> 20 miles at 6 knots sounds reasonable and not like an 'ideal conditions at 2
> knots' type of situation.
>
> I'll note that the motor looks to be a very good system, completely
> enclosed, and possibly direct drive, its not clear if there is any gear
> reduction done in the case. Anyone familiar with Elco systems? The only
> concern I'd have is that it runs on 72V which is beyond the nominal 48V at
> which more safety concerns have to be addressed. I'm more comfortable with
> 48V but a professionally designed and installed system should be fine since
> they know what they're doing and I'm just tinkering.
>
> I didn't see any estimate on cost, I would assume it costs more than the
> standard diesel, but it really shouldn't be that much more.
>
> Sometimes Hunter is given a hard time for being one of the big-three of
> sailboats and producing a sort of mainstream product where price and quality
> have an inverse relationship. I owned a 1977 Hunter 27, the really tubby one
> designed by John Cherubini, and it was really a pretty good boat for what it
> was, built like a tank too. They've changed a lot since then of course. I
> took a tour of the factory a few years ago and was pretty impressed. They
> weren't quite the modern marvel the new Beneteau factories are but it was
> clean and well organized and there was still a lot of hand work going into
> assembling the interior components and installing the systems.
>
> This is the type of electric propulsion I think will be first to go
> mainstream, in boats that are really a little on the small side for a diesel
> and a little on the big size for an outboard, where low maintenance is more
> important than range under power. I really hope the other builders follow
> suit. As for the hobbyist, this is exactly the type of system that many of
> us are trying to build for our own boats of about this size and the more
> Hunter, Catalina, and Beneteau start offering these as options the better
> available and easier they will be for us to implement too.
>
> Very cool, thumbs up!
>
> David
>
> On Tue, Nov 23, 2010 at 3:11 PM, Todd <toddbates99@...> wrote:
>
> >
> >
> > I just saw that the Hunter 27 has an electric drive option from a company
> > named Elco. Anyone have more info on this?
> >
> >
> >
>
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