Hi Kevin,
I'm with you about multihulls, weight is a killer. I didn't convert my F-27 trimaran to electric for exactly that reason. While not exactly a passage maikng cruiser, my trips have been limited to no more than 3 days of blue water racing at a time. With a new 9.8 Tohatsu outboard with 40nm of fuel that all together weighs less than two group 27 batteries, I've been able to keep my performance up. A month ago, I was racing back from Catalina after staying aboard for a long weekend with three people onboard and we were sailing at 12+kts in 15kts true wind. Add another 300 pounds and the boat only hits 8kts in the same conditions (I know this from day sails with 2 more guests).
For my Bermuda 30 Ketch electric conversion, space has been my biggest challenge. An old sailboat design (H28 knockoff with narrow beam and wineglass hull), there was little enough locker space available before I started, I'm trying to get the entire drive including batteries to fit within the same space as the old engine and fuel tank, while retaining some level of accessability. The 8kWh of LiFePO4 batteries that I purchased are making that goal possible. And yes, the battery bank is equiped with BMS modules that will prevent any over or under-voltage condition. My friends with 48 cell LiFeO4 banks (24kWh) in their electric cars haven't lost a cell yet in over 500 cycles using the same components. I know that I am taking a risk in a marine environment, but I won't be tackling any 2 week passages in this boat anyway.
We'll have to compare notes of how our boats perform after both of our conversions are complete.
Fair winds,
Eric
Marina del Rey, CA
--- In electricboats@yahoogroups.com, Kevin Pemberton <pembertonkevin@...> wrote:
>
> Hey Eric,
>
> Thanks for doing the math. I already did it....
>
> As I have stated with my specs there are more things to consider than
> weight and space. I understand the need to stay light with multi hulls,
> and a multi hull can make a passage much shorter than with a mono.
> Maybe enough to stay within the weather prediction window, but cruisers
> typically find weight less important than convenience over time. The
> water line keeps raising with every year they spend on their boats.
> Soon the multi hull dream of go fast, gives way to a better life, at
> close to mono hull speeds....
>
>
> Kevin Pemberton
>
No comments:
Post a Comment