Well, finally finished building the boat and the electric drive. Just completed a 100nm maiden voyage along Vancouver Island with varying weather and winds, and without incident. Even with 48v I can push this heavy hull straight into 15+ knots with 50 amps or less. Prop is a 15 inch Campbell sailor with a 13 in pitch. At 6 knots, it spins the motor when sailing so I'm going to take a 17" motorboat prop and shape it, pitch it to maybe 16 inches and see if that makes a big difference before considering a new controller for regen. With 20 amps in flat calm I seem to recall about 3 knots, and full out (150 amps) we're around 5. Motor's topping out at 150 amps so it needs more work.
Recharging is with a DPI portable 17A 48V charger which, if you select the appropriate charging algorithm, doesn't mind running while you have the motor going. We did this for about 4 hours off of a Honda 2000i. At no point did we run the batteries down more than 50% and that was only once. More commonly I charged after using 15% or less.
Boat is an 18,000 pound steel 36 footer, 10.5 foot beam, with twin keels.
I'm now in Victoria BC with some great heavy winds out of the Juan De Fuca Strait to play with this winter. Hopefully I can tweak up the system and get it working more efficiently.
So, thanks to anyone who provided advice and incentive, as well as the pessimism to keep me from being delusional.
Victor
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