My 26 foot yacht has a long keel with a cutaway forefoot. Winds from the wrong direction and the boat's prop walk can make it difficult to manouver her in tight situations, especially in reverse. Last weekend I had a devil of a time getting her out of her slip - and I dream of canal cruising one day!
I am now thinking of making my own bow thruster along the lines of the jet thrusters offered by Holland Marine Parts in the Netherlands. I race the boat weekly so don't want a tunnel thruster and there isn't room for a retractable thruster. Anyway the current products I have found are very expensive and way oversized for what I am looking for.
I have come up with a preliminary design and one of the components I need to find is an electric motor to drive a high efficiency pump (I am looking at a 2 inch pump from www.fastflowpump.com). Based on what I have worked out so far I will need a (12 volt?) motor:
* in the 1.5Kw to 2.0Kw range
* which runs around 2,000 to 3,000 RPM
* which will have very infrequent use (a duty cycle of maybe a couple of minutes at a time with long periods between uses)
* which offers forward and reverse with equal efficiency
* with variable speed (ideal but probably not essential)
* is suitable for a marine environment
If feasible to use my present batteries (12 volts) there will be a distance of approximately 6 to 8 feet between the batteries and the motor and a current of around 170 amps.
I am hoping that some of you experienced folk in this group can comment and offer suggestions. I will be happy to explain my design further if that will help
Thanks in advance
Solar Paul
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