Friday, January 27, 2012

[Electric Boats] Looking at the options

 

Apologies for another 'I'm thinking about converting...' post.

I have what is known as a Sussex Beach boat, a short, broad, shallow, fairly heavy open boat of around 16ft, currently powered by a 15hp air cooled diesel which is very noisy. I need to change either to a newer diesel or be brave and go electric.

The boat lives in Chichester Marina (UK). Re-charging would be easy. I rarely go out for more than 6 hours. Most of this is spent in the harbour where the speed limit is 8 knots (can't reach that anyway). Tidal streams and wind can be quite strong ( tide 5-6 knots at times).

The boat has quite a lot of ballast in it so changing this for a good sized array of batteries would not be a problem. There is plenty of room. Prop is three bladed, turning at 1500 rpm. Not sure of size or pitch. I could even have room to accomodate some sort of generator set as a 'get you home' if needed.

I have two questions to start with:

Is electric power viable for such an application bearing in mind the need to push against the tide?

Is there anyone around my area who has done such a conversion?

Many thanks in advance

Michael
(Bobolink)

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