Pete,
Disclosure: Dealer for Electric Yacht
Just finished our third trip with our diesel hybrid and I am really sold on the capabilities of the parallel diesel hybrid. I also have an all electric Newport 30MKll. My Columbia 9.6 is quite a bit lighter than your 32ft double ender. What we have found in sailing her is that when others sailboats around Southern California are under power on the upwind portion of a passage, we are sailing at about 60-70% of hull speed. Just a little slower but the journey is the destination. Just that little but of boost, 4 to 10 amps sailing assist makes it possible. Solar would be useful here. That fact has become the over ridding way I use electric on the boat. In Southern California light winds passage making my use has been: diesel propulsion/charging 25%, Electric sailing assist 50% and sailing only 25%. Electric only in day sailing and harbor use.
We installed the WE7.0 on our 15 hp Yanmar and could have installed the smaller WE3.0 with much of the same results. The electric motor is mounted above the transmission with drive to the special geared common coupler. The diesel moves the boat, the electric moves the boat and the diesel while propelling the boat can drive the electric as a generator. The clutch would be very nice and it is in the future, shaft space already reserved for it. We use the same belt system we have installed in over 150 boats and it is quite and reliable. Chain would also work but likely more noise. The recharge system is turned on or off by the switch and the controller manages the amount of power the diesel driving the generator puts into the battery pack.
You can see the installation here:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/electricboats/photos/album/1469361680/pic/list
Your thinking about how you would use the hybrid is spot on. After making our third trip this Summer, I believe that for the 32 to 40 foot boat, the parallel hybrid is a good solution. The diesel systems are usually adequate and can handle the power load of the electric in generator mode (they are programed to not over demand power from the diesel while the diesel is pushing the boat). The benefit of the slow speed harbor under electric only is great. The sailing with electric motor assist is very useful to improve pointing and increase speed in light winds. And the size of the propulsion battery pack is likely to be smaller than in an electric only propulsion system without an installed diesel generator.
Regards, Mike Gunning
Electric Yacht of Southern California
--- In electricboats@yahoogroups.com, "danblu@..." <danblu@...> wrote:
>
> Hi Folks,
> I've got a 32 foot Atkins style double ender somewhat like a "Thistle". She's a great little bird on the water, sails really well except in really light air. Usually gets about half the wind speed to around ten knots wind but in really light conditions struggles a bit due to her having ten tons to propel.
> So why not put a pulley on the propshaft( has an Isuzu 25 hp 2ab1 through a prm 140 gearbox) and fit an electric motor to both propel and generate power?
> Just need the electric drive to push her to about 3 knots so 5 kilowatt should be plenty. I imagine electric assist in light air, and any time the sun is shining as plan to have solar panels attached to the lifelines. Should get our average speed up a bit!
> I guess this would need a clutch or some method of disengaging when the batteries are fully charged or maybe a current diverter that heats water. Should not need a huge battery with this setup.
> Really interest to hear your opinions.
> Kind regards,
> Pete.
>
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