Hello,
I am a new member of this group, thought I'd introduce myself.
I had been interested in electric propulsion for a while before going to the recent boat show in Toronto. After talking to a few diesel companies about replacing the Volvo MD11C in my boat, I became even more interested...
My boat is a 27' Vollenhovense Bol. She is a Dutch, 11,000 lb steel, gaff rigged double-ender with leeboards.
The existing engine works well enough, but I have read enough to know repairs are expensive. If anything other than basic maintenance is required I will repower.
Outside of sailing, quite often the wife and I motor around in the evening (I live wasterfront, and keep the boat on my dock) for an hour or so. Would be amazing to do this without the clatter and stink of a diesel beneath us.
The plan is to install a series hybrid.
I'm thinking:
5 to 10 KW BLDC motor, gear reduction as needed
battery bank 48V? 72V?
dual remote start generators
associated chargers, controllers, etc...
The MD11C with reverse gear is about 500lbs, so this is how much weight I have to replace. The motor resides under the cockpit, totally separate from the cabin. I want to keep all generators, batteries in this area.
My original thinking was to use two Honda eu2000i generators with the parallel kit, but they don't have remote start. I have found similar small inverter generators with remote so I will have to go with those. I had considered using one bigger genny, but like the flexibility and redundancy of two smaller. I will make my own control system to start and stop the generators as needed, probably using an Arduino microprocessor board. This way I can automatically start one, or both depending on load and balance runtime.
I hope to make them as quiet as possible with proper ventilation and soundproofing.
In the end I'd like the capability of 1 to 2 hours at 2 to 3 knots on battery. If possible I'd like unlimited (other than by gas storage capacity) range at 3 to 4 knots using the generators .
I considered diesel generator/generators but they seem to cut into my weight allotment too quickly. I also considered going with water cooled generators, but again, they get heavy, and I'd like to remove through hulls wherever possible. I am converting to a composting head so I can get rid of all through hulls in the cabin.
I haven't figured it all out yet, so if I say anything that is obviously wrong or unrealistic, please let me know.
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