I was wanting a pontoon for my family, but they are expensive and.....soulless. no character. Sail boats are cheap and they have style, and you can sleep out, camp out on the lake in them, cook in them, etc etc. Look around e-bay, its astounding how cheap sailboats are going for. my first saIboat/turn ed electric boat was a 21 footer, 8ft beam RK21 it came with trailer, in decent shape for 280 dollars, (went cheap because it was missing sails and boom, had only mast). it takes 1600 watts to push it faster than I can jog which is just as fast as I want to travel on our lake. The hull is a displacement design of course, but a sleek, scientifically designed one available for much cheaper than the cost of resin to build a new one, you are recycling used resin and repurposing this unwanted craft. Sailboats are solar powered originally anyway, now you are catching photons instead of wind.
---In electricboats@yahoogroups.com, <cirejay@...> wrote :
The fact is, many do use old sailboats to go electric. And yes, the true displacements hulls are a great place to start.
I'm not sure how many have cut down an older rig to, in essence, create a motorsailer that is more on the motor side of the equation. Why not just leave the sail rig as it is and use it as is?.
As for needing to be on the water/planning to exceed hull speed, I don't believe that's entirely accurate. The need for huge amounts of power to exceed hull speed is certainly right on, no matter what the source of power is.
Along with Meander, a Seawind II ketch, I recent acquired a Gulfstar 36 trawler that has the advantage of being based on their motorsailer hull and, as such, is a true displacement design.
It is currently ridiculously overpowered with twin 85hp Perkins diesels - she'll do 8.2 knots on one engine while dragging the other 17", 3 blade prop. My goal is to pull one engine and replace it with a 12.kw motor as a 'proof of concept' of sorts. If that works as intended, I will pull the other engine, add another motor, more solar panels and generator.
Unfortunately, that project is on hold as I'm scheduled for back surgery the end of July. It's something to look forward to though.
Wishing you luck with your project and looking forward to hearing how it turns out.
eric SV Meander
---In electricboats@yahoogroups.com, <artzboyz@...> wrote :
Posted by: billhopen@yahoo.com
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