I would definitely worry about, and fortify your cutlass bearing but I can say for sure that the electric motor and the bearing on the Velvet drive transmissions are NO PROBLEM. This was a big concern of mine in the beginning too but I've been running this setup for almost 10 years now.
Hybrid Drive
Unfortunately I have to manually remove the chain when going from electric to diesel but I so seldom run the diesel it is not an issue. That's why I've never bothered to come up with any kind of clutch mechanism either. I do not recommend using a chain although the components are much cheaper to buy and easier to install, it is noisy and and a lot of maintenance. I plan to eventually convert to series hybrid configuration when either the diesel or the electric motor ever dies and will switch to a synchronous belt drive directly to the driveshaft and do away with the V-drive. I know that will perform much better but as long as it all continues to work, I'll keep using it. The diesel is a 1962 British Standard and the motor is from D&D in Syracuse NY with an Altrax DSC500 controller.
I have had occasion to run the diesel with the chain still attached to the electric and it worked fine but was a little noisy. Since the dampener plate on the flywheel of the diesel started popping springs about 5 years ago I have only used the diesel one time when something went wrong with the motor controller, (I do start the motor every few months just to be sure it's still operational). I was drifting toward shore so I fired it up and motored to deeper water to anchor while I figured out what was going on. That's the time I ran it with the chain still on. The diesel system still works great but the failing dampener plate is hard on the transmission so it's reserved for emergency use only. I don't want to put the money into fixing it since I plan on redoing the whole thing eventually.
On Thursday, September 3, 2020, 10:24:45 AM EDT, Matthew Cook <matthewcook40@gmail.com> wrote:
Hi folks,
I'm new to the group and enjoying reading old posts and learning a lot about electrifying boats. This may have been covered in older posts so please excuse me if I'm bringing up something that has already been discussed but I would like to run some ideas and questions by ya'll:
- One of the differences between a 1984 38,000lb heavy cruising sailboat like my Liberty 458 and a modern cruiser/racer is that the cruiser/racer will point into the wind on a beat about 20-30 deg higher than I can.
- Another difference is that unlike many "plastic fantastics" my old boat is very comfortable, seaworthy and affordable. In all but sailing performance, I prefer her to something newer and with better performance.
- I love to sail when possible but I'm no purist and if I can cheat without compromise, I will. I'd like to add a 10Kw electric motor to my existing drive train so that when I'm beating, I can turn my fixed 3-blade 20" x 15" propellor enough to help my sailing performance (my transmission is a Borg Warner Velvet Drive and can freewheel without any problem). I estimate 2-3kw into the drive shaft would be sufficient in most conditions to bring my sailing angle up to around 30-40deg off the wind which would keep my impatience in check. When there is no wind, I may also use the "2nd auxiliary" to keep me moving rather than start the noisy 84Hp Perkins 236 engine. It would also be very nice coming into harbor when crew are line handling and we can hear each other without having to yell over the engine.
Some questions that I have:
- Has anybody done something similar to this? Can they report on their results?
- If I placed a BLDC motor with a 2:1 dual belt drive to two pulleys over my propshaft, it would apply some side load to the shaft which would, in turn, be applied to the bearings of the transmission and the Cutless bearing. I'm confident that the load on the transmission would not be a problem but I'm not so sure about the Cutless bearing. Does anybody have any experience with this?
- Would I need to include pillow blocks on the output shaft of the motor or can the motors generally handle the side load of placing a pulley directly on the output shaft?
- I'd love to use the system to regenerate also. I've read how regeneration is not very efficient in smaller boats but, with sufficient wind, I can consistently hold 7knts throwing a pretty big wheel. I know from experience trying to stall my prop shaft when I'm running along that there is a lot of power there! Other than an old-school brushed DC motor, is there any motor that will do a better job of regenerating than another?
Thanks in advance for any thoughts.
Matthew
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