Re: [electricboats] Newbie - 20+ foot boat for wide/long river in Guyana, South America

Thanks Eric, Reuben

 

 

This is really interesting.  The summary below is perfect.  It looks like the electric conversion cost has to drop significantly in order for this to be a feasible, practical project.  I may just continue to enhance my knowledge and perhaps tinker with a smaller experimental project while waiting for the costs to come down (hopefully).

 

I will continue to monitor all of the great conversations which happens in this forum. 

 

Thank you to everyone for your input. It is invaluable!!!

 

Raj

 

 

 

From: electricboats@groups.io <electricboats@groups.io> On Behalf Of Eric via groups.io
Sent: Tuesday, May 23, 2023 11:12 AM
To: electricboats@groups.io
Subject: Re: [electricboats] Newbie - 20+ foot boat for wide/long river in Guyana, South America

 

Reuben is getting closer to what might be required.

Raj, is your regular trip 30 miles round trip or one way?  

In either case, your current boat converted to Torqeedo power as suggested will have a usable range around 18 miles at 25mph with 1 Torqeedo Deep Blue 40 battery, according to the Torqeedo specs.  That battery has a list price of $32k US.  Given that range, you'll need 2 of the batteries to make a 30 mile trip in 75 minutes of run time.  The batteries are just over 600# each.  So you could repower your current boat with Torqeedo motor and batteries for $90k US.  Then you'll need charger(s).  You should also consider the time to recharge the 60+kWh used going the 30 miles once attached to a suitable shore power source.  Lastly, due to the high tech nature of Torqeedo products, they are not available with factory support in some countries.  I don't know if Guyana is on their list.

If your monthly gasoline bill is around $1000 US, it will be a long time before you break even on the investment.  

With your current outboard, parts and service should be readily available, performance is better, and re-fueling takes minutes, not hours or days.  It's all about the trade-offs, and while I am a huge proponent of electric conversions, you would be making considerable sacrifices to go electric for how you use your boat.  Yours is a big project and pretty expensive to do just to see if it works.  What happens if after $100k US, it doesn't meet your needs?  Just something to consider.

Eric