Monday, May 15, 2023

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

I will be carrying about 8 persons max plus likely one piece luggage each.  The typical load will be 2 to 3 persons.

 

The boat does not have to be big, heavy and fast.  I do have a 23 foot run-about for the faster trips if needed and would like to use this as least amount of time possible.

 

A lower speed with a longer stabilized tri hull sounds pretty good.  From what I can gather by your post, this will allow for greater fuel efficiency.  This would also allow me to design this as a boathouse as well for sleeping and living quarters if desired.   If I go this route, given the expected fuel efficiency, does battery still make sense?  Or perhaps a hybrid of electric and gas?

 

I currently have eight 6v Rolls batteries for the villa so likely will not require use of the batteries from the boat although it's a great backup which I hadn't considered before.

 

Thanks

 

From: electricboats@groups.io <electricboats@groups.io> On Behalf Of navkram@gmail.com
Sent: Monday, May 15, 2023 1:14 PM
To: electricboats@groups.io
Subject: Re: [electricboats] Newbie - 20+ foot boat for wide/long river in Guyana, South America

 

From what you describe, electric is economically viable, but marginal depending on what you value. My reasoning is that your fuel bill is ~$1000/mo and that would support roughly $70k of investment @12%.

How much do you have to carry, and do you have to go over 32 mph for an hour?  75 hp for an hour would take about a 60kwh battery.  
That is heavy and costly enough to be questionable.
If you consider
-a lower speed
-a lighter more efficient boat -long stabilized mono (tri) operating at a lower multiple of hull speed or a foil assisted cat (lighter, higher speed)
you could dramatically reduce your power needs and cost. 

The kicker is that those big batteries could be very useful to your off-grid villa when not powering the boat.

If this boat must be big, heavy, fast, and conventional deep V, electric may be cost prohibitive.

No comments:

Post a Comment