Thursday, October 30, 2025

Re: [electricboats] Pocket Trawler Electrification

Beautiful boat.
I would think that there is plenty of room where the V-Drive is for a electric motor and belt drive.
The shaft pulley doesn't need to be much larger than the transmission flange (if at all), and the electric motor doesn't need to mounted above the shaft, just parallel.
You could mount it to the side of the shaft or at any angle where it would fit.
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Re: [electricboats] Pocket Trawler Electrification

For those interested, here's the original profile line drawing of the boat
 
 
And here's how she sits now.  The large bimini was added around 2012, which caused the mast and staysail to be deleted.  My plan is to convert the bimini to a hardtop made of 1/4" thick, tongue and groove cedar, finished bright on the bottom and glassed and painted on top with 6oz glass to hold 1000+ watts of solar.
 

Re: [electricboats] Pocket Trawler Electrification

Hi Dan - everything about this boat is overbuilt.  The boat was built by Covey Island Boatworks in Nova Scotia, Canada in 2002 for a woman named Mary Harper.  She took delivery of the boat when she was 83 years old!  The boat is named Kuan Yin IV, and Kuan Yin III was a 30' wooden sailboat that Mary Harper solo sailed from Newfoundland to Ireland when she was 79 years old!!
 
She certainly knew what she wanted, and the boat is way over built.  The v-drive is the RV-26, and the prop shaft is 1.5" diameter and about 7' long.  The engine bed timbers are 6" x 6" true, solid fir, about 7' long.
 
I was planning on changing the name when I bought the boat, but when I heard her stories from her daughter, I decided I needed all of her good karma with me on the boat.
 
 
I'll never be as courageous as Mary Harper and will stick to my fair-weather cruising.  Taking out such a robust setup is a concern for sure, but I'm faced with a failing transmission that likely would need to be replaced with a more modern, hydraulic unit.  Lots of labor and expense for that, hence the idea of converting to electric.  I'm an electrical/industrial engineer by training and profession, so the technology is more familiar to me.  The weight of the shaft, prop and Walter is about the same as another 15KwH of battery capacity as well.  Many options to consider.
 
Thanks for the input and ideas, I appreciate all of the feedback on this forum and the experience you all bring.

Lars
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Re: [electricboats] Pocket Trawler Electrification

Regarding your Walter V-Drive, this is probably an RV-10 and, if so, it does not have a pressurized oil system.  Simple oil fill.  There would be a cooling hose attached and run in line with the Yanmar cooling.  And you probably don't need that as the V drive in your application will probably never generate excess heat.  That RV-10 is rated for 50HP if I recall?  And that's the smallest they made.

Dan Pfeiffer


On 2025-10-30 8:06 am, maaseidvaag via groups.io wrote:

....
  And then I still have the friction losses of the v-drive and it's pressurized oil system, the cutlass bearing, etc.  For reference the prop drawn in the original drawing is 17" diameter.

Re: [electricboats] Pocket Trawler Electrification

Hi Peter - we don't have much of a problem with fouling up here in the Great Lakes.  The water isn't too warm and even at my home mooring on an inland lake with a channel to Lake Michigan I don't build up much of anything on the hull, even at the water line where the sun aids the growth.
 
I'm leaning more towards the pods but would have them on fixed mounts and retain my rudder.  The current hydraulic steering system is well overbuilt and has the autopilot integrated into it.  So retaining all of that functionality makes sense, while avoiding the complexity of making the pods twist.  I'll be laminating extra layers of marine ply on the inside if I go the pod route, and am thinking about creating internal boxes above the mountings.  The boxes would extend above the water line, and in the worst case of tearing a pod off the boat the flooding would be confined to the box, sort of a sea-chest for each pod.
 
I agree that the stock props look like they would do the job, and should be spinning fairly slowly at partial power.
 
Lars
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Re: [electricboats] Pocket Trawler Electrification

Per Yanmar, they say that engine should be run between 2400 and 3200 rpm to prevent glazing of the cylinders.  I don't know much about diesel engines, but it is my understanding that the need to be worked in their designed range and not underworked.  So that's where the concern about 1800 rpm comes from.  I insulated the engine with 2" thick, 2lb per sq ft SoundDown material, and at 1800 the noise is tolerable.  At 2200+ ear plugs become required.
 
As to my current internal debate between using the existing prop/shaft and v-drive versus the external pods, I share your concern with the small props on the pods.  The default prop is 12.6" x 8.7" 3 bladed aluminum, turning at a max rpm of 1500.  I don't know if 1/4 power input (1500 watts per pod) translated to 1/4 of max rpm, but if it does that would be 325 rpm.  I don't imagine the prop speed would be faster than 1/4 of max at 1/4 power, so that probably a safe upper limit on the prop rotation speed.
 
I've seen similar results to the one you mention, of around 3500-4000 watts for 5 knots of speed.   That would be my planned cruising speed.   All of the electronics will be Victron, with the current plan to use the Multiplus 2 48/5000 which provides a max battery charge current of 70 amps.  I don't tend to like to run electronics near their max ratings, so I'd probably limit that to 50 amps in the software settings and know that if it's cloudy and my batteries are completely flat, I'll be limping home at a slower rate or just staying on anchor for a bit while my batteries charge.
 
Thanks for the input.
 
Lars
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Re: [electricboats] Pocket Trawler Electrification

lol, we have the opposite problem here. It gets too hot here to do any work around this time of the year. 
I also am playing with the idea of making my pods turn like an outboard for steering and doing away with having to have a rudder.
I am designing a slide lift so that I can list the motors out of the water to stop fouling whilst on my mooring.
I saw others respond to your query with notes about propellor sizes etc.
I am sticking with the Aluminium prop supplied by Epropulsion. From memory it is 12-1/4" x 8 I think.
Keep up the good work. Regards, Peter

On Thu, 30 Oct 2025 at 11:06 pm, maaseidvaag via groups.io <maaseidvaag=yahoo.com@groups.io> wrote:
Hi Peter,
 
That Chesapeake Marine trawler looks great.  For those of us not in a hurry it does look like the electric drives are finally where they need to be.  And the simplicity of the install is so nice.  If I go with the pods the amount of space that will open up in my engine compartment and cockpit will absolutely transform the boat.
 
With my existing 3.5kw diesel generator as the last resort backup, and a plan for 1500+ watts of solar on top, I think I should be able to stay out and away from marinas indefinitely.  Cruising on the Great Lakes gives me the added advantage of a very large source of rather clean fresh water.  My brother-in-law has the YouTube channel TechIngredients, and we're starting a collaborative project looking at reverse osmosis + UV sterilization to see if I can safely get clean water from the great lakes.  That, plus a composting head and I'll truly be off grid.  I'm planning to start with two 16 cell banks of EVE MB31 cells, so 48v nominal, 52v actual at 314 Amp hours for each battery of 16 cells.
 
The image below is a close-up of the drawing of the stern of my boat.  I've roughed in the pod location in blue.  You can see to the right the Walter v-drive, and that I'm fairly space constrained  (the v-drive sits under a step with about an inch of clearance above it) in terms of placing an inboard electric motor.  And then I still have the friction losses of the v-drive and it's pressurized oil system, the cutlass bearing, etc.  For reference the prop drawn in the original drawing is 17" diameter.
 
 
Here's a link to the same motors in outboard form on a converted cat.  https://diysolarforum.com/threads/100-solar-electric-catamaran.84980/   Very promising results if I end up being able to reach 5 knots at 3000 watts.
 
Thanks for your input and I'll be sure to come back and document progress here as I progress.  It's winter in Michigan now, so it will not be until March that I begin work on the boat again.
 
Lars

Re: [electricboats] Pocket Trawler Electrification

Hi Peter,
 
That Chesapeake Marine trawler looks great.  For those of us not in a hurry it does look like the electric drives are finally where they need to be.  And the simplicity of the install is so nice.  If I go with the pods the amount of space that will open up in my engine compartment and cockpit will absolutely transform the boat.
 
With my existing 3.5kw diesel generator as the last resort backup, and a plan for 1500+ watts of solar on top, I think I should be able to stay out and away from marinas indefinitely.  Cruising on the Great Lakes gives me the added advantage of a very large source of rather clean fresh water.  My brother-in-law has the YouTube channel TechIngredients, and we're starting a collaborative project looking at reverse osmosis + UV sterilization to see if I can safely get clean water from the great lakes.  That, plus a composting head and I'll truly be off grid.  I'm planning to start with two 16 cell banks of EVE MB31 cells, so 48v nominal, 52v actual at 314 Amp hours for each battery of 16 cells.
 
The image below is a close-up of the drawing of the stern of my boat.  I've roughed in the pod location in blue.  You can see to the right the Walter v-drive, and that I'm fairly space constrained  (the v-drive sits under a step with about an inch of clearance above it) in terms of placing an inboard electric motor.  And then I still have the friction losses of the v-drive and it's pressurized oil system, the cutlass bearing, etc.  For reference the prop drawn in the original drawing is 17" diameter.
 
 
Here's a link to the same motors in outboard form on a converted cat.  https://diysolarforum.com/threads/100-solar-electric-catamaran.84980/   Very promising results if I end up being able to reach 5 knots at 3000 watts.
 
Thanks for your input and I'll be sure to come back and document progress here as I progress.  It's winter in Michigan now, so it will not be until March that I begin work on the boat again.
 
Lars

Re: [electricboats] Pocket Trawler Electrification

Hi Lee,
 
Thank you for the reply, and it is not at all rambling.  My boat is 6000 lbs, so 3 American-style tons, 27' long and about 8' beam or less at the waterline.  The 30' sailboat you mention requires 500w for 2-3 knots, so it appears to be consistent that 5 knots in my lighter, although shorter, boat would be consistent with around 3000 watts as the calculations show.  Here is a link to a post about a 33', 8000 lb catamaran that uses two of the 6kw ePropulsion motors in their outboard motor format.  Same underwater, just mounted as an outboard versus a pod bolted to the hull.  He reports 5.3 knots at 3200 watts.  3200 watts at 50 or so volts from the batteries is 64 amps, split between a minimum of 2 BMSs each with a capability of 200 amps, so I should be fine there as well.   At max throttle in an emergency running 12,000 watts the current draw would be 240 amps, well within the capacity of the BMSs.
 
 
In terms of measuring drag, I have not done that.  But I have spent many hours under the boat sanding back years of bottom paint, applying barrier coat (not strictly needed as the boat is wooden and sheathed in fiberglass and epoxy) and finishing off with Interlux VC17 which the local sailors use on their race boats.  I think the bottom is as slippery as it's going to get at this point.
 
Thanks - Lars
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Wednesday, October 29, 2025

Re: [electricboats] Pocket Trawler Electrification

[Edited Message Follows]

First, I don't see how 1800 RPMs is to slow for a Yanmar 4JH3E, but that wasn't one of your questions.
 
The problem with the pods is lack of variety with props. I think there are only two or three, all small diameter, and all skinny bladed.
For a displacement boat, the most efficient prop will be the largest diameter you can fit, with the most blade area you can find, running at the slowest RPM you can make it go, with a large pitch. Think TUG BOAT prop.
 
All that being said, there is probably no good reason to change the prop you already have. My calcs put your prop RPM at 674 with 1800 diesel motor RPM, and that seems like a pretty efficient prop speed to me.
 
Now using only the calc's you posted, you are going to need 6750 Watts (9hp) to maintain 6 knots. For that I would definitely go with the 12kW water cooled motor paired with a controller that will output 300Amps so that you are usually only running them at half capacity.
 
For the belt drive figure out and get the closest ratio that will give you 674 prop RPM at the most efficient Motor RPM (consult an efficiency curve chart for your electric motor). You can always change pulleys later to change the ratio to suit your needs. Seems I remember a youtuber with a sailboat that wound up changing his all the way down to 1:1 (direct) to be happy. I think that channel is "The Neds".
 
So running near 7kW for for an hour would use 7kWh (surprised, I know) and that equates to about 2 1/4 hours (with no safety factor) with a single 48V 314Ah battery that would need to be able to discharge at 130A continuously. That's only about 16 miles. Add a same size battery in parallel and double your time and range and halve your battery discharge rate. I have seen where there are larger cells, like 600 or 800 Ah or some such crazy thing, but I would prefer the redundancy of multiple parallel smaller batteries (up to 4), than just 1 large one.
 
One youtuber (Slight Adrift) listed his stats as actual measured 6850W @ 6knots (which is really close to your theoretical 6750W @ 6knots).
But when he slowed to 5 knots he measured only 3840W, and only 1920W @ 4 knots.
So basically, if your boat had real similar usages, then slowing down to 4 knots would give you a range of about 38 miles and 8.3 hours (for each 16kW battery), with about 24 miles and 4.2 hours at 5 knots and 16 miles and 2.3hours at 6 knots.
 
To get the full output from your 3.5kW generator, you would need a 70Amp 48Volt battery charger. If you had that you could probably get almost 5 knots without draining your batteries.
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Re: [electricboats] Pocket Trawler Electrification

I think you will easily hit your goals with a 10-12kw motor. That is a pretty light weight boat. And with that generator, you could go a long way.
I agree with others, stick with your prop shaft, belt drive reduction, biggest prop you can fit, just leave 2 inches from the top of the prop to hull.
The more batteries the better. 
If you plan on going in cold weather, you might want to look at using a radiator that cools the motor, to heat the interior.
This seems like the perfect boat to convert to electric. Good luck.

On Wed, Oct 29, 2025 at 5:52 PM Lee Eldridge via groups.io <lee=vombatus.com.au@groups.io> wrote:
Sorry my post is a little rambling but that is my mind.


You have done quite a lot using standard techniques. However all this stuff was developed for hose and buggy days.

In water what matters is boat drag (in all its glorious ways) and thrust from the prop plus some effects from wind and waves.


Your hull size, boat displacement will set primary hull speed. That is physics and there is no going round that. Having a poor surface finish will reduce theoretical and practical through water speed. The closer water speed gets to hull speed the more motor torque you will need. Spinning the prop faster just makes bubbles and eventually cavitation. Trust goes up in a square law or higher. Unless you get to a plane you are stuck. I read in many older books on sailing that "people are always amazed" at how little power is need to push along a big ocean yacht at 2-3 knots. Street talks of using a single Seagull to push his 38' ocean boat. Adding another absolutely does it. My 2 tonne Norwalk Island Sharpie appears to be able to accelerate to 4 knots in 10 seconds with a thrust of 35 newton. That is pretty fast for me.

But you can be more efficient. Bigger better props get conversion from shaft toque to trust better. Yes having toothed belt drive will help efficiency and if sized correctly improve reliability. You should be better able to tune the down ratio too.

Have you measured hull drag at various speeds? Tow the boat and have a scale measuring force. You can estimate wind load using standard formulas and assume boat is an ovoid.

Prop trust is given by some manufacturers but not many so need to use one of the estimator apps. Prop efficiency (prop torque to thrust is hard to estimate. I gather good props correctly positioned have efficiencies of 50% or so. My guess is a bigger nicer prop, spinning more slowly wins the conversion rate.

Now looking at sailing boats with conversions, I see that 2-3 knots for a 30' displacement hull runs at 500w or so. A light 21' trailer sailer with an e propulsion does 100-200 w at the same speed. At max boost 750w it might get to 3.5 knots. The bigger boats typically 30' displacement weighing three to four tonnes gets 4kw at 4.5 knots. So your 10-12kw or 20kw or 30 kw+ still won't get you to 6 knots. Your batteries will last minutes not hours. You will be current limited by BMS and battery cells. You will need massive copper cables. Your motors will need high flow water cooling.


Best Regards

Lee@vombatus.com.au
0427874796



On 28 Oct 2025, at 3:18 am, maaseidvaag via groups.io <maaseidvaag=yahoo.com@groups.io> wrote:

Greetings, new to the group and it looks like I've found just the right place to get some ideas on my project.  I came here from the link at Thunderstruck.
 
My boat is a 27' trawler designed by Ted Brewer.  The design is the Blue Hill and the specs can be found here http://www.tedbrewer.com/power/bluehill.htm
 
The boat is powered by a Yanmar 4JH3E which is way overpowered for displacement speeds (what I do) and underpowered to push the boat on a plane.  My normal cruise is 5-5.5 knots at 1800 rpm, which is really too slow for the motor to be spinning.  The transmission is a 1:2.67 Kanzaki reduction, into a Walter v-drive (no reduction) to a 17x12 three bladed prop.  The transmission is making a clanging noise at low forward rpms which disappears at the rpms increase.  There is visible movement of the output shaft and I can grab it and fell it clunk as I pull up and down.  Forum wisdom is that that transmission isn't worth rebuilding even if the parts are obtainable, and a ZF or TwinDisc replacement is the way to go.  So, since I'm already lined up for a $4k+ bill...
 
It would appear that 10-12kw will be enough power to get me to near hull speed of 6.5 knots or so, and easily at my target 5.5kn.  My cruising grounds are the Great Lakes, North Channel, Trent-Severn waterway, etc.  I do have a NextGen 3.5kw generator onboard, and have experience putting together my own DIY LiFePO4 batteries.
 
Options I'm considering: 10-12kw Thunderstruck kit/motor with the belt reduction, which because of the very low placement of my prop shaft would still require that I use the energy sapping Walter v-drive.  Or, two ePropulsion pod 6.0, for a total of 12kw between the two pods.  I like the redundancy of two pods, and removing the weight of the v-drive and prop shaft (1.5", 7 feet long).  That extra weight alone would allow me to add another 48v, 314ah battery.
 
Thoughts on the pods?  Thoughts on the inboard motor direction?  I'm sure I'm missing plenty.  Thanks in advance.  Data from vicprop.com for the pods is included in the image below
 
Lars
 
<mceclip0.png>

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Re: [electricboats] Pocket Trawler Electrification

First, I don't see how 1800 RPMs is to slow for a Yanmar 4JH3E, but that wasn't one of your questions.
 
The problem with the pods is lack of variety with props. I think there are only two or three, all small diameter, and all skinny bladed.
For a displacement boat, the most efficient prop will be the largest diameter you can fit, with the most blade area you can find, running at the slowest RPM you can make it go, with a large pitch. Think TUG BOAT prop.
 
All that being said, there is probably no good reason to change the prop you already have. My calcs put your prop RPM at 674 with 1800 diesel motor RPM, and that seems like a pretty efficient prop speed to me.
 
Now using only the calc's you posted, you are going to need 6750 Watts (9hp) to maintain 6 knots. For that I would definitely go with the 12kW water cooled motor paired with a controller that will output 300Amps so that you are usually only running them at half capacity.
 
For the belt drive figure out and get the closest ratio that will give you 674 prop RPM at the most efficient Motor RPM (consult an efficiency curve chart for your electric motor). You can always change pulleys later to change the ratio to suit your needs. Seems I remember a youtuber with a sailboat that wound up changing his all the way down to 1:1 (direct) to be happy. I think that channel is "The Neds".
 
So running near 7kW for for an hour would use 7kWh (surprised, I know) and that equates to about 2 1/4 hours (with no safety factor) with a single 48V 314Ah battery that would need to be able to discharge at 130A continuously. That's only about 16 miles. Add a same size battery in parallel and double your time and range and halve your battery discharge rate. I have seen where there are larger cells, like 600 or 800 Ah or some such crazy thing, but I would prefer the redundancy of multiple parallel smaller batteries (up to 4), than just 1 large one.
 
One youtuber (Slight Adrift) listed his stats as actual measured 6850W @ 6knots (which is really close to your theoretical 6750W @ 6knots).
But when he slowed to 5 knots he measured only 3840W, and only 1920W @ 4 knots.
So basically, if your boat had real similar usages, then slowing down to 4 knots would give you a range of about 38 miles (for each 16kW battery), with about 24 miles at 5 knots and 16 miles at 6 knots.
 
To get the full output from your 3.5kW generator, you would need a 70Amp 48Volt battery charger. If you had that you could probably get almost 5 knots without draining your batteries.
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Re: [electricboats] Pocket Trawler Electrification

Lars, My name is Peter and I live in Australia. I purchased a mucked around with Hartley 21ft trailer sailer and opted for an Epropulsion 6kw pod, using others lithium batteries for ease of handling and placement.
Because the Hartley had so many faults and I needed a bigger boat anyway, I have just purchased plans for a Chesapeake Marine 28ft trawler. 
I still plan to use my 6kw pod and also add another for redundancy.
I figure that two motors will easily get me to hull speed around 7knots.
So we are on a similar wave length.
I hope to be almost entirely solar powered and by having two battery banks of 4x 200w I am hoping to get 8-10 hours of sailing per charge at just below hull speed.
I have conversed at length with Epropulsion Australia about this setup and I have listed somewhere the output and thrust from their 6kw pod.
I also have actual trial results from others who have been down the same road, but I will have to look them out.
I am interested to follow your progress.
Cheers for now Peter
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Re: [electricboats] Pocket Trawler Electrification

Sorry my post is a little rambling but that is my mind.


You have done quite a lot using standard techniques. However all this stuff was developed for hose and buggy days.

In water what matters is boat drag (in all its glorious ways) and thrust from the prop plus some effects from wind and waves.


Your hull size, boat displacement will set primary hull speed. That is physics and there is no going round that. Having a poor surface finish will reduce theoretical and practical through water speed. The closer water speed gets to hull speed the more motor torque you will need. Spinning the prop faster just makes bubbles and eventually cavitation. Trust goes up in a square law or higher. Unless you get to a plane you are stuck. I read in many older books on sailing that "people are always amazed" at how little power is need to push along a big ocean yacht at 2-3 knots. Street talks of using a single Seagull to push his 38' ocean boat. Adding another absolutely does it. My 2 tonne Norwalk Island Sharpie appears to be able to accelerate to 4 knots in 10 seconds with a thrust of 35 newton. That is pretty fast for me.

But you can be more efficient. Bigger better props get conversion from shaft toque to trust better. Yes having toothed belt drive will help efficiency and if sized correctly improve reliability. You should be better able to tune the down ratio too.

Have you measured hull drag at various speeds? Tow the boat and have a scale measuring force. You can estimate wind load using standard formulas and assume boat is an ovoid.

Prop trust is given by some manufacturers but not many so need to use one of the estimator apps. Prop efficiency (prop torque to thrust is hard to estimate. I gather good props correctly positioned have efficiencies of 50% or so. My guess is a bigger nicer prop, spinning more slowly wins the conversion rate.

Now looking at sailing boats with conversions, I see that 2-3 knots for a 30' displacement hull runs at 500w or so. A light 21' trailer sailer with an e propulsion does 100-200 w at the same speed. At max boost 750w it might get to 3.5 knots. The bigger boats typically 30' displacement weighing three to four tonnes gets 4kw at 4.5 knots. So your 10-12kw or 20kw or 30 kw+ still won't get you to 6 knots. Your batteries will last minutes not hours. You will be current limited by BMS and battery cells. You will need massive copper cables. Your motors will need high flow water cooling.


Best Regards

Lee@vombatus.com.au
0427874796



On 28 Oct 2025, at 3:18 am, maaseidvaag via groups.io <maaseidvaag=yahoo.com@groups.io> wrote:

Greetings, new to the group and it looks like I've found just the right place to get some ideas on my project.  I came here from the link at Thunderstruck.
 
My boat is a 27' trawler designed by Ted Brewer.  The design is the Blue Hill and the specs can be found here http://www.tedbrewer.com/power/bluehill.htm
 
The boat is powered by a Yanmar 4JH3E which is way overpowered for displacement speeds (what I do) and underpowered to push the boat on a plane.  My normal cruise is 5-5.5 knots at 1800 rpm, which is really too slow for the motor to be spinning.  The transmission is a 1:2.67 Kanzaki reduction, into a Walter v-drive (no reduction) to a 17x12 three bladed prop.  The transmission is making a clanging noise at low forward rpms which disappears at the rpms increase.  There is visible movement of the output shaft and I can grab it and fell it clunk as I pull up and down.  Forum wisdom is that that transmission isn't worth rebuilding even if the parts are obtainable, and a ZF or TwinDisc replacement is the way to go.  So, since I'm already lined up for a $4k+ bill...
 
It would appear that 10-12kw will be enough power to get me to near hull speed of 6.5 knots or so, and easily at my target 5.5kn.  My cruising grounds are the Great Lakes, North Channel, Trent-Severn waterway, etc.  I do have a NextGen 3.5kw generator onboard, and have experience putting together my own DIY LiFePO4 batteries.
 
Options I'm considering: 10-12kw Thunderstruck kit/motor with the belt reduction, which because of the very low placement of my prop shaft would still require that I use the energy sapping Walter v-drive.  Or, two ePropulsion pod 6.0, for a total of 12kw between the two pods.  I like the redundancy of two pods, and removing the weight of the v-drive and prop shaft (1.5", 7 feet long).  That extra weight alone would allow me to add another 48v, 314ah battery.
 
Thoughts on the pods?  Thoughts on the inboard motor direction?  I'm sure I'm missing plenty.  Thanks in advance.  Data from vicprop.com for the pods is included in the image below
 
Lars
 
<mceclip0.png>

Monday, October 27, 2025

[electricboats] Pocket Trawler Electrification

Greetings, new to the group and it looks like I've found just the right place to get some ideas on my project.  I came here from the link at Thunderstruck.
 
My boat is a 27' trawler designed by Ted Brewer.  The design is the Blue Hill and the specs can be found here http://www.tedbrewer.com/power/bluehill.htm
 
The boat is powered by a Yanmar 4JH3E which is way overpowered for displacement speeds (what I do) and underpowered to push the boat on a plane.  My normal cruise is 5-5.5 knots at 1800 rpm, which is really too slow for the motor to be spinning.  The transmission is a 1:2.67 Kanzaki reduction, into a Walter v-drive (no reduction) to a 17x12 three bladed prop.  The transmission is making a clanging noise at low forward rpms which disappears at the rpms increase.  There is visible movement of the output shaft and I can grab it and fell it clunk as I pull up and down.  Forum wisdom is that that transmission isn't worth rebuilding even if the parts are obtainable, and a ZF or TwinDisc replacement is the way to go.  So, since I'm already lined up for a $4k+ bill...
 
It would appear that 10-12kw will be enough power to get me to near hull speed of 6.5 knots or so, and easily at my target 5.5kn.  My cruising grounds are the Great Lakes, North Channel, Trent-Severn waterway, etc.  I do have a NextGen 3.5kw generator onboard, and have experience putting together my own DIY LiFePO4 batteries.
 
Options I'm considering: 10-12kw Thunderstruck kit/motor with the belt reduction, which because of the very low placement of my prop shaft would still require that I use the energy sapping Walter v-drive.  Or, two ePropulsion pod 6.0, for a total of 12kw between the two pods.  I like the redundancy of two pods, and removing the weight of the v-drive and prop shaft (1.5", 7 feet long).  That extra weight alone would allow me to add another 48v, 314ah battery.
 
Thoughts on the pods?  Thoughts on the inboard motor direction?  I'm sure I'm missing plenty.  Thanks in advance.  Data from vicprop.com for the pods is included in the image below
 
Lars