T-Pain Is On A Boat: [Electric Boats] New Member and New Electric Boat Conversion

Sunday, August 9, 2009

[Electric Boats] New Member and New Electric Boat Conversion

Good Evening,

It is exciting to see the possibilities of electric boats and I can now say that I now have experienced the possibilities of what electric boats have to offer.

Here is my basic profile.

Boat: Serendipity 43' 1981 IOR race boat.
Displacement: 17,000
Draft: 8'
Beam: 13'
Old Power: Pathfinder 50HP diesel

The goal of my re-power was to integrate the powerful rig for regeneration and solar power into an electric motor configuration that I can use for day sailing which at the moment is 95% of my usage.

Here is some of the data we received from our recent trip from Santa Barbara to Channel Islands Harbor (~30nmi).

Propulsion Marine 4.7 KW inboard electric drive

Mars 4.7 KW brushless permanent magnet AC motor

Sevcon Millipak controller

Browning 3301 gearbox with 4.87:1 gear ratio

Propeller 17 x 17 Left hand which required you to change the fan on the motor

dripless stuffing box by PYI

4 Odyssey 2250 batteries with 6.3 KWH total energy,   5 Kilowatt hours of usable energy.

3/0 x 10 feet cable run from batteries to controller

propeller turns at 470 rpm, motor turns at 2288 rpm, draws 85 amps on a bollard pull, 70 amps at 3.7 knots

solar powered using two Sanyo 200 watt panels and Outback Flexmax 60 charge controller.   Have witnessed 400 watts charging current.   Capable of Solar motoring which adds about 1 knot to speed by negating propeller drag and adding a small amount of thrust.

Regenerates at 200 watts at 6 knots in light breezes, more is expected in heavy breezes because boat has previously logged 10 knots boat speed in 25 knots of wind.

On our test sail from Santa Barbara to Oxnard in light breezes we witnessed 570 watts of total generation consisting of 370 watts of solar power plus 200 watts of regeneration.

Batteries were refilled in 2 hours after discharge from harbor maneuvering

The system was professionally installed by James Lambden, Above the Waterline

www.abovethewaterline.net in Santa Barbara

http://www.propulsionmarine.com/vesper.htm

Cheers,

Patrick

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