Capt. Mike,
Completely unnecessary with a properly designed solar boat. He’s talking about canal cruising, overnighting is typically done at marinas and lockstations where shorepower is readily available. No need to perpetuate a perceived reliance on fossil fuels in every boating situation, in all my “flatwater” cruising in North America I have never fallen below 50% depth of charge and enjoyed countless miles of clean, quiet and sustained canal and lake cruising. I could carry a fossil-burner, but the need isn’t there in a properly designed system for this purpose and the shore is never too far away. To me and many, the value of solar cruising is to kick the oil habit, a hiker in the woods or a canoeist gets the same feeling, don’t see them carrying a jerry can.
Hardy: I strongly recommend hooking up with the Electric Boat Association (www.electric-boats.ork.uk) and learn more of Mike Manisty’s solar cruise of the full length of the Thames in 2008, against the river flow. Membership is cheap, the quarterly publication is exceptional and there is a wealth of information from this group re all-electric canal cruising and the existing infrastructure which includes public (and private!) recharging stations along the various waterways such as the Norfolk Broads. By private, I mean that there is a support infrastructure whereby boaters like yourself can use private docks to pick up a charge if required, typically owned by fellow e-boaters. Most boats are grid-charged (versus solar) and there are many more people each year plying the waterways with 100% solar. I encourage you to join the growing movement, there are many e-boat tours organized each summer and growing each year along such waterways as the Stour, Great Ouse, etc. British Waterways has plans to install 25 more electric boat recharging stations to be installed along various waterways such as Yorkshire Ouse, the Trent, Ayre and Don. Interestingly, these recharge stations will all be local hydro-electric.
One day I hope to travel these properly-developed waterways, they sound very nice as do the canals in the rest of Europe. My big goal is to take a solar cruise down the Great Canal in China, an engineering marvel of epic proportions.
Complete oil independence is an achievable goal in this type of boating as many of us know and are learning.
Monte
From: electricboats@yahoogroups.com [mailto:electricboats@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Mike
Sent: January 29, 2010 9:23 AM
To: electricboats@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [Electric Boats] solar canal rambling
I would recommend having a Honda 2000 eu (or similar) generator onboard to at least bulk charge the batteries. It is a great backup for when solar falls short of the boats needs. Or you really don't want to spend time at a Marina plugged in. It is a workhorse. It is is small, lightweight and relatively quiet. I use it onboard to bulk charge the battery bank and power a small ice maker at the same time. I do like a nice "boat drink" at anchor sometimes. <g> Only use it when I need to but, it is a nice backup to have onboard,
From: hardy71uk <p0054107@brookes.ac.uk>
Subject: [Electric Boats] solar canal rambling
To: electricboats@yahoogroups.com
Date: Friday, January 29, 2010, 12:44 PM
theres an extensive canal network here in UK. I've often thought it would be great to do a leuisurely trip . stopping for a while to explore an area whilst charging batteries from solar panels and then moving on. The problem would seem to be that if charging over say a week or two that the batteries would most of the time be only partly charged . Is this a fast way to kill lead acid batteries or would a slow charge resist sulphation?
I'm guessing that a better regime would be to just do a few miles per day using a small depth of charge. Any comments? |
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