James,
I’m glad you linked to that boat. The DSE 12m is one of the boats that has convinced me to power my boat electrically. I still have a way to go before deciding the exact configuration as I’m not starting with the ideal boat. She is a mostly finished 40ft Roberts Waverunner 38 aft cabin semi-displacement hull. Dynel on timber over clear Oregon frame and very close to fully fitted out in cedar interior, and except for engine, shaft and prop weighs in at 8000kg. With bunkerage for 3000L of fuel I couldn’t help but wonder at the financial hurt alone of filling her up on a regular basis. My goal is 6-7 knots cruising speed drawing as much energy as possible from PV and wind generation, particularly at anchor. I’m located in Brisbane Australia and intend to use her on Moreton Bay for SCUBA and fishing, as well as extended trips up the Reef running as economically as possible to make the most of the free energy. Surface area for the PV panels will be an issue as I would like to have some of the foredeck available for lounging and I doubt the panels would be ideal for such a pastime, limiting me to the fly lounge hood and the after deck hood. I have contemplated thin film PV but the cost and lack of efficiency is less than satisfying.
To be entirely pragmatic I know I’ll have to run a generator, but at least running a diesel I can run it at its most economical continuous rpm to provide electricity for the house systems such as refrigeration, water and ice makers, charge batteries and run the electric motor when the battery bank is depleted.
The other example that really caught my attention is the Mochi 23m Hybrid. This luxury cruiser weighs in at over 87000kg, and what is just amazing is it can run for about 1-1/2 hours at 7 knots with just 90kW through 2 shafts. I have been advised to get a 200hp John Deere for economical cruising and good Grey Nomad resale value (the 50+yo cruising retirees). I think I could get away with less than 50kW for my requirements, however the entire configuration rests upon finding the most efficient and financially feasible motor around that power figure. I’ll be converting a 4 cyl hatchback to electric as part of my research, quite possibly running the same configuration.
http://www.powerand
Cheers
Geoff Williams
From: electricboats@
Sent: Monday, 22 February 2010 9:38 PM
To: electricboats@
Subject: Re: [Electric Boats] Re: Powerboat converstion to SOLAR-DC
I think we will start to see a lot of electric power boats in the next few years, A big solar rig would still cost you less then even a mediocre sail/ground tackle/mast combination. Really when you put pen to paper sails are not that cheap for mile traveled vs cost. This dose not matter as much when your buying used. But for new installs solar is getting competitive in price, of course we will not be able to buy a used DSE-hybrid or Greenline for many many years.
Some similar power boats at least a few buy and go boats. For those that an afford new boats.
For those like me that are doing it ourselves:
These are the highest space to power panels I have found 270 watt to 315 watt. I cat fit 8 on my boat for a total of 2000 t o 2500 watts:
The motors I'm planning on going with are a bit underpowered because I want to use a 48volt system for safety/cost reasons:
But you have plenty of option if you don't mind going higher voltages.
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