A practical option for you could be a straight battery electric replacing the diesel, and a removable outboard bracket on the transom for those occasional long trips. About 5 years ago my brother and I set up a system like that on a Santana 30/30 racer and it has been working very well ever since. They do local races out of Marina del Rey (near Los Angeles) almost every week where typically they motor hard for an hour or so out to the starting line, then motor back to the slip after the race. They also do a yearly race to Ensenada, Mexico. The return trip (about 150 miles) is made with a 9.9 HP 4-stroke Yamaha outboard which has no problem pushing that boat at hull speed.
If you want to really load up on solar panels and/or install a big battery bank, 50+ mile electric range is achievable. It would probably cost a lot more than an outboard though, and then you'd be lugging around a lot of expensive/unnecessa
There are some hybrid options coming on the market as well which should offer more choices, but if most of your sailing is local there's a lot to be said for the simplicity of a straight battery-electric system.
Talk to someone who knows how to do the math, but a couple hours at close to hull speed should be achievable on your boat without doing anything exotic. A few hundred pounds of golf car batteries will do it.
As far as being crazy, I say do the conversion, then take your Luddite friends from the yacht club for a ride and see how quickly they change their tune!
Jim McMillan
--- In electricboats@
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> Hello to all. I bought a Catalina 30 3 years ago, (30 foot sloop sailboat, 10,500lbs). It's a 1986 model with a 21hp 3 cylinder diesel.
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> Ironically, I'm not having any problems right now. However, a diesel is noisy, smelly, requires constant maintenance of filter replacement, oil changes, fuel, etc… You guys know this, I'm preaching to the choir.
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> Electric propulsion is an attractive option for me; but I do have some concerns.
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> 1) I know electric propulsion will work for 90% of my sailing; 15 minutes out, an hour or three later, 15 minutes of motoring back to the dock.
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> 2) BUT, my concern is how this will work when I cruise up the canal from Elizabeth City North Carolina to Portsmouth Virginia, a 50 mile, 8 to 10 hour journey … can I do this with electric propulsion?? This trip cannot be done at a slow 3 knots or less to conserve amps; one must keep up 5 knots or so, to make the lock schedule, and to keep out of others way coming up behind you in the relatively narrow canal.
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> In other words, can one feed charging juice to the batteries with either solar, wind, and/or generator while still moving at 5 knots, without stopping to recharge, making it possible to make a 50 mile trip at full speed non-stop?
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> The title about being crazy … fellow members of my yacht club think I'm from Mars when I suggest converting to electric. This may simply be I'm a reader and keep up a bit more with current events than many others; although this topic isn't exactly current events since electric powered sailboats have been around for many years.
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> I also realize new lithium-ion battery technology may change the formula significantly in the near future … that's what I'm hoping for anyway.
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> BTW … anyone want to take a stab at what a 25 year old, 21hp 3 cylinder, model M25 Universal diesel in working condition, worth?. The exact hours unknown. It was showing 1,000 hours when purchased, but the hour meter wasn't working at that time.
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