Hi everyone,
Just joined the fray and wanted to get in contact with others whom have done conversions of sailboats (Ranger 29, in my case) with an existing dead Atomic 4 engine. I read the article in the June 2011 Good Old Boat where Joe Steinberger converted a Tripp/Lentsch 29 to an e-drive, and he provides a list of components and suppliers, but, he didn't go into any detail about how the components were chosen, what trade-offs he made, where he obtained details and specs for the components and how to hook them together, or how to evaluate other options.
In looking briefly at the files and links section here, it appears that a bunch of marketing info has been dumped in mostly by suppliers/vendors, along with a plethora of links to a wide range of equipment and enthusiastic hyperbole, but, I haven't seen anything obviously labeled something like "Start Here". I'm an ocean engineer and computer scientist, so, I'm quite capable of understanding the technical details, and could design and install a system from scratch, given enough time with a McMaster-Carr catalog. However, I was hoping to come up with a variation of something someone else already has working for a sailboat similar in size to mine, and to replace an in-board engine.
Since the Atomic 4 engine in my boat was DOA when I bought the boat, and its problems are too difficult to diagnose, much less repair, down in the bilge, I plan to pull it and do an overhaul in a much more comfortable location where I already have all of the needed tools, parts, etc. However, it's going to be a part-time effort (especially now that the weather is so nice), so, I wanted to just drop the components for an e-drive system in, connect it to the shaft, and be able to get in and out of the berth/channel into SF Bay from Marina Village in Oakland. I'll only need a minute, or so, of drive time to get between my slip and the channel, and occasionally, I may need up to 20 minutes of drive time if the wind is coming directly down the channel and I don't feel like tacking every 30 seconds.
Steinberger gets up to four hours at three knots, and up to two hours at four knots, which would allow me to get anywhere in the SF Bay area when/where sailing would be difficult. Are there significantly different options from the components listed in Steinberger's article, or is that a reasonable-enough solution that I can just go with it? Here's what he used:
Motenergy (nee Mars) Electric ME0201013601 brushless motor $450
TeamDelta RCM187 Etek motor mount $ 60
Kelly KBS48101 brushless motor controller $200
Crydom solid-state relay $100
ProStar PS-15M-48V solar charge controller $200
Suntech 20-watt, 24-volt solar panels (2 each) $140
Kelly HWZ Series 48-to-12-volt, 300-watt converter
(for ship's power) $130
Kelly F4815 48-volt, 15-amp battery charger
(for charging from shorepower) $200
Thanks for any pointers, and hope to be able to find anyone with a similarly-sized converted sailboat so we can compare notes, and if you're on the West Coast, perhaps we can meet so you can show off what you've done.
Thanks a boatload, and All the Best!
Jim
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