Hi Marc,
My first thought is that you will need to substantially reinforce your rudder gudgeons and pins. You should have something that is at least as strong as the steering hinge on a 3-4hp outboard. You may also have to reinforce your transom if it was not already designed for the loads associated with an outboard.
You may also have to increase the size of your rudder. While the boat will steer very well under power, the pod will reduce the effective area of the rest of the rudder while sailing.
Are you planning on making the rudder retractable, or will the pod be submerged most of the time? Most trolling motors and the Torqeedos advise that their motors are stored out of the water when not in use. If you're planning on a kick-up rudder, you can check how well that might work by strapping a 15-20 lb weight to the bottom of your existing rudder and see what it is like retracting the rudder from inside the boat.
I look forward to your reports about your protype(s).
Fair winds,
Eric
Marina del Rey, CA
--- In electricboats@yahoogroups.com, "marcdrachten" <mevanderkuur@...> wrote:
>
> Hello,
>
> We are investigating to mount an electric pod in our rudder. Anyone with good thoughts? I want to aim for a +/- 2 - 2.5 kW on max 24V due to limited space available on my 24' daysailer. I can stow 2 12V, 270 Amp batteries.
>
> DC or AC? and then 24V or maybe 220V or other V with inverter (lower amps, thus smaller cables into rudder) This will however will cost some efficiency.
>
> We all ready test sailed with an inboard 24V, 2.5 kW PMG engine to our satisfaction. However fitting in to the rudder will create more flexibility while building and after sales.
>
> We are looking for "of the shelf" products to facilitate small series production later on.
>
> Any thoughts?
>
> Marc
>
No comments:
Post a Comment