Friday, December 30, 2011

Re: [Electric Boats] Re: Intro - Electric houseboat - request for elec boat assistance

 

Eric, 

First, there are a multitude of options for a professional hybrid setup, with out going the backwoods shanty route of an outboard on a house boat. A few examples below:


The original poster was looking for a vendor not home brew advise,  He will need a coastguard approved boat to have paid crew aboard.

Second, he was asking for an electric setup, and without more details I am not sure he will need any more then that. I would assume with the limited information given a clean up boat would be very slow moving, cruising most of the day at very low speeds near the coast or inland waterways. Slow enough even to walk along with as you harvest trash.  An all electric setup with or with out solar may vary well be a good fit for such a boat. 

Third, all though large electric power boat are not common in the US mostly due to our artificially low fuel prices,  Dragonfly being a rare example. That is not the case world wide. Electric narrowboats are common enough in the UK to keep at least a few vendors in business for the last decade http://www.solarboat.co.uk/  and a lot of these boat are much much larger then Dragonfly. 

This is not to even mention the dozens and dozens of electric ferries that ply european water ways every day carrying crew and passengers all day long.
He could just buy a ferry off the shelf and be done with the whole project no vendor needed: 


And lastly according to google their is at least one electric house boat in existence albert not a very large one: 




On Dec 30, 2011, at 3:58 PM, Eric wrote:

 

Hi Rudy,

What size houseboat are you talking about? For all but the smallest houseboats, electric power is difficult to implement safely, to provide enough power to deal with a 15-20pmh crosswind. While it doesn't take much power to push a large boat in calm conditions, there is a reason that most houseboats in the 35'+ range come with twin motors that have 100's of horsepower and it's not all about getting places quickly.

One alternative is to build a boat with electric power for benign conditions, with an outboard engine or two to deploy when needed to get out of a difficult situation. However, this solution adds cost and complexity for redundant systems. This may also be difficult to sell to a grant committee. Many boaters would find themselves better served by a primary system that can handle all normal conditions.

You can check out http://www.slowboatcruise.com/ for the story about a successful "houseboat style" electric boat conversion. Keep in mind that they retained the 60hp diesel motor which they used any time that they wanted speeds greater than 3kts or better maneuverability.

Good luck with your project.

Fair winds and smooth seas,
Eric
Marina del Rey, CA

--- In electricboats@yahoogroups.com, "zoovisitor" <rudy@...> wrote:
>
> My name is Rudy Socha and I am the CEO of Wounded Nature - Working Veterans www.woundednature.org
>
> We are a new 501c3 non-profit that has Pepsi, Green Mountain Coffee, Google, and CSX executive among others serving on our board of directors.
>
> We will have 5 houseboats moving up and down the East Coast cleaning rural beaches and estuaries. The clean-up crew will consist of recently discharged veterans who will work for us for 120 days.
>
> I would like to find an electric boat partner who will use our 501c3 status to apply for grants to purchase the technology allowing for at least one of our boats to be electric powered.
>
> Rudy Socha
> CEO
> Wounded Nature - Working Veterans
> www.woundednature.org
> rudy@...
> Cell 440-452-1042
>


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