Liz,
Thanks for the question. I have heard this question a number of times since starting my business. My advice would be to first get to understand boating and find out if it really is what you want to do. Join a sailing or boating club and get experience so that you learn whether you enjoy either sailing or power boating. Each type of boat has their advantages and negatives and you need to understand what will work for you. Also, you need to be able to fix whatever breaks on a boat and that means experience.
Sailboats are a lot easier to power with electric (they are primarily powered by sails). Displacement boats are really the only boats appropriate for electrical propulsion at this time. Read this as cruising. As far as today's practical application I would look at catamarans as the best "solar boats" as they have low drag and lots of space for panels.
The entire Hunter line of sailboats are available with the Elco electric option. That will normally include a diesel generator. I have spoken with many boat manufacturers and I will tell you that if you want an electric boat, they will build it. This is by definition an expensive new boat proposition. There are few new boats being built and many boat manufactures stopping production all together.
Re-powering an older well built boat is a good value if you are wise in selecting the boat and get a good value. The reward is that you get more boat for your money. There are good boat yards through out the country that will work with you. You can often hire a good boat wright to do an installation.
Mike Electric Yachts of Southern California
--- In electricboats@yahoogroups.com, "LizN" wrote:
>
> Hi, all - first post but I have been lurking for years. And, after reading all your posts, I have realized that I don't have anywhere's near the knowledge necessary to convert a boat. I don't even know how to sail. I have crewed on power boats though, so I know a little about them. My question is, is there such a thing as a fully electric, or a diesel hybrid that one can buy, all ready to go? I drooled over this boat for quite a while - http://dsehybrid.com/ - but it looks like it is no longer offered, so either the market, or existing technology, or something wasn't ready yet. Is an electric power boat, with solar or shore power to recharge the batteries possible today? That one could spend some weeks on putting up and down the ICW, maybe even heading around the Caribbean. Retirement is a few years off yet, but that's my dream. I wouldn't need much power, although I would need enough to get out of the way, or get somewhere relatively safe in case of storms.
>
> Any thoughts and comments are appreciated - your collective knowledge is incredible, I salute you!
>
> Liz
>
| Reply via web post | Reply to sender | Reply to group | Start a New Topic | Messages in this topic (6) |
No comments:
Post a Comment