Hello,
I'm new to the list and thinking seriously about a conversion of my own. I have an older Catalina 30 sailboat with an underpowered and finicky Universal 11 HP diesel, w/ a Hurth transmission. The good news is that it's a sailboat, and so most of my engine time is the 10-15 minutes to and from the slip each trip.
I really like the idea of electric, but am non-commital about pulling out the existing diesel. Has anyone thought of adding an electric motor to their existing diesel? I'm envisioning something like a gear or pulley system connecting an add-on electric motor to the exsiting propshaft. Maybe just one 4D battery to start. Throw the transmission into neutral and turn on the electric motor. If the electric set-up doesn't work for some reason, I disengage it from the prop shaft and start up the diesel.
Of course a set-up like this would have lots of compromises, prop would be underpowered, extra weight, but none of that is a big deal for me. I'm not a racer, not a cruiser, just a localized pleasure boater, and a fair-weather one at that.
If it works even a quarter as well as I hope then I can look at yanking the diesel and going all electric in a season or two. Anyone thought of something like this or better yet actually tried it out?
Thanks,
Peter
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