Date: Sat, 19 Oct 2019 23:24:41 -0700
Steve,
My Farrier catamaran has electric drive systems from Electric Yacht in the
U.S.A. Decided to go electric when I built the boat; as I hate the smell of diesel. Installed 3 years ago.
Battery banks are 16 Lithium 700ahr. Thundersky/Winston. Purchased from
a California distributor who has now disappeared.
We have 2 Honda EU2000 generators to augment battery power. Allows
unlimited hours of motoring, as long as the gas supply is large enough!
Solar panels on the hardtop bimini will charge the batteries (slowly!) - only after I install them!😂. This winter's project.
Cruising on battery power alone only allows us about 6 hours at 5 knots..
Motoring with generators - we limit power to the motors at about 30 amps;
which keeps batteries at constant state of charge. The generator outputs are fed to the 110v chargers; then to the 48v. battery banks. We can motor only at 4.5 - 5 knots, which is slow for the boat design... but that's the trade-off
for electric boating.
We can generate power into the battery banks when sailing over about 6 knots. Most input we've had is 440 watts - but that was sailing at 15 knots!
If you're planning to install a diesel generator; you should size it so that you can motor at Hull speed if possible.. Diesel is a lot more efficient than battery
power.
We sailed from Vancouver to Puerto Vallarta last fall. No real problems except
for a feathering prop that decided to leave the boat! Kinda difficult to maneuver with only one prop.😂
At the moment we have the 2 backup fixed 3 blade props installed. The
constant noise of the rotating props on the saildrives while sailing is a bit of a pain - but they are not as noisy as a Diesel engine or generator!
Good luck with your project - there's a huge learning curve for you, but there are many experienced electric yachties with as much information that you can absorb on Cruisers Forum. Beware of the trolls though, who have cast iron theories based on nothing except what they read. Get advice from people who have installed and currently (😁) use their electric systems.
You can't expect forum members to totally design your system; but all the
info. you need is on the forum - you just have to have patience and find it.
Cheers
Graham
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Posted by: Graham McGlashan <grahammcglashan@gmail.com>
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