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Just a reminder:<br>An electric boat workshop
will be conducted Saturday, October 2, at the
Chesapeake Bay Small Boat Festival in St. Michaels,
Maryland.<br>Several of the well-known personalities in the world of
electric boating will be on the panel.

It looks like I won't have my boat in the show
this year. Trailer problems and a family reunion will
limit my visit to Sunday. I hope to see some of you
then. I'll be wearing a green hat with my boat name on
it, "ZINGER". Hope to meet up with you then
Ken.<br><br>Jim Nafzinger

The EBAA meeting at St. Michaels, Md., was well
attended and successful. The ELectric Boat Journal will
contain a full report with photographs.<br>Perhaps we can
put up a photo or two on this club site when we get
the scanner cranked up.<br>Just thought you all would
like to know.

I am in the process of installing a 36V
propulsion system in my newly built fantail launch. One of
the components is an "Emergency Disconnect Switch"
(Albright 250LB). It is mounted immediately downstream from
the main fuse which is, in turn, wired directly to
the battery bank POS. The switch allows one,
instantaneously, to remove power from the remaining components of
the system.<br><br>Question: Why doesn't the fuse
take care of this or, put another way, under what
emergency circumstances would one throw this
switch?<br><br>Larry

Hi Larry,<br><br>I have worked in a marina for
the last 28 years. I have seen a lot of burnt wiring
systems that did not blow the main fuse. It allows you to
disconnect all power when you leave the boat or are working
on it with out having to unhook the battery cables.
The only thing I would leave "Hot" would be a battery
monitor or bilge pump. These would have their own fuses
located before the Discocnnect Switch. There might be
other times needed, but I can not think of any at this
time.<br><br>Good luck with your project.<br><br>Jim

Hi Larry,<br><br>I have worked in a marina for
the last 28 years. I have seen a lot of burnt wiring
systems that did not blow the main fuse. It allows you to
disconnect all power when you leave the boat or are working
on it with out having to unhook the battery cables.
The only thing I would leave "Hot" would be a battery
monitor or bilge pump. These would have their own fuses
located before the Discocnnect Switch. There might be
other times needed, but I can not think of any at this
time.<br><br>Good luck with your project.<br><br>Jim

It also seems to me that the prices for electric
boats (and parts) are far higher than they need to be.
I have rationalized this by saying they are small
production models and can not benefit from the savings of
mass production. Many electric boats also have much
fine woodwork which adds to the cost - yet the
electrical components themselves do seem to be high priced.
I think this will be a major handicap in getting
more folks to buy into the electric world. Paul Preuss

Larry - I had an electrical problem when I first
bought my elco (used). After we "fixed" it, we
reconnected the batteries, only to melt down a number of
wires before we could get the fuses disconnected. They
were so hot to touch we burned our hands. I asked why
the fuses didn't blow and was told that they were
designed to function slowly. In this event, so slowly that
we melted a bunch of wires. I still do not know if
the fuses would have ever blown. Paul Preuss

I have been away from the club for some time and
am delighted to see that the conversation continues
and grows. I promise to log on each week so I do not
have to review all the messages at once and I can also
take part in a timely fashion. The Electric Boat Club
is 13 months old and appears to be providing an
electronic forum for discussion. Great! Ken - Glad to hear
that the gathering in Maryland was a success and I
will be looking forward to reading about it in the
EBAA Journal. Sorry I could not attend but my schedule
didn't permit. One of these days I will be there. Paul
Preuss

I have been away from the club for some time and
am delighted to see that the conversation continues
and grows. I promise to log on each week so I do not
have to review all the messages at once and I can also
take part in a timely fashion. The Electric Boat Club
is 13 months old and appears to be providing an
electronic forum for discussion. Great! Ken - Glad to hear
that the gathering in Maryland was a success and I
will be looking forward to reading about it in the
EBAA Journal. Sorry I could not attend but my schedule
didn't permit. One of these days I will be there. Paul
Preuss

I am in the process of building an electric
outboard motor. Unfortunatly I am not knowlegable about
props. Does anyone out there have info on how to
calculate the touque required for a given pitch and
diameter of prop. I am an electrical engineer with over 30
yrs expierence in controlling DC motors. I will be
glad to offer any help in this area if someone has
specific question.

I have been doing quite a bit of research on the
subject of building boats and in particular displacement
hulls since I too am in the process of building an
electric boast. one good source of information has been
Glen-L.com. He will provide plans etc to build your own but
more importantly he provide a great deal of free
information. I bought one of his books since I wanted to learn
about the "stitch and glue" method of boat building and
now am in the process of using this information to
built a 16 foot outboard powered electric boat. The
outboard will be of my own design The motor I am using for
this outboard will be a 5 Hp to start but I am
planning on trying several motors and props. The first
thing I need though is an effecient hull to to my
testing. I am modeling my boat after the Lo-voltage one of
the glen-l designs however I am modefying it to
accomidate an outboard. I hope that this helps you with your
endever, good luck<br>Don

This weekend I hope my electrically-powered prop
will spin for the first time!<br><br>After 4 years, my
cold-molded fantail launch hit the water for the first time
in August. This was the second boat I'd built--by
far more complex than the first--and it was a great
moment.<br><br>But the propulsion system was not only not installed,
but not even received yet. So now, while the boat has
been laid up in the boathouse for the winter, I've
been puzzling out the installation of my first
electric propulsion system.<br><br>Unlike many of you,
I've never owned an electric boat before. My
"experience" consists of a couple of rides in boats of
friends. And yet I now find myself in the position of
installing a propulsion system from scratch.<br><br>I bought
the individual components (as opposed to a dedicated
system from someplace like Elco)and have spent the last
few weeks installing them in the boat. There's a
separate 12V system for the "house"--meters, lights,
etc.--and a 36V propulsion system. The meters are now all
wired up and at least I can say that when I throw the
breaker on the circuit panel I have dash lights! And the
stereo doesn't even go to half-speed.<br><br>But now I'm
now running lines for the propulsion system. Lots of
welding cable everywhere. I can't say enough good things,
so far at least, about the support and direction
from KTA Services from whom I purchased the
components.<br><br>At some point this weekend I should be ready to
throw the switch and see if that prop actually goes
'round. Wish me luck, please!<br><br>Larry

Donald,<br>I'm much in the same boat, an EE tryng
to do ME. I have found some help in Douglas Little's
"Electric Boats" book. It's even on Amazon.com if you want
it. It's a little jumbled when he does his
calculations, but if you put various chapters together you can
size the prop and pitch. Unfortunately, Mr. Little
leans to trolling motors as his ultimate driving
unit.<br><br>Also, <a href= target=new></a> has an online form to
size a prop as you need. I'm currently waiting for my
analysis to come back. Seems like helpful people
there.<br><br>There is one place I know of that does manufacture true
electric outboards (as contrasted to trolling motors) as
primary motive units. Ray Electric Outboards. He's at
<a href= target=new></a><br><br>Should you continue, I'd like to know what you do use.
I'm working on an electric inboard design for a small
sailing skiff auxiliary power. Electrically I'm OK, but I
don't even know the words to ask my mechanical
questions.<br><br>Enjoy

Thanks for the feedback. I am quite aware of Rays
Outboards. He's the primary reason why I want to build my
own. I feel that his product is more expensive than it
needs to be and since I want an outboard and he is the
only game in town when it comes to primary propulsion
and not trolling then I am making my own. I am using
a very high effency perminate magnet (servo motor)
with rare earth magnets and a PWM Chopper that I built
my self. I also have a some other ideas which should
increase the overall efficency. If I can get the efficency
over 85%, (Ray says that he is between 70 and 75% eff.
depending on where you read) I should be able to increase
the range (discrarge rate) for a given set of
batteries. A 10% increase in eff. at 3 HP would be about a
10 amp change in the discharge rate. At least it
looks good on paper. I want to thank you for the other
information on the prop web sight and the book. Keep in touch
and let me know how you make out.<br><br>Don

If you wish to outfit a displacement hull I may
be of some help to you. I am the CEO of Solomon
Technologies and have studied the displacement hull
environment for 4 years now. We have many new understandings
about the comparison of fossil fueled boats and
electric boats. I will do my best to respond as rapidly as
possible.

Kirsti, the prices of electric boat motors are
high because they are built to last longer than
diesels...20 year design life instead of 10 years.
Additionally, there aren't any diesels that recharge themselves
while undersail. And actually there many other reasons.

Larry - Congratulations on your progress and may all go well when you "throw the switch"!<br>Paul Preuss

Thanks for replying. I have gotten some material
from Dan on s/v"Nameste" about "the Wheel", and it
looks very good. <br>Do you guys have a web-site? With
all the interest for your product it would be nice to
be able to read something about it on-line.<br>Would
like to write directly to you...can you reply to
kirsti_drewsen@... <br>Thanks.

Thanks for your good wishes, Paul. Yes,
everything went very well, indeed. Although, initially I
wasn't getting anywhere near the motor speed nor amp
draw I was anticipating. Having done all the wiring
myself I was completely convinced that the problem was
the fault of my wiring. Ken at KTA walked me through
things over the phone and, within an hour, we had
discovered that the shaft on the potbox was misaligned. A
simple loosening of a nut and the twist of an adjusting
screw and things look great! Now I just have to wait
for spring for the water level to rise in order to
take my first test cruise. Meanwhile, I have settees
to construct, charger to install, etc. so I can keep
busy.<br><br>Larry