开云体育

Does anyone have knowledge of Where, When, How,
etc. of electric boat races here in the US? This is
something I'd like to get into, but am having trouble
finding out information on schedules, class requirements,
etc. Terry

MotorGuide makes a 2 speed 22lb thrust for about
$80 that would propel your canoe at a top speed of
3.5-4MPH. I have devised a detachable rudder/electric motor
arrangement for canoes that's both attractive and functional
elimating the need for an ackward side mount. Contact me if
interested or if I can be of further help. Terry

Thanks for sharing your thoughts. Quite a project
you have there...But that is probably the first 50%
of the fun, isn't it?<br>It amazes me that there is
so little interest on the market for the production
of electric motors - is it fear of trying something
new? <br>I also found out (in my endless meanderings
on the net...) that we boaters are sort of "holy
cows" - there are no regulations or standard for how
much we can pollute the air with fumes or noise!
Imagine that. Show me a boat w. automatic bilgepump and
inboard comb.eng. that has not at one time let out a good
oily slick! <br>I contacted the Electric Launch
Company, and I'm very interested to see their reply. They
have a very pretty advertisement -. There is also a
german page: "Aquawatt". Unfortunately I don't read
german, but it might be of interest to someone.<br>I'll
be back when I get some news.<br>Cheers!

Kirsti:<br><br>I have been going through the same
process, trying to engineer an electric drive in a Spray
22 sailboat that I am building. It weighs
4000#s.<br>I have found EV America (EVAmerica@...) very
helpful. For my boat it will take a 6hp 48volt motor to
propel it to hull speed and have some reserve for bad
weather. At hull speed it will draw 162 amps, or 7776
watts. With eight 6 volt batteries ( 70#s each), there
would be approximately 1 hour at hull speed. I would
think that it would be very difficult to recharge the
batteries just with the solar panels and wind generator if
you did very much motoring. It is best to recharge
batteries with a high amperage bulk charge, ( like from a
DC generator, (www.polorpowerinc.com)), and then
finish the charging with the solar panels. I am not too
familiar with the wind generator, maybe someone else would
know if it could produce enough amperage to do the
bulk charging. I am considering using a dc generator
in conjunction with the batteries. With this combo,
I could motor all day on the generator, if
necessary (going up a river or in one of the deep canyons
in Lake Powell), charge the batteries, and have a
reserve in case of an emergency ( batteries and generator
together would produce around 20 hp). But most of the time
I would run off the batteries in silence.
<br><br>These are just some of my thoughts to start you off, I
am no expert and have only started learning about
this stuff recently. I have no commercial interest in
the companies mentioned.<br><br>Bill

Bob:<br>You might look at the seb site of the
Electric Boat Association of the
Americas<br>(www.electicboat.com)<br>and see the books on the subject. From the home page,
go to DEPARTMENTS then to BOOKSTORE. Douglas Litle's
book might help you.<br><br>Also under DEPARTMENTS,
you could click on LINKS. There are several
manufactures whose sites are listed, among them is Minn Kota.
They might be able to answer some of your specific
questions.<br><br>Good luck,<br><br>Ken Matthews

Kristi:<br><br>You are not alone. Many people are
having similar thoughts.<br>I suggest you take a ook at
the web page of the ELectric Boat Association of the
Americas<br>www.electricboat.com<br>You may find a number of things that interest you,
but if -- from the home page -- you click on
DEPARMENTS, then on LINKS. You'll find a list of
manufacturers of motors and boats and other things.<br>One of
them, Ray Outboards, may be able to help you with an
outboard.<br>Elco can fit your vessel with electric propulsion as
can some others. KTA services can give you all the
stuff you need and allow you to use the existing shaft
and prop. So can Electric Vehicles of America, but I
don't know if they have a web site yet.<br>Checki it
out. If you have questions, you can message
me.<br><br>Good luck,<br><br>Ken Matthews

Kristi:<br><br>You are not alone. Many people are
having similar thoughts.<br>I suggest you take a ook at
the web page of the ELectric Boat Association of the
Americas<br>www.electricboat.com<br>You may find a number of things that interest you,
but if -- from the home page -- you click on
DEPARMENTS

Maybe I'm just a bad "surfer", but I have not
been able to find anything on the net about electric
motors for sailboats.<br>Is this the place? <br>Maybe
you can help?<br>I live on my 38' sailboat in the
Nederlands Antilles, one of the Caribbean islands.<br>I have
a little sailshop here, and obviously cherish wind,
water and the sun. <br>My boat is fittet with
solarpanels and 1 windgenerator, enough to keep me going on a
daily basis, TV, fridge lights, fans etc.<br><br>I'm
also the unhappy owner of a 32 year old Perkins diesel
engine, ex-40 Hp. (4-107) This engine has seen a lot of
saltwater - also in places where no saltwater should
be!<br>Rather than exchange the old dear for a newer model with
the same smell, noise and polution, I would like to
install an electric motor. <br><br>My thoughts are: I
only need the motor for getting in and out of harbours
and anchorages...and out of trouble. A 1-2 hours
range would be fine. After 2 hours I either sail, am
back in the marina - or on the rocks.<br>The boat is
heavy allready, so more batteries would not really be a
problem. And think about all the weight I'll save dumping
the old engine with its 40 gallon diesel tank! I
figure that the boat weighs 20 ton, maybe a couple more
with all my personal junk on board.<br><br>A new
diesel is $7-9000.00, so hopefully this crazy idea of
mine might even be cheaper!<br><br>Can it be
done?<br>Has it been done?<br>Can existing propeller and shaft
be used?<br><br>I have used electric trolling motors
for a small catamaran, and I loved it! Took tourists
up a small river in the Dominican Republic, and
their faces lit up as we "slid" silently past the
mangroves and listened to the tropical birds!<br>But I'd
probably have to mount 10 of those to propel my
boat....not very practical!<br><br>Speed is not important,
but torque is! Refer to earlier comment about getting
out of trouble!<br><br>There might even be a market
here - cruising boats are normally not in any hurry,
and during 13 years of living aboard, I haven't met
ONE boat without the owner considering his diesel as
a: nessesary evil / mean of travelling short
distances / a charging source / "thing" wich will run
different other appl. as freezers and watermakers from it's
pulleys - as they have to run "it" anyway once pr. day,
so "it" won't sieze!<br>(Need I say, that I'd be
happy to provide my boat for promotional
purposes...!)<br><br>With solar panels and windgenerators we can be truely
independent, especially if we can cut the route to the next
diesel filling-station! We are cruising in the tropics
with lots of overhead sun, and tradewinds blowing all
the time. Most sailboats can fit several panels and
windgenerators, we have much more space than a car. And a lot
more time available to take advantage of "free"
charging.<br>So what, if we have to stop in a pretty anchorage
for a week to charge batteries? That's what we do
anyway!<br><br>Again a word about pollution: On land it's relatively
easy to get fuel, get rid of oil, find a mechanic and
spare parts. On the water - not so! Unfortunately I
have seen buckets of dirty motor oil in otherwise
pretty places, filling the boats tanks with diesel many
times lets the vent overflow with big slicks common in
marinas. <br>Usually cruisingboats have an unspoken
agreement in quiet anchorages: we'll all run our engine at
the same time - that way nobody get pissed off
because of the noise and fumes.<br><br>Sorry that this
got so long, I could keep on writing about this,
obviously it's something that has been on my mind for a
while...<br><br>Hope to hear from you, and thanks for the opportunity
to vent this!<br>kirstidrewsen@...

I am thinking of getting a trolling motor for my
canoes (16 ft ). I would like some info on amperage and
speed. I looked in a book on electric boats but can't
get much info. How much speed would you get from 30
lbs thrust and is there a smaller motor than
this?<br>Bob Smith

Bill:<br><br>There is a discussion of fuel cells
in the issue of the Electric Boata Journals now in
the mail to members. While, it does not address your
question directly, it might be helpful to you. The Journal
has published several articles on fuel cells in the
past. I think Paul Kydd's fuel cell piece is still on
the EBAA website (www.electricboat.com).<br><br>You
might be interested to know that the EBAA designed a
fuel-cell-powered boat, working with a manufacturer of fuel cells,
four or five years ago, but never got funding for the
prototype.<br>I'm not sure about specific requirements. You might
try a New Jersey company called H-Power for some
specifics or Energy Partners in West Palm Beach, Fla. I
would be interested to know what you learn.<br><br>Ken
Matthews

Thanks, Bill, for the reply.<br>I guess we could also try some pre-treating with something like ScotchGuard.<br>Ron

You might try taking the canopy to an automotive detailer, they have coatings used on car fabric, which they garrantee to come clean.

I have been reading about fuel cells, will they
be available for boats any time soon? How big would
a cell have to be that would be capable of charging
a bank of, say, eight 6vdc golf cart batteries?

We're getting an ElectraCraft boat with full canopy. Expect we will get occasional seagull droppings. What are effective spot remover products?

Thank you for the web page link to ELCO web page. Interesting boat styles. I found they have a sales rep in SoCal, and I will contact that person.<br>Ron

All the information is on their website
at:<br><a href= target=new></a><br>Their boats are works of art and their support, by
reputation, is unstinting. They are located in NY, however,
and I don't know what the effect of an intervening
continent might be.<br>ELCO is a name to conjure with in
the electric boat world.

Frank,<br>Thanks for the reply. I haven't heard of ELCO here in Southern California. Are they on the East Coast?<br>What sizes EB do they offer?<br>Do they have a web site?<br>Ron

Im presently working through some of these same
calculations for my 23 launch which I hope to launch at the
end of the summer after 4 years of construction. The
propulsion system is the last major item on the list. The
weights, speeds and 36V propulsion system for my launch
are similar to those described here. My calculations
have, unfortunately, led me to question the suitability
of golf cart components for a boat of this size. Id
love to find out Im wrong!<br><br>At 36V each hp.
consumes 20.8A. You dont want to discharge the batteries
below 70% for risk of damaging them. A good 6V battery
may be rated at 145 amp hours. That leaves roughly
100AH useable. If the boat in question can actually
make 5mph with only 2 hp (this must be close to hull
speed; it would be for my boat) the range is only 2.4
hrs. or 12 mi.<br><br>If the system is built around 6V
golf cart components, adding to the range would
require an addition of 6 more batteries to keep the 36V
multiple. On my boat there isnt a prayer for finding room
for 12 batteries.<br><br>Im currently planning on
using 6 12V batteries that are rated at 115AH. This
gives me total capacity of 5.8 hrs at 2hp. Im thinking
this may not be adequate simply because I dont know
how much power my hull (a fantail launch similar to
the Elcos) will require in various conditions. In a
pinch I could squeeze in 3 more batteries to get a 345
AH bank.<br><br>As I said, Ive yet to do my system
(although its looming on the near horizon) and I would
love to discover Ive overestimated the needs. As it
is, though, I fear that 36V/145AH to push a 22, 1500
lbs boat is going to yield a disappointingly
restricted range.

Ron,<br><br>Don't overlook ELCO (Electric Launch Co). Probably the oldest domestic mfg and they do nice work.<br><br>Frank

We plan to buy an electric boat to use in Long
Beach and Huntington Beach and Newport Beach Harbors in
Southern California. We are considering Duffy,
ElectraCraft, and Gatsby boats. <br><br>Does anyone have
recommendations as to which brand is best? <br><br>Are there
other brands we should look at?<br><br>Thanks for your
input.<br>Ron