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Forget about the gas engine, too dangerous. There is a reason no sailboat companies put them in. Depending on your use of the boat. If you only need 4 hours of engine use, then go electric. You can always use your generator if you need a longer motor time. If you are motoring down the icw, I would probably go with the diesel engine.

I think your plan is sound. The solar charging will work, it is just a matter of time. If you use 5kw hours of battery, and you have 200 watts of panels that put back in 1kw a day, it would take 5 days to charge it back up. So if that fits your sailing style it should be fine. Worst case scenario is you buy a Honda generator later on, and a battery charger, if you need a longer run time.

Great idea, parallel hybrid using your existing twin diesels and propulsion system is possible. Running the diesels will give you heaps of regen so you will need plenty of battery storage. You would have to check how the regen works on the electric motors if you put the diesel in reverse. It may only need some additional programing of the controllers if required. I assume being a power cat you have two prop shafts and props. You could trial it on one shaft before committing to both. The standard options to transfer the power to the prop shafts from an electric motors are belt or chain. Connecting pulleys or sprockets to the shafts aft of the gear boxes could be done using tapered bushes. Split two piece collars are no advantage as the pulleys or sprockets still have to be slipped over the shaft. You probably have a split collar at the flexible coupling aft of the gearbox. If this is the case then you can disconnect here and slip the shaft back to get the tapered bush and pulley on. Most importantly consider that you are putting transverse loads into the shaft from the electric motor, an additional bearing may be required on the shaft to take the transverse loads away from the flexible coupling and cutless bearing. Apart from the extra load on the shaft and possible abnormal wear on the gearbox components not forgetting possible space/access restrictions, I do not see why its not feasible. -- Kind regards Mick 0414 264 312

We have a power cat with twin diesels. Rather than going electric only, or serial hybrid, we are thinking of at least starting by keeping the diesels and seeing how we go as a parallel hybrid. The parallel hybrid would have a new electric motor to a speed reduction unit (two differently sized pulleys), then by a belt to a wheel attached to the prop shaft. The attachment would be after the gearbox-engine, as our gearbox can freewheel safely and the diesel would be out of gear. We may start with one or two Thunderstruck 10kW kits or something similar. However, I can't work out how to connect the electric motor to the prop shaft. Obviously a wheel (pulley? what do you call it?!) to run the belt on, tightly locked on the prop shaft (ours is 40mm). Preferably using a split collar to reduce maintenance cost (haulouts). Does anyone know any solutions?

We have a power cat with twin diesels. Rather than going electric only, or serial hybrid, we are thinking of at least starting by keeping the diesels and going forward as a parallel hybrid. The parallel hybrid would have a new electric motor to a speed reduction unit (two differently sized pulleys), then by a belt to a wheel attached to the prop shaft. The attachment would be after the gearbox-engine, as our gearbox can freewheel safely and the diesel would be out of gear. We may start with a Thunderstruck 10kW kit or something similar. However, I can't see how to connect the electric motor to the prop shaft. Obviously a wheel (what do you call it - pulley?!) to run the belt on, tightly locked on the prop shaft (ours is 40mm). Preferably using a split collar to reduce maintenance cost (haulouts). Does anyone know any solutions?

I bought an used Torqeedo Outboard. It has a remote throttle on a cable. I can not see where you attach the cable to the motor. It is a five post screw in connector on throttle wire.

Hello electric boaters, My wife and I bought a 1982 Catalina 30 about 4 years ago and we have had a fine time sailing it. Alas, around a year ago, the original Universal 5411 diesel engine broke down, and after what seems a very long time of looking at it, the mechanic says it's beyond saving. A used replacement diesel would cost $3k, not counting labor & incidentals, and a new one is over $6k. I'm not thrilled at putting in another raw water cooled noisy thing at such a premium, and we're seriously considering an electric repower for the next season. We live in Maine, work full-time, and have a young family---we are day sailors for the foreseeable future. We generally have used the engine to power in and out of the harbor and get canvas up. Of course, a bit of extra power for the doldrums & emergencies is a good idea. We have a mooring (shore power is not something we have regular access to) and were thinking of a 10kW brushless DC motor & controller, etc, a ~10kw battery bank (probably AGM), and some solar panels to mount off the stern. What research I've done suggests that this would be enough to get a few hours of power at ~3-4 kts every few days, which seems adequate. So, I'm looking for advice if this sounds like a good plan, and for some tips about the size & type of solar panels we should consider. I'm looking at the 10kw brushless kit on Thunderstruck. I'd really prefer to keep the parts cost at $5k-6k, which seems like it might be possible. I'm also curious about hydrogenerators; our mooring sits in an estuary that experiences strong currents at midtide and I'm curious if the prop as genset or a secondary hydro turbine would be a wise supplement to the solar. If we go this route, I would probably do some of the installation work under the guidance of a knowledgeable boat mechanic. Thanks and I look forward to learning a lot from you folks.

David, May I humbly invite you to take a look at www.wolfEboats.com. I'm a ways from SoCal but Sparky will beat the pants off a Duffy. Denny Wolfe

Hi I am interested in your note about needing 18 Sq Ft of solar panels for charging a 48 volt system. Can you elaborate on this. How many watts are you thinking. Are you charging the bank at 48 volts or each 12 volt battery separately. Rgds Peter

I think the comment on lithium being worse for intermittent charging is incorrect. Lead needs to be kept close to fully charged to lessen degradation. Lithium is not affected by being left at less than full charge.

Erich, LiFePo4 batteries don’t need to be charged after you run them down - unlike lead acid. You can leave them at whatever SOC you are left with - although they are reported to prefer 40-60 percent SOC if left for any length of time. They just don’t lose charge while resting, Cheers Graham 4S 700ahr House, 2 x 16S 700aht traction banks. Both Thundersky.

Gotz2ssail, Check out Advanced Motor Controllers. I've got 4 on board with a 144vDC system and am very pleased with them. Steve in Solomons MD Lagoon 410 S2E

Thank you for the suggestion Gary but it was Flight Systems that could not repair my controller.

Hi, I looked around didn't see a post asking about industrial motor controllers so here it goes.... I'm an industrial electrician, im well versed in AC motor drives. Fractional drives up to 500hp. I worked on some DC drives, not to many out there, bigger sizes at least. I have a 77 Newport 30 with a Thoosa controller, 48v 240ah bank and a 5kw LEM motor. The controller has a old Millpak at it's heart. Just a matter of time before POOF goes the controller. Why not use an industrial DC drive? While not too many are around for 48v that can handle say 200a they are out there. Plus there is a lot less "fuss" to set up. I get it for a EV car but for a boat it's close a straight forward drive motor. Be it for a conveyor, tumbler, almond roaster, it's pretty much the same. Just wondering....

PWM controllers are easy to build. Get a C.Mos chip 4011 and connect a variable resistor and a diode in series across pins 1 and 3 connect pin 1 to pin 2, connect a capacitor .01 uF from pins 1 and 2 to pin 7. Connect 3 - pins 5&6 then pin 4 - 8&9 then pin 10 -13 &12 the output is pin 11. You then need a H circuit where the motor is connected in the horizontal arm of the H and transistors capable of handling the current of the motor in the four uprights so the one upper one on the left, the motor and the bottom right are in series and the top right in series with bottom left so the motor can be driven forward or reverse.

Hi All, My Curtis 1236 controller crapped out and is unrepairable. According to the repair facility it is "UR due to 5V line damage, micro short. No way to obtain customer settings." I have purchased a new identical Curtis controller and want to avoid the same issue. Has anyone in this group faced this problem and have suggestions for a fix? I look forward to all suggestions. TY

I destroyed a different brand of controller by powering it up incorrectly (applied power to the enable input with out first letting the 'bleed resistors' charge the input capacitors via the main power input). It was completely un-reparable as to make the circuit fully water proof they 'pot' the board in epoxy resin, I got the cover off and all that was to be seen was the top of some of the larger components (said capacitors) poking through a hard shiny black blob. It is possible to get the resin off if you are keen enough but it would have to be an expensive and exotic circuit to go to that sort of trouble.

I converted a 17" launch that had a Blaxland Twin in it. I used a rather old design Perm 132 motor in a direct drive configuration. At the sweet spot where the boat just starts pulling a bow-wave the system only uses 2.4kw of power. After that point any increase in power yields little extra speed - the power just goes into making that wave larger. People often massively over power boats.

Stephen, We have been working with BellMarine here in the US for over 4 years now. The product is very well designed and would be a good choice for your boat. If you haven't been to their direct website, it is: http://www.bellmarine.nl/?nr=12&Assortment Sally Reuther Annapolis Hybrid Marine

Thanks for accepting me into the group, I am in the process of buying a sailboat and am interested in reporting it with an electric system.