electric boats because tired of fuel costs and maintanance of outboards.

[boucaneer]

has anybody had any experience or interested in electric boats? i have a 16' cabin cruiser that is basicly a floating shack that i stay on. every time i think about going anywere on my boat i always feel uneasy due to my lack of faith on petrol/gasolene outboard motors.

due to fuel mixtures, dirty jets and carboretors and the like, i am finding myself more and more turned onto electric motors. the maintanance is alot easier and they are quieter too.

sure they aint got the power that a gas outboard has but it would be nice to slowly ride down a river with the tide with an electric and use a gas outboard only when realy needed.

solar power can be used to top up battery levels and it would stop me having to pay bastard fuel companys exuberant fuel prices and good for the enviroment also.

so anyone interested in cheap electric boats as a project?

 

[oldmanLee]

Send me a few specs on the boat(leaght,draft,current power system,inboard or outboard,type of hull/frame,etc.).been working as a wrench for about 30 years,and have a couple of alternate power systems that I tinkered up that may be applicable.Are you any good with basic tools,and do you know of any fleamarkets/jumble sales/bootsales and can you haggle.Could probably develop a system that would generate enough juice for under $300 US out of scraps and bits,the big problem would be the weight/cost of deep charge marine grade batterys,and wheather it would be a conversion from an inboard driveshaft or outboard,but you may be able to get by with auto batteries.Whats petrol up to these days in Londinium?

 

[boucaneer]

wow. i always find it strange to be asked the cost of petrol in england. it must be realy expensivly famous coz everyone asks it. i also find it entertaining we call it petrol and america calls it gas.

well at the mo it is £1,12 a litre or $1,82 a litre. so petrol/gas ribs are real expensive to use. unless to petrol/gas outboard is coverted to run on newspaper ethanol or another substitute like liquid hydrogen.

diesel on the ther hand is now about the same ($1.82) for 60 percent of the fuel for propolsion, but around 60p 0r $0.98 for 40% for fuel for generators and cooking/heating equiment. so when we buy it is on a 60% taxable/40% no tax basis.

so 60 percent for engine deisel fuel, and 40 percent for cooking and genorator fuel. this has only just happened the last year as we wher'nt getting taxed at the fuel tank before we tried to fight this via the royal yaching association, but somehow we lost and now have to pay 60% tax at the refueling point.

the only thing i think of being taxed so much for fuel (90% tax) is that it pays for the national health service so most people dont have to pay for medical services. but this still isnt right as most of the tax goes to polititians homes and bankers.

so elecrtic is a good one. if one can make the boat to a 1/8th waterine. it's quite efecient on a non tidal water like a lake or have the tide running with you.

i am alright with tools as long as i dont go too hard and have a bit of patience.

there are loads of flea markets and boat jumble sales around us and we can always get our hand on somthing if we realy want to.

i would probally go with a pontoon for the hull and have a houseboat cabin built on top of the decking.

well that all the information i can think of right now.

p.s i will get back to you with those specs for the hull and boat shape.

thanks and cheers.



diesel is

 

[boucaneer]

i just saw this today. a nice link to making tubes for ribs.





it just makes one think why try to pay thousands when you can make one at home.

 

[foxtailV]

wow this is good stuff thought about electric trick and i like it but theres obsticales there, i do like the quiet simpler system, im fixin up an old shrimpboat 50ft long that i want to make bigger and put sails on it to sail world around, and i ve given some thought to a 6 man or so recumbant powered motor? what does anyone think about this , i wonder if it will work, it would diffanatlly give me and the crew something to do everyday, to keep fit and a sense of achievement all around . also using pedal assist electric motors would tip the odds a little more..

 

[cranberrydavid]

I've got a neighbor who's building a 32' electric auxiliary sailboat. It's turning out to be a lot more complex and expensive than he figured when he started.

If you want to move a boat by human power, oars are pretty much the most efficient AND the simplest way to go. If the boat is small enough you can build large oars called sweeps for it. For something as large as 50' your best bet is to take a skiff out in front and tow it. The trouble is that a human can only make something like 1/4 horsepower for short bursts ( we're not horses!).

For a 50' boat I'd expect 250-350 hp or more to move her in normal weather, just because of the force of winds and waves on the hull that you've got to overcome. If you've got a strong, heavy weather sailing rig and the skills to handle it then your engine could just be an auxiliary, maybe 100 hp or so. An outboard would probably be your best bet if you're wanting to go small.

 

[bananathrash]

only use solar as a backup charging system: they arent constant and batteries dont dig that. if your only moving short distances at a time you could probably get away with two gc110s for your boat, if youre gonna run 12 volt, which you should. dont try batteries designed for starting applications; dont yank some old shit out of a junk car. gc110s are your best bet and you can check fluid levels pretty easily for most of em, which is convenient. right now they are about $100 each for a decent pair.

electric CAN be cheaper but you have to take really good care of your batteries. dont drain them beyond 15%, or when you notice lag in your motor; make sure they get a full charge every month, if you dont sulfation will begin.

dont buy used batteries, you cant bring lead chemistries back to life, speaking from a lot of experience.

 

[dirtyfacedan]

Sail is the way to go. As a user of wind, I can recommend it highly. Wind is a sure bet. People have used it for a few years now, with remarkable results.

 

[cranberrydavid]

Sail is the way to go. As a user of wind, I can recommend it highly. Wind is a sure bet. People have used it for a few years now, with remarkable results.

I love sail, and it'll always be my first choice, but unless you're sailing in a bathtub it's dumb to go out without some backup way of moving the boat when contrary winds and currents are taking you bad places.

Personally, I love oars for this. A few years ago a crew of 7 of us did the inside passage behind Vancouver I. in this. When the winds died or were blocked by islands we'd row our guts out keeping off the rocks or trying to get out of a current and into a cove or beach. A little electric assist would have been pretty handy then, but you know that batteries would have gone dead just when we needed them most.

I also have a 25' schooner my brother and I made from farm scraps ( the masts are irrigation pipe). We have an electric trolling motor and a Walmart deep-cycle marine battery we sometimes take out with us for auxiliary power. A full day charging off of my 120 watt solar panel gives about one hour of cruising at 3-4 knots if you are careful. I would never put my solar panels on a boat though. I know too many people who have had corrosion problems.