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Subject: TWL: RE: Engine size--An Electric boat?
From: Robert Bryett (rbryett@XXX.XXX)
Date: Sun Apr 01 2001 - 18:36:55 EDT
>>>>Is it impossible or prohibitively impractical to design and build a
12-16,000 lb. displacement boat of about 28-32' LWL with a 'troller' hull
design using an electric motor, and diesel generators?<<<<
I too have looked at the possibility of diesel-electric drive to address
the engine-sizing problem. It's certainly not impossible, but my research
indicates that it would be expensive, and probably less fuel-efficient than
a conventional diesel drive.
Even sites like http://www.vripack.com/articles/propulsion.htm which take a
positive view of diesel-electric propulsion are talking about very large
(50 metre) yachts and suggest a cut-off size well above the sort of boats
people on this list are usually talking about. I don't endorse this site in
any way by the way, it's just something I found while sniffing round the
subject, and frankly some of their views strike me as debatable to say the
least.
This idea has floated across this list and the trawler-world-hybrid-power
list before, and you might want to look at the archives:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&safe=off&q=diesel+electric+propulsio
n+site%3Asamurai.com
>>>>I'm in the market for a boat of this size and hull shape, but, having
just returned from Trawler Fest, the boats of this size all seem to have
200+ hp monsters that have a noisy exhausts and are way more than than the
30+/-hp engine I'd need to efficiently cruise at hull speed. I know one
could custom build a boat and use any diesel engine they wanted, but
wouldn't it be nice to have the quietness of an electric motor and only the
hum of a small generator or two?<<<<
Whatever else diesel-electric drive might be at present, it is certainly
still very much a "custom" idea. As far as I know nobody is offering it as
an option in a production yacht. If one has to go for a custom solution
anyway, it would undoubtedly be cheaper just to specify an appropriately
sized conventional diesel system.
Regards, Robert Bryett
Sydney, Australia.
mailto:rbryett@XXX.XXX
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