Posted by Gary M Thoenes (g_thoenes@…>)
Two interesting electric power systems were at
Strictly Sail-Chicago:
- An wind-electric hybrid system for smaller boats:
http://re-e-power.com/
You can size the battery systems for the hours you
need. This company has been at strictly sail before
and the units are well received. - A Stirling cycle engine to supply dc electricity,
hot water etc. Stirling cycle engines are more
efficient than diesel engines.
www.whispergen.com
The Stirling engine is very compact and quiet. As
distributed now, it is not set up with electric motor
propulsion.
— Alan Kusinitz <akusinitz@…> wrote:
When I was looking at buying an F-44 that may have
needed repowering I
talked at some length with the Glacier Bay expert on
their diesel/electric
propulsion system. Their smallest generator may have
been too large but in
general it just seemed like a big investment that
has some question marks in
terms of sizing options. Another issue was the need
for a larger prop and
questions of prop clearance (can’t all be done with
pitch). I think had
Glacier Bay had a smaller option and if the prop
clearance was okay then it
might be attractive but at the moment it was
marginal for an F-44 and not an
option for smaller Freedoms as far as I could tell.
If I remember correctly
their smallest option cost 40-50k which is
prohibitive.I was only interested in options suitable for long
range cruising.Alan
From: FreedomOwnersGroup@yahoogroups.com
[mailto:FreedomOwnersGroup@yahoogroups.com] On
Behalf Of Herman and Gail
Schiller
Sent: Thursday, January 31, 2008 9:21 PM
To: FreedomOwnersGroup@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [FreedomOwnersGroup] Re: Electric
propulsion systemsAll the modern, large cruise ships have multiple
“gensets” (5-figure
horsepower each). which drive everything on the ship
including
propulsion motors. Some of the most recent ones have
what appears to
be electrical trolling motors (scaled up a few
orders of magnitude)
suspended underneath the hull and are steerable (no
rudder drag, and
no stern thrusters). Look up AZIPOD via Google for
more poop. HermAt 05:02 AM 1/31/2008, you wrote:
I’ve long been lusting after the system made by
Solomon Technologies
<http://solomontechn
http://solomontechnologies.com/
ologies.com/>http://solomontechn
http://solomontechnologies.com/
ologies.com/ but
so far have been held back by a
couple things. One, their system is extremely
expensive (The 144VDC
part aka 12(!!!) batteries in the bank part doesn’t
help). Two, the
Freedom 33 I just purchased was re-powered with a
conventional diesel,
and I’ve just got it past the break-in period.But the combo of a DC motor, big battery bank, and
DC genset does give
a lot of wonderful options, like charging under
sail (at cost of boat
speed), short motoring without cranking the loud
stinky engine, long
motoring with the engine, and a “backup” to provide
motor power for a
few hours if the engine fails temporarily, plus
vibration isolation
between the boat and the diesel, and the ability to
use the genset to
charge back up the house bank while properly
loading the engine.Ah well, another year (or decade?) for me. I wish
all of you
experimenting with electric propulsion the best!
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