Electric yachts - the future?

[Andrew]

They did a fantastic job, a kudos to them. They also had very high level organisational / management skills and support it with a non-profit organisation, hundreds of students, workshops and fundraisers/corporare sponsors etc with internet communicarions a monumental effort requiring skills most of us dont have. I liked how they bought the gear on a budget, they must have an army of electric gurus techos advising/helping them too. Living in a highly developed and populated area helps.

Also a 35 ft yacht in good nick for $4000 ! They're giving them away in the US (is it the covid economy collapse price?)

5 huge panels isnt ocean going stuff, they would be torn off in a offshore storm. Also boat speed of 3.5kts and 60nm range on a charge. Sure its saving on maintenance and running costs.

Pulling out a yanmar diesel (was it operational?) bit of a waste (hope they got a good price) Reckon fossil fuel motors will be around along time to come. A solo sailor without an internet army backing them up can operate one in remote areas. It will ride out a storm and has range.

[Ozzie]

Yep. The void between the doable and the practical is still fairly wide but it is getting smaller. It’s likely a big step will be taken by a small semi volunteer group just like this. I was reading some article recently regarding how many of history’s great innovators and inventors had minimal formal education.

The Wright Bros come to mind. I’m bit of an aircraft tragic and I love telling people it was less than four decades between Kittyhawk and the Messerschmitt 262 jet fighter.

Still can’t get them at Aldi though

[Andrew]

This looks like a good electric motor setup on the cruising dinghy "Spart".

He gets about 10 nm at 3.5 knots, has 2x55AH AGM 12v batteries in parallel powering a 55lb thrust Mini Kota (interesting DIY bracket). A couple of 18w flexible solar panels on deck. Well made electrical box too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cr9apeCvE_E

[Watto]

https://eclassoutboards.com.au/

Popped up on my FB feed. Video of a surf rescue inflatable planing with a 15hp

[snoopebj]

Latest Uma update - state of the art electric regen motor upgrade.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=HouwSrzKvKU

[Peter T]

Interesting way to go electric
https://fb.watch/8TqjpT6Qh8/

[Watto]

https://youtu.be/9w8ehVEN6ic?list=TLGGV ... NjEwMjAyMQ

[Peter T]

That's really impressive Luke. Makes you wonder where this is going to lead to with advances in battery technology. Just brilliant. I presume you could use it to get out to your boat on the dinghy, then on your yacht and probably charge it up with solar, wind or a water turbine whilst you are sailing or all of these at the same time. Can't wait for the future, it's getting exciting and for a 563, probably could even use a longer version giving more capacity
At 1985 euro, that is equal to $3075. Roughly so not that cheap as yet. Equal to 3 hp and gives around 14 nautical miles range at 1/2 throttle at 3 knots so they say.

[Andrew]

Latest Uma update - state of the art electric regen motor upgrade.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=HouwSrzKvKU

That's a great video Emry's. Looks like they have one of the best electric systems available, that smart variable-pitch propeller is super high tech. I like how they did the sailing regen test and documented all the data, graphed it etc. That output of 250-600W over 5-8 knots boat speed is impressive, they shouldn't be caught out without battery power too often now (and resort to the Honda genset). (Come a long way from their earlier video where they were always running out of power in the high latitudes due to very low solar recharging, had no genset and had to marina hop to find shore power. That was a lesson). Also the physical size of the motor so small, a fridge and galley lockers could go in where a diesel engine box would normally sit.

They made their 3rd motor/system installation look so professional, bolt-on/plug and play. They're real tech pioneers.

No mention of the costing,, it's probably still high like early rooftop solar was 20 years ago, a few more years to uptake and come down..`
Also to regen well a fast/long waterline mono is required (or multihull..)

Glad the I563 just needs a little 4-6hp outboard!

[Peter T]

Spot on Andrew, just makes you realise it's all happening and will only get better and cheaper with time. It's most definately the future