Need high speed electric motor for small boats!

[SnappingTurtle]

The rowing club where we will be keeping our motorboat is building a new catamaran pace boat with electric motor (they will receive government support if they succeed).

Most small electric motors (trolling motors) available on the market don't offer the speed needed to keep up with the rowers.

They have found a company in Pennsylvania building a electric power head, that is then placed on a Yamaha lower unit.

They claim 9hp from a 24volt power supply. This seems really high to me.

Has anyone here ever heard of, or seen one of these in action?

The company name is “eCycle, Inc. Marine Systems”. They are located in Temple, Pennsylvania.

Are there any alternatives that are on the market that could be used on a very small cat (two people, max.)?

Thanks for any and all input with this project.

 

[DRIFTER_016]

Re: Help! Need high power electric motor for small boats.

Re: Help! Need high power electric motor for small boats.

There was a show on the Discovery channel called Mean Green Machines or something like that that pitted electric and hybrid vehicles against conventional vehicles and yes there are some pretty wicked battery operated machines out there. I don't know if there are any in production yet or not though. But with the right parts and technical know how it should be feasible.
They had an electric drag bike that did in something like 160 MPH!!
They also had an electric dirt bike that kept up to a 250cc conventional bike and an electric quad, hybrid 4X4 etc. I don't remember if they had an outboard or not.
I would think if you took a 10 or 15 horse OB and pulled off the powerhead and replaced with a correctly setup electric motor and power storage system (they are using big Lithium Ion power packs) you could easily get the kind of power needed for your application.

Here's a link to the show, you might be able to find some usefull info there.

http://www.discoverychannel.ca/shows/showdetails.aspx?sid=6338

 

[SnappingTurtle]

Re: Help! Need high power electric motor for small boats.

Re: Help! Need high power electric motor for small boats.

Thanks for your input. I know there has to be more on the market.

I have also found examples from Briggs & Stratton (3HP), Torqeedo (6HP), & Ray Electric (5HP), although the last one is over $5000, which is a little over the top.

Running twin Torqeedo (6HP) would not help any with the top speed would it?

 

[SnappingTurtle]

Re: Help! Need high power electric motor for small boats.

Re: Help! Need high power electric motor for small boats.

Photos of what I am looking for ...

... but they need to be able to keep pace with these ...

 

[tommays]

Re: Help! Need high power electric motor for small boats.

Re: Help! Need high power electric motor for small boats.

"We were skeptical of the Torqeedo at first, and thought it was merely a trolling motor, but agreed to give it a try on our Ultimate 20. We were immediately impressed by the engine?s ?oomph? when it wound up to full power after about five seconds. The Torqeedo had us zooming around the marina at five knots in virtual silence, and generated lots of comments from our friends. After using the engine for a year, we find it to be similar in power to our Honda 2hp four-stroke. The Torqeedo is much easier to deploy on the transom and stow below deck, because you can place the battery pack on the engine separately, after securely clamping motor to mount. You only need to lift 15 pounds instead of 30. The Torqeedo doesn?t smell like gas, and it always starts."



It is the only one sold here and i have never seen one

 

[SnappingTurtle]

Re: Help! Need high power electric motor for small boats.

Re: Help! Need high power electric motor for small boats.

The Torqeedo Cruise model claims 5-6HP, would two of these equal a 10-12hp outboard in top speed?

or

Is there a maximum hull speed that could/would be reached with such a setup?

They run a 30hp on one of the self-built small cats now.

 

[tommays]

Re: Help! Need high power electric motor for small boats.

Re: Help! Need high power electric motor for small boats.

I posted the review because he found it about equal to a 2 Hp unit if you look at the AMPS required to produce 6HP at 24 volts it will be

 

[SnappingTurtle]

Re: Help! Need high power electric motor for small boats.

Re: Help! Need high power electric motor for small boats.

They claim the output of the motor is regulated to avoid high currents of over 120 A with the 6HP version.

 

[tommays]

Re: Help! Need high power electric motor for small boats.

Re: Help! Need high power electric motor for small boats.

They claim this shopvac has 6hp which i use to point out how the TRUTH gets streched


I work with DC motors everyday and for the most part high HP is just not there strong point as above 2hp at 90VDC the power control ends up as a giant heat sink to not burn up

 

[TerryMSU]

Re: Help! Need high power electric motor for small boats.

Re: Help! Need high power electric motor for small boats.

Hello:

A little math...
1 HP is 746 watts thus your 9 HP motor needs 6714 watts to generate 9HP.

At 24 volts, this is 280 amps. To handle 280 amps, the cable must be 00 or even better yet 0000 size. That is wire the size of my thumb.

How long will it run on a battery? The Optima D31M is the largest Optima deep cycle battery and it has a rating of approximately 65 Amp-hours. That means that you can run it for about 15 minutes before it is basicly dead. By the way, that takes two batteries at about 60 pounds each for your 24 volt system. I also have assumed 100% efficiency. You won't get that and the battery won't give 65 amp hours as it gets older.

So...

My official engineering analysis is "Not likely". Even if you take the Lead acid battery out of the picture (recommended but EXPENSIVE), you still have a power hog.

On the plus side, the 9 HP is probably a lot more than the equivalent 9HP internal combustion engine.

Some design observations...
Get the electric motor and controls submerged (But still sealed). This will give you much better cooling and thus better efficiency and better motor life than up in the air.

What about some of the motors that are designed to mount to the lower unit of an outboard?

Terry

 

[SnappingTurtle]

Re: Help! Need high power electric motor for small boats.

Re: Help! Need high power electric motor for small boats.

This is what I suspected. I told them this one sounded good on paper, but in the real world, with todays technology ...

 

[SnappingTurtle]

Re: Help! Need high power electric motor for small boats.

Re: Help! Need high power electric motor for small boats.

How long will it run on a battery? The Optima D31M is the largest Optima deep cycle battery and it has a rating of approximately 65 Amp-hours. That means that you can run it for about 15 minutes before it is basicly dead. By the way, that takes two batteries at about 60 pounds each for your 24 volt system. I also have assumed 100% efficiency. You won't get that and the battery won't give 65 amp hours as it gets older.

Torqeedo recommends their LIMA lithium-manganese cell batteries, but they cost a small fortune.

"LIMA high-performance battery, capacity 1,994 Wh, rated voltage 25.9 V, charge 77 Ah, weight 18 kg"

... about 40 pounds.

 

[SnappingTurtle]

Re: Help! Need high power electric motor for small boats.

Re: Help! Need high power electric motor for small boats.

Some design observations...
Get the electric motor and controls submerged (But still sealed). This will give you much better cooling and thus better efficiency and better motor life than up in the air.
Terry

RE-E-POWER's E-Pod 3000 is built in this manner and claims power equal to a 20HP outboard.