|
Basically you are trying to create a miniature version of a diesel electric tug, cruise ship, submarine, or locomotive.
You certainly can do this and thousands, if not tens of thousands, vessels with electric motors exist and work well all over the world. The modern way to design a cruise ship is with 2 or 4 electric motors driving the props and 4 or more generators to run them and supply the ship. Losing an engine hardly impacts the ship, just a little less top speed. You still have both/4 props turning and in low speed low load conditions no need to run all the gensets.
That said, there are reasons this is not common on small boats:
1. Engine to prop is more efficient than engine to generator to motor to prop, every transition loses power.
2. You don't have engineering staff onboard and this is a lot more complicated than a driveshaft.
3. It takes up more space.
4. Specific to A4s, the Atomic 4 is about the worst engine I can imagine for this job. The A4 was NEVER intended to do anything but move boats. Gensets on boats use engines with standard bell housings that make adding a generator quite easy. Diesel engines are better suited to be generators for the most part, although there certainly are gasoline marine generators. In either case these will be WAY more reliable and efficient than kluging a generator onto an Atomic 4.
|