That Electric Boat

[W2ET]

Some of those visiting the last Annapolis Boat Show may have stumbled upon that electric 30-footer. There's an article about it in a recent edition of Soundings Magazine.

According to the (highly complimentary) article, the batteries will last "the life of the boat," charge faster than a Tesla, have a capacity of 126 kWh, and weigh a total of 1,200 lbs. Price is quoted as $329,000.

Bill

[Dave Neptune]

Bill, is the battery weight 1200 lbs? My wife and I just looked at a center console OB with 5 batteries, 3 for the electric.

Dave Neptune

[W2ET]

The boat-including two lithium ion batteries, console and carbon fiber hardtop-is light and comes out of the factory at 5,730 lb. That's about the same as many similarly-sized center consoles with a single or twin outboard engine....

Beneath the deck in the aft cockpit are lithium ion battery packs which have a combined capacity of 126 kWh and weigh a total of 1,200 lb. The batteries are manufactured by Kreisel of Austria. According to DeSocio, the batteries are bathed in a stabilized, non-conductive fluid that runs through a heat exchanger cooled with seawater from an onboard pump. Aside from winterizing the cooling pump, the batteries are essentially maintenance-free and should last the life of the boat.

Elsewhere in the article:

Power: (1) 225-kW electric motor

That converts to 300 HP.....

The boat is an "Eelex 8000." Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder, so I won't comment on the lines.

Bill

[scratchee]

Does it have an ill-defined neutral, and require significant continuous force to hold it in reverse? If not, it's probably not for me.

[Dave Neptune]

If you were to run out of "juice" would the rescue boat bring you 5 gal of fuel, 5kw of "juice" or a tow rope?

I have in my boating experience towed 2 Duffy's and 4 or 5 dinghy's with Torquedo's and offered a splash of gas for many OB powered dinghy's from my 1 1/2 gallon extra gas can I carried in my dinghy mostly on Catalina Island.

It will be interesting to see if any of the towing services will carry a charging possibility on board.

Dave Neptune

[ndutton]

Personally, I find the ongoing development of electric drives very interesting. At the current stage it may finally be viable for certain types of boat usage such as short hauls in runabouts and daysailors. A keen eye on battery state of charge is critical but that's no different than a conventional fuel gauge. Dave's comments on emergency (read: poor planning) replenishment cover the shortcomings well.

Longer excursions like weekends or coastal cruising are a problem. Local to me, where does an electric skipper plan to recharge over at Catalina if necessary? Worse yet are our local uninhabited islands: San Clemente, Santa Barbara, San Nicolas, Anacapa, Santa Cruz, Santa Rosa and San Miguel Islands.
Some are part of a National Park and all have world class fishing and diving.

Mexico? No way.

[edwardc]

Some time back, someone here (I forget who), made a reference to the "Sailing Uma" YouTube channel. They are probably one of the best examples of the limits to which you can take an all-electric sailboat.

I've watched all of their nearly 300 episodes, starting out as new-grads and knowing nothing about sailing or electrics, to becoming the first electric sailboat to reach Svalbard this past summer.

Their philosophy has always been "Never in a hurry to go anywhere, ever." This meant that they would sometimes take days to travel a short distance by sail only, and had to become experts on the weather.

Their setup has evolved (they made a lot of initial mistakes) from a forklift motor powered by flooded lead-acid batteries from Walmart, to a large Lithium-Iron-Phosphate battery bank, a large amount of solar collectors, and a state-of-the-art electric saildrive that is custom-designed to double as a highly efficient hydro generator. This has allowed them to become virtually independent of shore power.

[W2ET]

A few weeks ago, I got to ride along in my son's Tesla. Never had the courage to drive it. Anyway, I was hooked. With the right infrastructure (charging stations), I'd go for it. Absent that, I was paranoid about how many "miles" were left.

If you want a glimpse of how far out in front the thinking is, Google the "dog" HVAC setting on a Tesla.


Bill

[joe_db]

Electric sailboats would be great for someplace like New England where the use case is getting off a mooring into a clear area, sailing around in an ever-present breeze, and getting back on the mooring at the end of the day or getting in and out of any marina to start line of the local race.
For a cruiser in the Chesapeake or many other places it is a total non-starter. I can easily be way way beyond electric range and need to be home with a Bermuda High settled in and no wind for days. One un-fun leg of a long cruise involved Annapolis to New York under power 100% of the way, there was no wind for the entire trip

[Al Schober]

I think the car carrier burning in the mid-Atlantic is going to set EVs back a bit. Crew was evacuated about 4 days ago, and they think the fire is still days from burning out. Lithium batteries are a prime suspect.
Anyone for a Porsche Taycan - well done?

[tenders]

An interesting take, Al - I hadn’t considered that. But I would counter that the recent spike in gas prices would cancel that step back!

Billions of people are paying higher gas prices. Probably only takes a few hundred people to redesign EV transportation protocols. Insurance will eat the cost of this incident.

[alcodiesel]

Wow, that eelex 8000 is the ugliest boat I have ever seen. Homely even.

[tenders]

Yikes. That thing looks like a Portabote raised by wolves, then given a haircut with a rusty fish knife.

https://xshore.com/eelex-8000

[joe_db]

It got in a collision that smashed the bow in and then reversed until it hit a picnic table