Change to electric drive

[ndutton]

I just read a post on one of the Catalina 30 forums about an electric drive conversion. Owner installed (no labor), $26K.

[Dave Neptune]

Neil, he should of gone for a newer boat with a newer diesel. I think that is absolutely ridiculous .

Whoever sold him the "system" deserves a raise .

Dave Neptune

[joe_db]

That price includes the Catalina 30, right?

[ndutton]

That price includes the Catalina 30, right?

You'd think so but nope.

[sastanley]

whaaa???

I almost um..well, I wasn't sure when I saw a post from Neil and "change to electric drive" - but glad it is just a report.
More than probably the boat's value in the conversion and also most likely LOTS less range than even the Atomic 4 which is usually less than diesel?
Have fun with that.

[ndutton]

I almost um..well, I wasn't sure when I saw a post from Neil and "change to electric drive"

Nope, nein, nyet, not me. In fact, my interest goes the opposite direction. Big Block Chevy, 9 MPG on premium gas only.

[sastanley]

Nope, nein, nyet, not me. In fact, my interest goes the opposite direction. Big Block Chevy, 9 MPG on premium gas only.

Wow nice!

My interests apparently have too. By my calculations, we are getting about 0.75 MPG in the powerboat, provided I don't throttle up enough for the secondaries in the carbs to open up. Small block Chevys, but they don't need premium gas. I am thinking about an EFI upgrade...one of the drawbacks had been the lack of USCG approval for high pressure fuel delivery systems required by those systems, but I am starting to find a couple on the market. A few thousand $$ per motor for that setup. Maybe I will just keep a spare carb on hand for now.

[joe_db]

Wow nice!

My interests apparently have too. By my calculations, we are getting about 0.75 MPG in the powerboat, provided I don't throttle up enough for the secondaries in the carbs to open up. Small block Chevys, but they don't need premium gas. I am thinking about an EFI upgrade...one of the drawbacks had been the lack of USCG approval for high pressure fuel delivery systems required by those systems, but I am starting to find a couple on the market. A few thousand $$ per motor for that setup. Maybe I will just keep a spare carb on hand for now.

There are plenty of fuel-injected V8 engines in boats. They got approved somehow.

https://www.crusaderengines.com/offshore/#engines

FYI - A 737 in calm wind barely uses more fuel than that, maybe .66 MPG.

[Mo]

We have a guy at our marina that took a perfectly running Yanmar 2gm from a C&C 35. He took an electric drive motor and it works very well, has lots of torque but can only be depended on for a relatively short period of time. On a club cruise summer of 22, he had to go into an alternate port because he would run out of power on a windless day. The others continued....to the 22 nm destination. That boat made it just over half way. I don't know what he has for battery storage, however, it comes on and off the dock nicely.

[sastanley]

There are plenty of fuel-injected V8 engines in boats. They got approved somehow.

https://www.crusaderengines.com/offshore/#engines

FYI - A 737 in calm wind barely uses more fuel than that, maybe .66 MPG.

Well...I got two 5.7 Crusaders in the Alura at 270 HP each...I wonder if the issue is retrofitting the older boats and keeping the USCG happy.

So far from my research, there are a couple of hurdles...the high pressure pump, and (not USCG related) installing the O2 sensor where it can sniff the exhaust without getting wet. It seems like there is a 20-25% fuel savings since they tend to jet carb'd engines a little rich, and an O2 sensor can adjust the mixture to run a bit leaner and save some fuel. obviously over time it pays off. Right now, we are putting about the same hours on the power boat, about 100 per year, and we are not always running at 3,200 RPM..we do lots of 5 KTS creek cruising, so it will take a long time to pay it back (or forward and also x2).

Thanks for that link, Joe.

[Dave Neptune]

Shawn, you could consider plain ole engine swapping. In the small boat market there are quite a few that upgrade for more power by going to the V-8s. Perhaps finding a couple of V-6 Mercruiser's with EI would work. The are in the 250~300 HP range and will bolt up just fine. a nice thing about GM engine interchangeability. The hard part would be the exhaust which is really no big deal. Another is swapping out your old 4bbl's for 2bbl's, as the secondary's are where most of the fuel is lost at low speeds due to poorly atomized "idle port fuel dribble" constantly. There are many larger 2bbl's that can easily support your HP.

If your not using the secondary's why have them.

Dave Neptune

[sastanley]

Dave, thanks... all good points. One of the things with the V-8s is exhaust clearance, needing to run "low rise" elbows due to height restrictions..I would think a modern V-6 EFI would have the same power as an older V-8 and also with a smaller physical block maybe solve the riser problem by creating more room in the engine bay. Lots of cool stuff to think about.

We did 100 nautical miles this weekend, and not once did I run the engines into 4BBL mode. If i have the specs right, these Crusaders are about 270 HP each. We cruised at 15.5-16 kts all weekend at 3,100 RPM. I do remember that the Chevy 4.3L V-6's are basically 350ci (5.7L) V-8s with two cylinders lopped off the end.

Going the "other way", when I was in between wives, I swapped a more powerful engine in my old project Honda Civic..The motor I put in it was a Japanese spec Si motor that was the biggest motor I could bolt in there without changing engine mounts, and went from a SOHC 92HP, to DOHC 130HP, also converting from essentially single point manifold injection, to multi-point fuel injection in each cylinder. That is my fall project...get that sucker running again.

Great weekend here on the Chesapeake. This was on the way home from St. Michaels back to Solomons at 14.5 kts with at least 1 to 1.5 knots of current against us. The ride north we had the current with us, and were doing almost 17.

Sorry to all the Atomic 4 faithful. I am enjoying the powerboat, but I do remain a sailor at heart.