electric drives on a tiki 31 or 30

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Anonymous (not verified)
electric drives on a tiki 31 or 30
has anyone explored the addition of a electric drive with regen ability. was thinking have the motor as low in the hull as possable or have the motor in a box on deck swamp boat style where you lower a 6' prop shaft into the water.
Anonymous (not verified)
Re: electric drives on a tiki 31 or 30
There is an ongoing conversation about this at wharram.ning.com David http://www.boatsmithfl.com
Anonymous (not verified)
Re: electric drives on a tiki 31 or 30
Hi, I have a “Torquedo” electric outboard which we use on a 20' light weight fiberglass monohull. To rid ourselves of that &*#^% Mercury outboard was expensive till the first time we used the electric motor. Did I tell you guys its quite? Did I tell you guys it doesn't take 15-20 minutes to get it started? Yes, its expensive and there is No Reason to own one without a back-up battery. Try pricing a Honda Outboard lately? If you go gas outboard, its well worth getting the electric starter. You guys are worried about lines, etc. in you prop. Well, the Torqued does collect Kelp and ell grass in the prop. Since it is actually mounted on a a aluminum mast extrusion, all we do is loosen up the camp and raise it out of the water and then tilt it. Pretty simple solution. As for real electric motors, there is this crazy Englishman (Oh Really?) by the name of Graham ( I can't remember his last name) who has designed more submarines than anybody else in the world. Oil companies use them. Anyway the last time I was in his shop (1996?) up in the SF bay area, he had some very interesting items. “Deep Flight” one man F-16 looking submarine driven by two electric motors (140 volt????, I can't remember). He had tons of batteries to run the darn thing. BUT, that isn't what is pertinent to this forum. Each motor was a Diesel Truck starter motor which remained water tight no matter how many atmospheres they were subjected too! The motor was cased in a fiberglass torpedo and the motor casing was drilled to allow Non-Conductive Oil to fill all the voids. “ Fluid don't crush-air does. Each motor had a Kort Nozzle and a large carbon fiber propeller trimmed down from a large model airplane prop. Kort Nozzles are very effective up to 4-5 knots (per Tug Boat Data). These motors were mounted on foil shaped extrusions (0030 NACA foils?). As for Diesel Electric, I ran a USCG Cutter that was built in the late 30s; it did 18 knots and could be put in reverse without any problems. Diesel Electric Trains have changed everything since UH, THE 1930s! I only wish GM and Ford could figure this out! Bio-Diesel is easy to make and you can even use Coconut oil in any diesel with Viton fuel hoses. Just start out with a new or very clean fuel tank as bio-diesel really cleans out all the crap and plugs your filters right and left! The ferry line up in San Francisco had to switch over to 25% bio-diesel to solve this problem. New tanks; new viton line; no problems. I haven't switched my diesel motor home over to bio-diesel for this very reason; way too much trouble at this point. Cheers, Douglas