Electric outboard motor

[Petrus1983]

With the sailing season approaching we’ve bought a new lightweight tender for the boat - now here’s the problem, we have a 2.5hp and 4hp petrol outboard, but my dad likes the thought of an electric one. Any pro’s and con’s? The new tender is 2.7m.

[paintman]

Probably fine for a small tender.
Battery charging about the only issue.
Used them for trout fishing on inland waters with no currents/tidal flow where a battery going flat would just mean a row back.

ETA I should mention that the usual small ones will make your petrol outboards look like high performance racing machines.

Edited by paintman on Thursday 25th February 19:08

[Simpo Two]

You'll need to think about how fast you want to go and for how long. The batteries might sink it!

[Roaringopenfire]

I am thinking about a Torqeedo for the same reason. The Aquaholic You Tube channel does a really good test of one.

[Petrus1983]

Roaringopenfire said:

I am thinking about a Torqeedo for the same reason. The Aquaholic You Tube channel does a really good test of one.

Thanks for this. We’ve decided to go for the Torqeedo - it will be on the little tender down in Weymouth if you wanted to try one out (when we’re allowed out).

[Roaringopenfire]

Petrus1983 said:

Roaringopenfire said:

I am thinking about a Torqeedo for the same reason. The Aquaholic You Tube channel does a really good test of one.

Thanks for this. We’ve decided to go for the Torqeedo - it will be on the little tender down in Weymouth if you wanted to try one out (when we’re allowed out).

Excellent! Maybe you could do a post about your experience of it?

[Petrus1983]

Roaringopenfire said:

Excellent! Maybe you could do a post about your experience of it?

Absolutely will do - I’m sceptical tbh - but let’s see!

[Badda]

We’ve got a 1003s torqeedo on 2.7 tender. It’s good for 4knts and a good alternative to rowing but definitely not quick! For me, the pros outweigh the cons, clean, safe, reliable, lightweight. If you can stretch to it, get a more powerful one.

[Petrus1983]

We’ve gone for the 1103c, the specs are meant to be -



But let’s see.

[PushedDover]

I thought the Temo was a rather ingenious little solution:

https://www.temofrance.com/en_GB/

A kinda electric sculling oar.

[Petrus1983]

So I’ve managed to have my first little outing with the Torqueedo! It’s the first time I’ve used an outboard in a long time so comparisons are from dated Mercure 4hp outboards.

The outboard comprises of three separate parts, the prop, the handle and the engine. As such you’re never needing to lug a heavy single unit outboard which can be cumbersome - the heaviest part is the battery which already has somewhere for it to slot into by the time you get to that point.

The tech information is good - I need more time with it but it will liaise with your iPhone app to let you know the range and it will even sort the power % for you to get to an intended location.

Underway it’s quite surreal- it’s as close to silent as I think you could get -

https://youtu.be/9MdEe3jdq6g

And it definitely comes across as a lot cleaner than any other engine I’ve used.

At the end of the day it easily packs away into two bags -



It’s going to take a bit of getting used to but the first impressions are very positive.

Edited by Petrus1983 on Wednesday 24th March 14:32

[paintman]

That goes well!

What sort of range is predicted?

[PushedDover]

Just looking at a pair of those Torqueedo's for our workboat config. a pair of the 50hp ones.

To side alongside a pair of 300hp Caudwell Diesels

[Simpo Two]

Petrus1983 said:

We’ve gone for the 1103c, the specs are meant to be -



But let’s see.

For what size boat though?

[Petrus1983]

PushedDover said:

Just looking at a pair of those Torqueedo's for our workboat config. a pair of the 50hp ones.

To side alongside a pair of 300hp Caudwell Diesels

https://www.mby.com/videos/gear/92361-2

??

[Petrus1983]

Simpo Two said:

Petrus1983 said:

We’ve gone for the 1103c, the specs are meant to be -



But let’s see.

For what size boat though?

Using a 4m lightweight tender. 12% battery was used during a 10 min 90-100%blast around. But in honesty 60% made almost no difference to the speed but would make a big difference to range. I need to switch my thinking as I’m used to 30 knots+ but this is a different game. But for the game it’s playing it’s quite impressive.

[Petrus1983]

paintman said:

That goes well!

What sort of range is predicted?

As above atm - but will fine tune and report back.

[PushedDover]

Petrus1983 said:

PushedDover said:

Just looking at a pair of those Torqueedo's for our workboat config. a pair of the 50hp ones.

To side alongside a pair of 300hp Caudwell Diesels

https://www.mby.com/videos/gear/92361-2

??

No but thanks !

[Petrus1983]

PushedDover said:

No but thanks !

I see that - but actually respect him for giving it a go. Certainly changed my thinking of him.

[Simpo Two]

Petrus1983 said:

Using a 4m lightweight tender. 12% battery was used during a 10 min 90-100%blast around. But in honesty 60% made almost no difference to the speed but would make a big difference to range. I need to switch my thinking as I’m used to 30 knots+ but this is a different game. But for the game it’s playing it’s quite impressive.

When you start dabbling with electricity you realise how good petrol and diesel are!