When I was a small boy I had a toy speedboat that had an electric motor for propulsion. I had a lot of fun with that boat but never dreamt that 45 years later I would have a full sized boat with an electric outboard on the back. With the increasing cost of fuel many boaters are looking to alternatives to power their boats. Electric outboards are presently but a tiny market of the overall outboard market but they are rapidly gaining acceptance. One of the first group of devotees were recreational fishermen who realized that the use of an electric trolling motor disturbed the fish far less and was generally less intrusive and you also did not have to run your main engine at inefficient trolling speeds. They also appreciated the peace and quiet. Although I am not a fisherman and I was somewhat slower to get my hand on an electric outboard I am now totally converted to this wonderful device. Originally I had a small two stroke outboard on my dinghy. The engine worked well enough, pushed the dinghy along at a fair clip but storing it on board the yacht was a pain. No matter what I seemed to do it dripped oil onto the teak deck staining it, I had to find somewhere to store at least a gallon of gas somewhere and unclamping the motor and transferring it to the mother ship was a nervous adventure.
When I first tried an electric outboard it was revelation, I think the first thing that you notice is the lack of noise, instead of having to shout over the din of the motor quiet conversations is the norm. In fact I think that most small electric outboards make less noise than the oars that I carry for back up. The next thing you notice is the almost instantaneous power. OK we are not talking dragster acceleration speeds here but electric outboards do have a lot of get up and go. This is due in large part to the way that an electric motor works. Even at low RPM's electric motors have a lot of torque. German manufacturer Torqeedo says that there smallest outboard suitable for kayaks produces the equivalent power of 1 hp which is plenty of power for a small kayak but in terms of thrust it is closer to a 2 hp motor. In short an electric outboard is able to turn a larger diameter propeller than a gasoline motor of comparative size would be able to do. Electric outboards are not out to conquer the world just yet and you probably would not one on the back of a speed boat to replace a couple of 125 hp gas engines but they do come into their own for day sailers, dinghies and sensitive environmental areas where gas engines are banned. One concern is running out of battery power and being left dead in the water but in truth that can happen with a conventional motor if you run out of gas. Many of the more sophisticated electric units now have a built in gauge which tells you not just your speed but also how far you can get at the current cruising speed, the slower you go the longer your batteries will last, but it is comforting to know that you will be able to make it back to the slip or launch ramp where you can plug in to recharge.
Lest you think that electrical propulsion needs complicated wiring my own system is a case in point to dispel that myth. I have a small Minn Kota outboard which I use on a 10 foot dinghy. The leads from the outboard connect via a quick connect to a portable battery pack, the type you get in any auto store for jump starting a dead car battery. That's it. I can charge the battery pack by either taking it home or if I am away cruising on the boat I charge it via the mother yacht's main engine on board charging circuit by connecting it up to the batteries with a couple of crocodile clips. For the larger motors which operate off 48 volts things do need to be a little more sophisticated, but not much and certainly no more so than a gasoline or diesel installation with the attendant plumbing, filters, control cables and so forth
One thing that is hard to get over is the higher initial cost of an electric outboard but prices are becoming closer almost annually it seems and as the cost of gasoline continues to rise these engines are becoming more attractive to larger number of boaters. I am a convert now and can't see me going back to heaving the heavy oily covered monster on and off the transom any time soon. The model shown aboave is the smallest Rip Tide model from MinnKota which offers 45 pounds of thrust and sells for $250. This motor is large enough to serve as the main propulsion engine for an 8 or 10 foot dinghy but obviously you will need to factor in a decent sized batery to go with the outboard. One a final note the 'shaft' which goes from the control head to the motor unit is no more than a heavy duty thick plastic pipe with the cables to the lower engine unit inside. For many installations this is too long making the control head unecessarily high and uncomfortable to operate. By carefully separating the pipe from the control head this can be cut down this reducing the overall hight of the engine to be more akin to the overall height of a comparable gasoline outboard.
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