Bought a Never splashed Colvic Countess 33 on eBay, Looking for infos
- Thread starter GregOddity
- Start date
solent clown
RIP
we looked in to electric power, first in a mickey mouse way, then properly. Our final plan was a battery bank, a 48v motor, and a donkey engine as a charge unit. What stopped us was cost. The technology is out there, you can even buy kits off the shelf, but it is expensive, and might be marginal on a 33footer.
We have built our charge unit properly now, with two 65amp alternators on a single cylinder diesel engine. It is a useful thing at the boatyard for 240v while we are building a workshop. Alongside the engine powered paddle boat we are building, we are going to make a small electric launch as and when the right motor comes up cheap. Not for seafaring, but pootling up and down the river. There is nothing wrong with giving things a go, having daft ideas and seeing them through to success or magnificent failure. For some of us it is simply what we do.
Having said that I have several workshops, one located next to the water, walking distance from our house, so it is easy for us to potter inbetween tides on project boats then go sailing too.
I think if we just had a project boat, and nothing in the water though, I would get jaded about a huge undertaking quite quickly. Get an ickle dinghy or small yacht to get you on the water, to keep hungry to finish the big one, and go from there.
We have built our charge unit properly now, with two 65amp alternators on a single cylinder diesel engine. It is a useful thing at the boatyard for 240v while we are building a workshop. Alongside the engine powered paddle boat we are building, we are going to make a small electric launch as and when the right motor comes up cheap. Not for seafaring, but pootling up and down the river. There is nothing wrong with giving things a go, having daft ideas and seeing them through to success or magnificent failure. For some of us it is simply what we do.
Having said that I have several workshops, one located next to the water, walking distance from our house, so it is easy for us to potter inbetween tides on project boats then go sailing too.
I think if we just had a project boat, and nothing in the water though, I would get jaded about a huge undertaking quite quickly. Get an ickle dinghy or small yacht to get you on the water, to keep hungry to finish the big one, and go from there.
Graham_Wright
Well-known member
Mine is quite tiny, top of the transom just below the deck overlap. I would guess the characters are 5mm high.
KenMcCulloch
New member
Reading this I’m reminded of a guy I knew slightly in the early 1990s. He had a ferrocement boat, around 40’ that he was fitting out in the yard at North Queensferry. Some nice internal joinery and a diesel had been installed when he showed me over it in 1990. If you take the train across the Forth you can still see it, still sitting there. Just along the coast at Dalgety Bay, a careful study of the google earth image will reveal a similar sized Bruce Roberts steel hull in a back garden which has been there for a similar period.
Spend your £20k on a nice second hand boat with reasonable sails and an engine that works. Then go sailing.
Spend your £20k on a nice second hand boat with reasonable sails and an engine that works. Then go sailing.
lpdsn
New member
If Brent had a fibreglass cousin he'd disown him.
GregOddity
Well-known member
That is the most accurate view of Oddity so far. At this stage shes nothing but a dream. A hull bought cheap on eBay. She has great things on her side, Colvic did build strong sea capable hulls, she great potential at the price of a LOT of work.
GregOddity
Well-known member
HEHE I almost spilled my coffe laughing.
GregOddity
Well-known member
Send me the link in a Pm so I can have a look pls.
GregOddity
Well-known member
I suspect that the most difficult aspect of marinising the engine is cooling it, and surely you will still need a heat exchanger and an impeller to do that?
Richard
These days we have satellites in space with cold and heat exchanging problems that have been solved in completely different ways as it is not practical to have serviceable parts in space. Old tech put to new use without moving parts. There are a couple of options relatively cheap with off the shelf parts that can be procured anywhere on the planet and are probably cheaper than the impellers being sold.
The heat exchanger itself can be easily manufactured out of 316 stainless pipes for a relative low cost just taking the place of a radiator should we choose to use a car engine. In fact, there are various companies upgrading high end cars with diesel engine to diesel electric.
The Impeller has never been a good solution the way it is. In MY view IF you want or need to use an impeller it should be electrically driven. That allows for the use of plastics or composites on a magnet that uses the water column as lubrication and spins freely on an axis. Using current you can also add a cycle every 5 or so minutes of function for a sharp blade to turn to mush any pesky crab or algae that found its way to the Impeller casing.
We are indeed toying with the idea of using a diesel as a generator for an electric engine as the main thrust.
Case in point a Bavaria 50 recently lost the engine entering a harbour in Italy with the death of a few crew members. Having an engine fail is perhaps the most common occurrence of life as a sailor. A hybrid will give you at least power to finish a manoeuvre or get out. Electric engines are BY FAR more reliable then any diesel.
My 2 cents .
But it is where we are right now.
We just had an engine malfunction on a brand new dingy and engine and was not fun. ITs like Neptune is telling us to get with the TIMES or go the way of the Dodo.
GregOddity
Well-known member
And there’s a very GOOD reason why they have NOT been successful. DO I want to buy a BETA at a premium price with a generator attached to it? NO
Some engine with a premium price? Pass
LadyInBed
Well-known member
Are you reading your PM's? The email addresses you sent me are bouncing.
GregOddity
Well-known member
There's so many ways that I don’t even know how to start. But the there is such thing as " commonly held wisdom"
And you do make a very good point.
GregOddity
Well-known member
Ill probalbly take you up on your offer !
GregOddity
Well-known member
Working on it as we speak
Tranona
Well-known member
Yes, there is a good reason why they have not been successful. Firstly the law of physics is against them secondly the technologies on the horizon and in development that might produce a viable solution require huge amounts of investment that is simply not justified by the tiny potential market. Maybe some time in the future there will be solutions that are by products of developments for other uses - just like the existing diesels we use for boat engines are by products of the industrial and automotive industry.
Call me a cynic but when I read things like this I firstly wonder how all the tens of thousands of yachts have managed all these years with diesel power and secondly why you think that you can do in your back yard what nobody else has been able to do. Do you really want to trust your life with an untried cobbled up power plant when you could have a tried and tested system with little effort other than installing it properly?
You really need to get out your head this idea of "premium" price. Engines are priced at an economic level to provide an appropriate product for the user and a profit for the manufacturer. It is called a market and markets apply to you just the same as anybody else.
You do NOT have to buy a Beta with a generator. Why would you want a generator when you can drive your propeller direct from the engine? Why do you want to generate large amounts of electric energy in such an inefficient way, which you then have difficulty in storing in any decent amount and then lose more in the efficiency of using it to power your propeller? You have no other significant demand for electricity on the boat and what there is can easily be provided by the alternator or alternative sources such as solar.
GregOddity
Well-known member
You make a valid point, yet, it is a matter of perspective, same glass can be half empty or half full, depending on the perspective. In a shed, Bicycle shop and a postman masters office:
Shed: Apple Computer, Electric Bulb.
Bicycle shop: First Airplane
Post office: Modern Vacuum Train coupling system.
To name but a few.
There are loads of other sheds and even more weird places where amazing feats of engineering have been made.
I do not plan on making any such advance. Simply using available technology to bypass a very inefficient and OLD engine model that costs a fortune and gives nothing but headaches. The principle of internal combustion engines has been obsolete since 1949 but yet here we are, still buying them for a premium price. I got an oldish car that was bought on eBay for £400 and hey still going strong never failed a single time. And that is the way I’m thinking of going, I want the direct power input from an electric engine to the propeller. Cheap and easy to repair (for me) so of course it makes sense. A simple battery bank of 4 AGM batteries that can be used as emergency power in the case of diesel engine failure a CHEAP diesel engine as the generator drive train and an electric motor that can even be a forklift engine. Power enough for a 33 and power on demand INSTANTLY at the flic of a switch.
GregOddity
Well-known member
Sounds about where I am at the moment with my thoughts. I’m just thinking of getting a more efficient diesel engine to drive the alternator / alternators. I’m thinking of going a slightly different way because of the costs as you very well point out. I'm just planning for emergency power of up to 30m and cruise of 2 knots for a couple of hours purely on battery power. I'm designing it to be a direct power drive train from generator to electric motor. So far, I’m at £1.653 without the batteries. ill probably post the costs and schematics after I finish. I have not purchased anything yet, just designing it as we speak.
PaulRainbow
Well-known member
Oh dear.
Tranona
Well-known member
Get's worse does it not?
Its all so simple, then - I just wonder why nobody has come up with such an idea before.
Still, more interesting than anchor threads!
lpdsn
New member
You might want to do a few calculations to back that idea up. Think about how much usuable power you're really going to get out of 4 AGM batteries (not what the salesman says is in there). What sort of motor that will drive and for how long. How much power you'll actually transfer to the water and how fast that will actually drive a heavy 33' boat with an inefficient hull form. Then think about the effect headwind and sea state will have. Then think where you're going to fit the oars.
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