Electric dinghy outboard recommendations.

Bought an e-light at the end of last season as fed up with the little suzuki stopping halfway to the beach and the weight of lifting it on and off.
Most of our use is <200m to and from the beach and sometimes ~600m from the pontoon in Dale to the pub.
While it does not rocket along, it does the long run for about 10% charge each way and quite happy in a bit of a chop.
This is in a 2.5m airdeck inflatable with 2x adults.
Very light and easy to handle.
Overall very happy with it.
 
Egret said:
Any issues with getting insurance with/for one of the main types of electric outboard for dinghy with integral battery - how much extra roughly?
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I don't recall any price change when I updated them from the 2.5HP 4 stroke BUT its possibly not actually covered against theft - because the elite doesn't lock to the boat with a "custom made security device". Given where I sail, how often it is left unattended and the basic security I do have on it - this doesn't worry me. If I was leaving it in busier areas I'd make some enquiries how they would like it secured.
 
Egret said:
Can anyone work out whether connecting a 2ft x 1ft solar panel would be a viable option for charging during day between journeys.

Edit - forum responses have been incredibly useful in thinking about whether to buy a e-Lite or a longer pair of oars.
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Victron do a 20w panel at about that size (see Bimble Solar), so real world output will be a bit less than that, depending on conditions.
Assuming it sees 8hrs of sun at about 75% output (possibly optimistic!) you'd get 120 W/hr, which is about 30% the capacity of an E-lite, and a mile and a half of range if used at half power.

It could certainly be viable over the summer if you're not using the motor every day, or are just doing very short runs. But obviously a bigger solar panel would make it much more practical.
 
The ePropulsion eLite is great for most but not all dinghy/tender use. At 500W it's half the power of the better-known (because they've been around longer) ePropulsion Spirit PLUS (and Torqeedo 903, 1003 and 1103 models), but the reality is most people only use those larger motors at half power or less... because at non-planing speeds inflatable dinghies are more limited by hydrodynamics/hull speed than power.

If 500W gets you to 4 knots in your "typical" 2.5m inflatable, 1000W probably won't quite get you up to 5 knots but will drain your battery twice as fast (so range is a lot less).

Potential customers always seem to worry about the weight of additional crew etc but again - at displacement speeds - it doesn't make that much difference. What makes far more difference is the hull shape; traditional hard dinghies are much more easily-driven than the typical flubber. But most people have flubbers and an eLite will still drive one of those along just fine, just not as far as if they had a hard dinghy.

Electric motors give all their torque very low down so comparing the power output with a petrol one is very difficult. So whilst a 500W electric is technically "only" about 0.75hp (less actually), it's still plenty for most small dinghies, hence the regrettable but now seemingly well-established marketing "500W is equivalent to 1.5hp" and "1000W is equivalent to 3hp". The high torque at low revs is ideally suited to pushing you along at displacement speeds and at displacement speeds those comparisons are actually quite reasonable. The lack of "whizzy top end high rev power" means it won't get you on the plane or anywhere near it and then the official conversion factor (1kW = 1.34hp) is more like it, I might even say less.

Note that unless misquoted the manufacturers do usually say equivalent, not equal.

Anyway to answer another question why would you still buy one of the bigger motors instead of an eLite, for a small inflatable dinghy? As somebody else posted, range. They come with higher capacity batteries, so - if you use them at the same power as you would a smaller motor - you can go further.

And "further" does not have to mean longer distance journeys in the dinghy, it might also mean more days of use for your tender before you need to recharge it. With an eLite you might need to charge it every couple of days, with a Spirit being used for the same distance journeys you'd get nearly a week. The battery capacities are 378Wh (eLite) vs 1276Wh (Spirit) so over 3 times as much. If your onboard charging capacity is limited and you don't go into a marina every night that can be important.

But the overwhelming advantage of an eLite for most purchasers is its weight (6.5kg including the battery, in the shaft) and size. It's far smaller and lighter than anything petrol, and nothing leaks out of it so you can store it in the cabin (security etc).

Ian, Nestaway Boats
As always, and in the interests of clarity, I will point out I do actually use and sell these things, so you probably shouldn't listen to me :)
 
Having experimented - can now confirm on a Tepco 10ft - 250W is OK - but don't take my word for it - borrow one and experiment.

The e-LIte Long shaft is going to open it up for for solid dinghies like the 10ft where they have higher transoms

Agree on the battery life question, but having thought, an e-lite will do what we want to do for the dinghy.
 
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I also have an elite and am impressed. I've used it my 8' grp dinghy with 3 people and a friends 10' dinghy with 3 people and gear. Very light, my wife easily carries it just turn the handle and it goes forwards and reverse. And very quiet, you can talk without shouting. Even at 250w it easily goes to and from our boat with plenty of power left over. Excellent outboard.
 
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