Electric outboards for tender

Just out of interest, when I first got the Torqeedo is was a pain to use. It wouldn’t run right, and I couldn’t lift it out of the water when beaching. But after I raised the transom heigh it’s been a perfect bit of kit
 
Bouba said:
Just out of interest, when I first got the Torqeedo is was a pain to use. It wouldn’t run right, and I couldn’t lift it out of the water when beaching. But after I raised the transom heigh it’s been a perfect bit of kit
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Did you inadvertently buy a long shaft?

For my tender the short shaft would do because it is approx. the same length as the petrol motor it will replace.
 
Poignard said:
Did you inadvertently buy a long shaft?

For my tender the short shaft would do because it is approx. the same length as the petrol motor it will replace.
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No, my boat just had a low transom for the Torqeedo. All engines seem to have some variation in transom height. The transom heights are available on the Torqeedo website
 
paul salliss said:
So having swore blind that I was done with dinghy's and outboards I found myself missing one this weeken ( thank you James taxi service for getting us to shore) So here we go again.

Has anyone got a lecy outboard as they seem very appealing. If I was buying petrol I would be obsessed with the weight so would just buy a 2.5hp as can't stand humping some massive lump around, only going to buy a 2.5 M approx tender so assume a max 3HP will be fine. Any advice would be welcome.
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Yes we had one until we sold our last boat. The basic torqueedo 503. (It may have been the 1003 long time ago.)We had it for about 4 years and is the best outboard we have ever had. Our next boat will have one as well. We never got it below 30% and it charged up overnight. You play the speed game and it tells you how much time and mileage you have left in the battery. We would putter around just over the i knot mark which is the speed of a leisurely row with out the sweat.
We should have had the short shaft for dinghy. We had the long, my mistake.

Cons It is expensive to buy initially.

Pros No petrol on board (saves room)
No oil mix or remembering if you have or have not mixed it
More than enough battery to cover the normal daily use. plus exploration.
Can take a complete submerge with no problems if rear end of dinghy deflates while you are imbibing at the Rotten Sailor. The 503 will do your average needs.
 
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pavlosimou said:
F. does anyone else make a half decent electric outboard with integral battery other than Torqeedo? I know they are good but man are they pricey.
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Here is another make and they have since suffered with some of the fittings being a bit weak. (Minor problems i think)
I will go torqueedo again.
 
Poignard said:
Thanks. I intend to buy a Torqueedo but I was wondering if the cheaper model 503 would do for my 2.3m inflatable tender (not a rib).
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Yes it would be fine and if you use sensibly will go for hours. About the 1 to 2 knot range. I think we had the 503 but am wondering if it was not the 1003 as it was a few years ago.
 
It would be great fun to try the 20Hp equivalent Torqeedo and battery(s) on a 3.1-3.4m Tender..... anyone done this?

Expensive package though, what with buying the motor, batteries AND charger but then again, we do get free Electrickery in Sant Carles, so could offset the cost of petrol I suppose, with payback forever and a day I suspect, if you crunched the numbers...! Lot of energy stored in a litre of petrol.
 
John100156 said:
It would be great fun to try the 20Hp equivalent Torqeedo and battery(s) on a 3.1-3.4m Tender..... anyone done this?

Expensive package though, what with buying the motor, batteries AND charger but then again, we do get free Electrickery in Sant Carles, so could offset the cost of petrol I suppose, with payback forever and a day I suspect, if you crunched the numbers...! Lot of energy stored in a litre of petrol.
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That’s the other problem, the way Torqeedo works out ‘equivalent’ to a given horsepower. They use some sort of mathematical fudge that gives them better numbers.
 
Bouba said:
That’s the other problem, the way Torqeedo works out ‘equivalent’ to a given horsepower. They use some sort of mathematical fudge that gives them better numbers.
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Like IPS power massaged by Volvo Penta .
Funny how turning the props the other way ie outdrives did not get the “ fudge “ :)
 
IIRC (and it was MANY years ago) it was ~746W to one Hp, so I suppose that 20Hp would equate to 14,920W or 14.92kW

Soooo many factors and losses to consider, what I like though is controllability, so simple to adjust speed, it will all end up that way anyway of course in time, huge resources being invested in Battery Test Labs at the moment...!
 
At the end of the day energy is energy, if its expended in higher torque it will get exhausted sooner so as has been said, comparisons can be fudged. Burning fuel has its own losses, as does electrical power, all depends on efficiencies but we are in essence comparing chemical energy stored in a battery with that stored in say petrol as a fuel...

I want to see battery, fuel cell, etc technology develop and hopefully we will not have too long to wait, now, what was that energy source used in Back-To-The Future.....
 
One thing you do notice here, at an anchorage is just how many Torqeedo tenders there are. For midsize boats, where normally there will be a small outboard, they are changing to electric. Obviously, large boats can have large tenders and they are still petrol.
 
Just used our Torqeedo 1103 for the first time up the River Dart. Observations: Very light to manipulate around once broken into its three sections. The shaft is still awkward to get onto the dinghy and vice versa but I guess there is no getting away from this (same as on a petrol engine although Torqedo is a lot lighter at 10.3 kgs). Battery life very dependent on speed ranging from 50 minutes to 6 hours but the display allows you to regulate/manage this very easily. At the 6 hour hour endurance, we still managed 2.7 kts which on a ship to shore excursion of only a few hundred metres is fine. Razzing around (?) at a heady 5.5 kts also worked fine as we were able to recharge overnight. Point being that with a little aforethought, you can manage speed and range according to where you are etc. You could always get away with a smaller (cheaper) battery if flexibility in charging Vs. usage is not an issue. Odd to hear the water chuckling under the dinghy rather than this being drowned out by the sound of the petrol engine. My wife thought the engine had packed up it was so quiet. The new transmission on latest 1103 largely does away with any discernible noise . The joy of not having smelly and greasy petrol aboard either in cans or integral tank was great. We have stowed the shaft away in a space that would not have taken a petrol outboard so no outboard hanging on a rail now which is less unsightly and more secure from scrote activity.....Certainly they are expensive but all electric propulsion is expensive, so you pays your money and takes your choice. At the end of the day though, IMO this system works and works well as an alternative to petrol.

Finally, I spent some time agonising about whether to go for the 1003 with the bigger battery or the 1103 (which only comes with the bigger battery). At the end of the day, there was not a lot of difference in price between these two very expensive engines . I went for the 1103 simply because the gearbox had been uprated from the 1003 and hopefully that would "future proof" it for a little longer than the 1003. That may not be the case in reality but ever the optimist....
 
stiknstring1 said:
Just used our Torqeedo 1103 for the first time up the River Dart. Observations: Very light to manipulate around once broken into its three sections. The shaft is still awkward to get onto the dinghy and vice versa but I guess there is no getting away from this (same as on a petrol engine although Torqedo is a lot lighter at 10.3 kgs). Battery life very dependent on speed ranging from 50 minutes to 6 hours but the display allows you to regulate/manage this very easily. At the 6 hour hour endurance, we still managed 2.7 kts which on a ship to shore excursion of only a few hundred metres is fine. Razzing around (?) at a heady 5.5 kts also worked fine as we were able to recharge overnight. Point being that with a little aforethought, you can manage speed and range according to where you are etc. You could always get away with a smaller (cheaper) battery if flexibility in charging Vs. usage is not an issue. Odd to hear the water chuckling under the dinghy rather than this being drowned out by the sound of the petrol engine. My wife thought the engine had packed up it was so quiet. The new transmission on latest 1103 largely does away with any discernible noise . The joy of not having smelly and greasy petrol aboard either in cans or integral tank was great. We have stowed the shaft away in a space that would not have taken a petrol outboard so no outboard hanging on a rail now which is less unsightly and more secure from scrote activity.....Certainly they are expensive but all electric propulsion is expensive, so you pays your money and takes your choice. At the end of the day though, IMO this system works and works well as an alternative to petrol.

Finally, I spent some time agonising about whether to go for the 1003 with the bigger battery or the 1103 (which only comes with the bigger battery). At the end of the day, there was not a lot of difference in price between these two very expensive engines . I went for the 1103 simply because the gearbox had been uprated from the 1003 and hopefully that would "future proof" it for a little longer than the 1003. That may not be the case in reality but ever the optimist....
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A very convincing argument! Thank you.

I had intended to buy a 1003 with the larger battery but you make a good case for going for the 1103.
 
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