Electric outboards what is your opinion

[Seastoke]

So we went to boat life yesterday and spoke to some sales guys . Now they all talk about thrust in stead of hp I would of thought they would use KW as we know .746 kw is a 1 hp so what do you think . So we have a 2.3 air deck 2 people and dog we are using a Tohatsu 3.5 at the moment which is fine , it’s just to get ashore when on anchor.

 

[Greg2]

We have an e propulsion electric outboard that we inherited with the tender to our day sailer. We also have a 3.3hp Mercury. I have been very impressed with the electric outboard - it pushes our tender along just as well as the Mercury and has plenty of range for day to day use.

 

[Portofino]

Been using a Minnikota( marine version ) for over a decade.You can choose the bat a cheapo lead acid 45-55 Ah from a discount store €45 .
Thrust is either 45 lb or iirc a 55 lb …….just go to the website for todays versions .But now you have a ball park number thats satisfactory to work on
They last years btw zero maintenance.
No real tides as such to battle with in the Med so it does exactly what you require for us .In heavy fast tidal streams you probably still need a petrol .
Tender has a hard V bottom .Capelli 2.2 M

 

[Tranona]

Thrust is much more important than hp of the motor. It is the propeller that moves the boat not the engine. You will see that electric outboards have smaller slower turning propellers which are better for low displacement speeds such as with a dinghy. Your Tohatsu has a small high speed propeller, necessary because the petrol engine does not produce any power at low revs so is unable to absorb all the power the engine can produce and gives less thrust.

Learned all this over 40 years ago when trying to persuade regulators to adopt thrust as a comparative measure of power. Not surprising most outboard makers did not support this.

A Torqeedo or Epropulsion will suit your needs.

 

[SC35]

My Mercury 5hp two-stroke will get a Zodiac 270 planing, and up to about 10 knots.
I still haven't found a portable electric outboard that will do this: everything electric I looked at operates only in trundle mode or has some sort of huge battery.

 

[nfluester]

I dabbled with a couple of trolling motors / electric outboard a 32lb small Shakespeare and a 55lb bison and from a performance point of view they both pushed along a 2.7m waveine airdeck very well. you certainly wont get I on the plane but the 55lb would certainly push it along quite nicely.

I tried both Lead acid car batteries and even build my own home made lithium battery pack which had much better performance, the 32lb Shakespeare used to take about 30Amps flat out so could run for around 2 hours flat out on a 110ah lead acid leisure battery taking it down to about 50% the 55lb was a lot more hungry and would be about 50 amps so only an hours run time flat out.

from an efficiency point of view if you are looking at the cheaper trolling style motors rather than the all in one e-propulsion / torquedo packages then I would recommend going with a 24V as you get get more watts (HP) for less amps (more run time)

The biggest problem for me was not the performance / speed of the motor but charging the batteries! unless you are plugged in on shore power it's going to obviously have to come out of your house bank so then the question is do you have spare capacity in your domestic bank in your day to day usage to recharge when out at anchor for a period and or do u have a generator, solar or do you have to run your engine to recharge.

in the end I sold the motors and lithium batteries and bought a 2nd hand 4hp 2 stroke Yamaha as its easier to pour petrol in it when the tank is empty than waiting for a battery to recharge

 

[Bouba]

There are many advantages to electric outboards....small, light, can be broken down into small easily handled pieces...can store them anywhere even the bedroom, most are waterproof...the epropulsion battery actually floats, if you are only a day boater the battery is easily taken home to charge...no storage of petrol...no mixing of two stroke oil...quiet, smooth...easy starting (probably the best point of all).
The bad points are...expensive..if it breakdown it can be extremely expensive or possibly a write off and difficult to find repair people and usually takes a long time, and can often cost a hundred just to ship it to a repair center (then another for the return leg)...slow to charge...needs a reliable charging system, solar, generator, shore power, home...if you want to do water sports with your tender then you need a eye wateringly expensive electric outboard.
I have had a electric outboard for years...and don’t regret it...and would probably replace it with another electric outboard when the time comes

 

[Bigplumbs]

I tried then not very impressed. Might as well row the boat. People seem to have forgotten about that

 

[doug748]

...The biggest problem for me was not the performance / speed of the motor but charging the batteries! unless you are plugged in on shore power it's going to obviously have to come out of your house bank so then the question is do you have spare capacity in your domestic bank in your day to day usage to recharge when out at anchor for a period and or do u have a generator, solar or do you have to run your engine to recharge......

Must agree, for smaller boats it looks a poor solution you either run the engine, buy a generator, burden the boat with solar panels or even build a rear arch. None of it very appealing.

 

[Tranona]

My Mercury 5hp two-stroke will get a Zodiac 270 planing, and up to about 10 knots.
I still haven't found a portable electric outboard that will do this: everything electric I looked at operates only in trundle mode or has some sort of huge battery.

That is because they are designed to do that - push heavy loads at displacement speeds.. There are electric motors that can provide similar performance to your 5hp but they are heavy and expensive, not least because they are twice as powerful as those designed for displacement speed and consume electricity at twice the rate so need large battery capacity. Less of a problem if used for a heavy displacement boat like a small yacht where they start to become viable as an alternative to petrol ot diesel.

 

[Chiara’s slave]

I tried then not very impressed. Might as well row the boat. People seem to have forgotten about that

I challenge you to a race then. Unless you’re going to row a skiff, you’ll be toast.

 

[Bouba]

I’d like to put a virtual bet on Chiara.. but I want odds of two to one

 

[Chiara’s slave]

I’d like to put a virtual bet on Chiara.. but I want odds of two to one

On my own, our tender just gets on the plane, flat out. I wonder if his plums are big enough for that.

 

[Bigplumbs]

I challenge you to a race then. Unless you’re going to row a skiff, you’ll be toast.

Why do you need to be in a hurry and not having to lug the engine and battery about is a bonus

 

[Bouba]

I think I row my tender more than I use the electric outboard...in the summer most of the beaches ban propellers so we row ashore

 

[paradave]

I can vouch for torqeedo OBs and have just sold mine to a mate as we no longer need it. Just make sure you get one of the bigger capacity batteries for increased range.

As for rowing, having an OB doesn’t prevent you from still rowing just allows more freedom and fun but then we all know that.

 

[Chiara’s slave]

Why do you need to be in a hurry and not having to lug the engine and battery about is a bonus

I’m not. I won’t go over half power, but the race is from our slipway to our mooring. That’s just over a mile. Then, to finish off, you can put the mainsail up for me. Your arms will be jelly.