Fancy sleeping at anchor, with A/C and stabs on, in complete silence?

MapisM

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Now you can. And the vessel ain't too shabby, either... :cool:

The video is also worth watching, btw. The presenter isn't exactly concise, but the system possibilities and its inherent redundancies are mind-boggling...

I know the probability theory pretty well - I used to, at least. In fact, I never bought a lottery ticket in my whole life.
But if those crooks at EuroMillions, instead of shooting a silly video at Port Soller, would have just put their link at the end of this one, I might have clicked on it to purchase one of their tickets...! :rolleyes:
 
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What ever savings you make running it are lost when you have to add to your crew one electrician
 
Wasnt a similar system fitted in the Mochi LR23 a few years back? That sold like hot cakes. Not. To be honest I can see the redundancy advantages of having the option of 2 electric motors driving the shafts if either diesel engine fails but the extra weight of all that hybrid junk has surely got to negate any overall fuel consumption advantage. And in any case, anybody who can afford this boat won't give a damn about fuel consumption anyway. Yup it would be nice to sleep at anchor with the a/c running on battery power but you could achieve the same capability by putting a load of lithium ion batteries in a standard boat. For me, its a bit of green willy waving for an owner who wants to brag to his mates that he's saving the planet by buying 100t of 25kt plastic and metal. If you want to save the planet buy a sailing boat and some solar panels;)
 
Though I share a lot of Deleted User's views overall, the technology is interesting and appealing purely on a technical level. Running one engine in displacement mode while driving both shafts, and no genset for the hotel load, is very nice. And in a very nice boat. Alas MapisM there won't be any quiet nights stabilised, due to the noise of the fin actuators themselves, but if you also gyro-ed the boat then you would achieve that perfection pretty much.
 
if you want silent why not just chuck in fuel cells to charge the battery. Not sure how big they go now but even the hydromax will chuck out about 14A each which will help. Batteries may of course discharge a bit overnight so may not be a decent solution but you can always use the main generator in the morning to top up and just use the fuel cell overnight
 
if you want silent why not just chuck in fuel cells to charge the battery. Not sure how big they go now but even the hydromax will chuck out about 14A each which will help. Batteries may of course discharge a bit overnight so may not be a decent solution but you can always use the main generator in the morning to top up and just use the fuel cell overnight
14A (at 12v) really is didly squat on that boat, or even on a boat half its size. You'd need a line up of them. The fuel cell simply doesn't earn the space it takes up nor the faff of buying the bottles of liquid, imho.
 
Running one engine in displacement mode while driving both shafts, and no genset for the hotel load, is very nice.
That's EXACTLY what impressed me most.
Btw, I'm not sure it's so clear in the EN version of the video, because around 9:45 the EN comment isn't synchronized with what the presenter is pointing at on the screens.
But in a nutshell, at D speed the boat can run on one diesel, which obviously spins its own shaft, in turn spinning also the electric motor connected to its shaft, that works as a generator and provides enough current to run the electric motor on the other shaft, whose diesel engine is turned off.
And obviously, all of this works also the other way round.
Or alternatively, both electric motors can be run through the gensets, leaving both the big diesels turned off.

This is the mind-boggling redundancy I was talking about.
I struggle to think of how many different and independent bits should fail, in order to disable completely the vessel propulsion....
....other than if the whole thing blows out, that is! :D
In fact, the overall system complexity is bound to be pretty high - as well as the cost of the thing.

But at the end of the day, I wouldn't be surprised if it will be SL to eventually introduce a real breakthrough in diesel/electric propulsion also in the pleasure boat market.
Any comparison with things like the Mochi LRC or (heaven forbid!) the spectacular failure of the Nordhavn/Siemens experiment a dozen of years ago is like comparing a Delta Marine expedition trawler with my old tub... :ambivalence:
 
This is the mind-boggling redundancy I was talking about
As I said this is the factor that would attract me the most. To be able to run 9hrs (?) at 10kts on battery power alone without relying on any diesel power generation at all and the ability to drive either prop with any one of 4 different diesel power sources is a massive safety advantage. But as I said the fuel consumption advantage and planet saving ability is just PR nonsense. I could see this kind of technology filtering down to smaller boats possibly involving just one standard generator and a simpler hybrid system with either electric motor or diesel engine driving each shaft rather than having a complex system to couple them together.

But its the Lithium batteries that interest me as much as anything. In the vid the battery boxes looked relatively small. I know Lithium batteries are now coming on to the market (with mixed success) but are we going to get to the stage where we can all replace our existing lead acid batteries with Lithium and have a large increase in capacity to be able to run 220V loads for many hours?
 
In the vid the battery boxes looked relatively small. I know Lithium batteries are now coming on to the market (with mixed success) but are we going to get to the stage where we can all replace our existing lead acid batteries with Lithium and have a large increase in capacity to be able to run 220V loads for many hours?

not yet imo,
beginning of this year we have build a small Outside Broadcast Van with Lithium batt's, (on customer demand)
there is a relatively small weight advantage, (overall), for a big price supplement,
on top of that several small issues came along while using the rather complex system in the field,
we have got a order for another OB Van for the same customer,
this will be build again with traditional Gel battery's !


I share many of the remarks made about this hybrid system in this SL,
I mostly fear the new and complex controll system;
a factory specialist is needed for any small issue...

but I think the business needs these "early" adapters to get new technology and new developements initiated,
so for me: a big "well done " to SL

and I really love that boat !
 
This is the mind-boggling redundancy I was talking about.
I struggle to think of how many different and independent bits should fail, in order to disable completely the vessel propulsion....

The clutch mechanism that dis/engages the engine and motor?

As for green, how green is it to manufacture and dispose of those batteries? And no doubt they will go the same way as all other Li Ion batteries in loosing their capacity over time, so new they last 9 hours, after a while they only run for 4 hours, at what point do you replace them even though they have not totally failed and at what cost?

62L/hr is just amazing though, Id love to have that fuel burn on my 30' !

Ants
 
Columbus /Palumbo -yard in Naples has been started bulding hybrids recently
Here's a link --seems here it can run e motors off the Geny (s) or add them to diesel ,much like a hybrid car for more oomph .http://yacht-premiere.com/columbus-sport-hybrid-40m/

The irony is last year they hybridised a new 187 fter called Taiba ,which s in our marina -the crew have told me its a hybrid like the smaller 40M above linked .
It's owned by a Arab oil shiekh ,well one of the many sons of one .
You can even have more green credentials by insisting all the wood is "sustainable " ,

Like others in the bigger pic view I think hybrids may have a use on say upper Thames or some unpolluted inland Lake .
Not convinced for 187 ftrs ?
 
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a bit confused, not on the tech, fine, eventually will come down to something reasonable for pootling on various mobos.

What puzzles me is the combo of anchor and air-con. Do you really need it?
Even on the 40C summer down here the slight breeze is more than enough for a decent relaxing sleep at anchor.

V.
 
What puzzles me is the combo of anchor and air-con. Do you really need it?
Even on the 40C summer down here the slight breeze is more than enough for a decent relaxing sleep at anchor.
LMAO, you should already know the answer by now, V.
Any Celsius temperature which takes two digits to be measured is scalding hot for the Brits... :cool:
 
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The clutch mechanism that dis/engages the engine and motor?
Not sure, but my guess is that this would only affect the electric motors, and the diesels would still work normally.

As for green, how green is it...
C'mon folks (and I'm talking also to others who raised this point), it's crystal clear to all of us that "green" is a world used just because it's fashionable.
Sooner or later, we'll see someone arguing that they discovered a green chemical weapon of mass destruction...
But it's easy to see that there's a lot of wheat left here, once you are done getting rid of the chaff!
 
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Columbus and Dominator both produce large hybrid boats but, as an ignoramus, I'm not sure whether they are similar to the one described above.
 
and I really love that boat !

Me too. There were a couple of brand new SLs in Porto Mirabello in La Spezia when we visited in August and I think the new SL styling is really classy. Not sure my piggy bank is going to stretch far enough unfortunately:(
 
or you could leave the gennie on and buy these:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/bhp/foam-ear-plugs - I can sell you special boat versions that float as well and are a bright luminous colour if you drop them in the sea at £1000 per ear.

or just buy a big sailing catamatan. two engines, full set of sails, how much redundancy do you need.......
 
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