Westerly Centaur electric backup outboard

[oldmanofthehills]

Except that petrol stored in a can goes off in a few months. If the o/b is just a back up it seems likely that by the time its needed the stored petrol will be forgotten about, left deep in a locker, and will have lost its oomph leading to startung issues right when you need the motor most.

Replacing stored petrol will be another scheduled maintenance chore to overlook.

I store my 2 stroke in various cans for years at a time. The only issue I had was condensation. The Suzuki seemed to mind, the Yamaha always starts first time , whatever

Lithium as in my van and boat starter packs goes flat within a few months if not trickle charged. Worse than lead acid

 

[coveman]

How about a can of that special stuff, forget the name. It’s ethanol that makes petrol go off.

Aspen

 

[oldmanofthehills]

Aspen

At £8 a litre for Aspen I would sooner just change any vulnerable oil seals and keep my tank refreshed.

 

[dunedin]

At £8 a litre for Aspen I would sooner just change any vulnerable oil seals and keep my tank refreshed.

Except this was suggested for a rarely used backup motor, so may not use more than a couple litres a year.
We buy E5 petrol for the outboard, seems to last well and 3hp outboard so frugal extra cost per annum less than one pint of beer.

 

[Chiara’s slave]

At £8 a litre for Aspen I would sooner just change any vulnerable oil seals and keep my tank refreshed.

If it’s really just backup, a couple of litres unopened in a locker isn’t much of an investment. But sure, otherwise running your outboard on Aspen makes electric outboards look like a bargain.

 

[Mark-1]

Except this was suggested for a rarely used backup motor, so may not use more than a couple litres a year.
We buy E5 petrol for the outboard, seems to last well and 3hp outboard so frugal extra cost per annum less than one pint of beer.

Yeah, E5 is likely to be E3. And before Sept '23 in the South it was highly likely to be zero ethanol. I miss those days.

 

[coveman]

Well, nearer £5 / litre, at my local outboard engineers, but still expensive. I normally run my outboard on E5 two stroke mix and then if leaving the engine for a while run a bit of Aspen through before laying up. Aspen recommend using Aspen4 and adding two stroke oil to it in the normal fashion, for two stroke outboards. Aspen2 ( ready mixed two stroke fuel) is only recommended for chain saws etc that are air cooled.
Hence my 5 litre can will last me a couple of years!

 

[Chiara’s slave]

My outboard only uses the very finest electrons, preferably ripened in the sun.

 

[Mark-1]

My outboard only uses the very finest electrons, preferably ripened in the sun.

To ignite the petrol, maybe.

 

[Marceline]

we looked into doing something similar for our boat as we really don't like petrol, but our 24' boat has a well and we needed to replace the old petrol outboard we currently had.

We already had a 1kw/3(ish)hp Epropulsion which is great for our dinghy to swing moorings, and we did some 'sea trials' using our Epropulsion Spirit in the well and it did move the boat ok, but this was in light winds and at slack (and I think our boat is about half your weight as ours was 1500kilos)

We hoped to get something like this recent model Torqueedo Travel XP L which is about 5hp/1600watts as there was lots to love about it (especially as it had a battery could charge at home)

Torqeedo Travel 903 1103 XP Electric Outboard Motors

but we were still worried if we got caught in bad weather and some of the very strong tides around here in North Wales we might struggle

In the end we decided to get a petrol outboard which we really like as its MUCH more reliable for starting than our old outboard, but - the petrol fumes for the hours we have to motor to get in/out of the long chanel aren't pleasant/can make us feel queezy and the danger of a big petrol tank sat in our cockpit isn't one I really enjoy. But at least the noise/vibration of this new outboard is again far better than our old one

But it's well worth talking to some dealers - can def recommend Nestaway - the owner was always extremely helpful and would mail us back in great detail about the electric motors and their capabilities

We are likely selling our boat at the end of the season (though we may keep it for another year - still figuring it out) - and would have loved to have got an electric propulsion. But we're still novices/inexperienced sailors in many ways, and we decided it was best to err on side of caution rather than risk being caught out and get into difficulties. But I think maybe if we had much more experience with sailing we might well have gone for that Torqueedo. Especially if there had been something similar but with slightly more power (2kw and 6hp would have been ideal) but sadly I think the 1600kw Travel XP is still the most powerful of that kind of electric outboard with a detachable battery - sadly anything more powerful we needed to get a seperate battery and with no marina berth for us we would have struggled to recharge it

 

[Chiara’s slave]

To ignite the petrol, maybe.


View attachment 194969

We don’t ordinarily think of that as our outboard. But yeah, fair cop. The E Propulsion probably couldn’t drag the boat off the pontoon, though it manages the tender very well.

 

[dunedin]

we looked into doing something similar for our boat as we really don't like petrol, but our 24' boat has a well and we needed to replace the old petrol outboard we currently had.

We already had a 1kw/3(ish)hp Epropulsion which is great for our dinghy to swing moorings, and we did some 'sea trials' using our Epropulsion Spirit in the well and it did move the boat ok, but this was in light winds and at slack (and I think our boat is about half your weight as ours was 1500kilos)

We hoped to get something like this recent model Torqueedo Travel XP L which is about 5hp/1600watts as there was lots to love about it (especially as it had a battery could charge at home)

Torqeedo Travel 903 1103 XP Electric Outboard Motors

but we were still worried if we got caught in bad weather and some of the very strong tides around here in North Wales we might struggle

In the end we decided to get a petrol outboard which we really like as its MUCH more reliable for starting than our old outboard, but - the petrol fumes for the hours we have to motor to get in/out of the long chanel aren't pleasant/can make us feel queezy and the danger of a big petrol tank sat in our cockpit isn't one I really enjoy. But at least the noise/vibration of this new outboard is again far better than our old one

But it's well worth talking to some dealers - can def recommend Nestaway - the owner was always extremely helpful and would mail us back in great detail about the electric motors and their capabilities

We are likely selling our boat at the end of the season (though we may keep it for another year - still figuring it out) - and would have loved to have got an electric propulsion. But we're still novices/inexperienced sailors in many ways, and we decided it was best to err on side of caution rather than risk being caught out and get into difficulties. But I think maybe if we had much more experience with sailing we might well have gone for that Torqueedo. Especially if there had been something similar but with slightly more power (2kw and 6hp would have been ideal) but sadly I think the 1600kw Travel XP is still the most powerful of that kind of electric outboard with a detachable battery - sadly anything more powerful we needed to get a seperate battery and with no marina berth for us we would have struggled to recharge it

A word of warning - 1.6kw is in fact about 2.2hp - NOT 5hp. Scientific fact.

Marketeers talk about 1kw being "equivalent to" 3hp, but again 1kW is actually 1.3hp. Pushing a tender at hull speed the low speed torque is great. But when need raw power few will put a tender on the plane. Whereas my ancient 2.5hp mariner would easily solo.

So a 1.6kw electric drive will push nicely at low speeds. But it would not have the same maximum power of a 5hp petrol if needed in extremis - eg trying to get out of an anchorage into wind and waves if the weather changed.

 

[Egret]

Going back to the OP - (#1) I would also be interested if anyone has tried a Torqueedo XP 1660W on a boat the size of a Centaur or similar, being the biggest with a detachable integral battery rather than the separate battery as on the Navy's which are heavy to lift into a dinghy one handed although with more battery life - Just for getting in and out of a marina, not for driving into a strong tide and heavy sea - or maybe it would.