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The now of electric boats...


magpie patrick

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5 minutes ago, magpie patrick said:

If you happen to know of an old car with 30 years/one million miles life in it I'm interested! I normally get about 5 years and 80k miles from mine! 

It was only an example to show the fallacy of saying "certainly" -- but the world record is over 3 million miles in 50 years for a Volvo...

Edited by IanD
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1 minute ago, magpie patrick said:

If you happen to know of an old car with 30 years/one million miles life in it I'm interested! I normally get about 5 years and 80k miles from mine! 

 

It'll be a German one if it exists.

 

I recently scrapped my 17 year old Audi with 220,000 miles on the clock because it needed a new clutch and the parts alone were about twice the value of the car.  Broke my heart to do so, but I figured it had had a good old innings!

 

I had to treat myself to a newer, younger model - this one is nearly run in with 180,000 miles on the clock ...

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4 hours ago, ditchcrawler said:

Yes - tis Ken Burgin's boat. 

 

3 hours ago, peterboat said:

As I have said in other threads the Broads cruiser [bathtub] takes little power to move it and that is 32 x 12 and has a great roof for solar, I am glad the chap has proved that cruising from the sun is practical because its how I have been doing it for a couple of years

Apologies if I've misunderstood you, but I was under the impression your boat had limited range (I don't mean low, i mean not unlimited) - Ken's boat can go dawn til dusk. It need not have a battery at all.  

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2 minutes ago, IanD said:

It was only an example to show the fallacy of saying "certainly" -- but the world record is over 3 million miles for a Volvo...

 

Damn.  I didn't think to check for a record, but that triggers a vague memory.

 

I did look at a V70 before buying this one though.  My old V40 got potted when it suddenly dropped from 30+ mpg to about 18 mpg in the space of a week.

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4 minutes ago, magpie patrick said:

Yes - tis Ken Burgin's boat. 

 

Apologies if I've misunderstood you, but I was under the impression your boat had limited range (I don't mean low, i mean not unlimited) - Ken's boat can go dawn til dusk. It need not have a battery at all.  

Mine will do 10 hours on batteries but if its sunny my solar can make more than I can use, also I am on rivers most of the time which has advantages one way and disadvantage the other!

Now if my broads cruiser had been developed rather than being used as a garage and workshop it would be the perfect boat for solar electric, its light, requires little electric to move it and can survive far better than the tin  baths this forum loves ?. Its also a boat shape so travels through water far better than tin baths. I have plans to start work on it again so maybe I will get it finished and used as a boat 

 

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18 minutes ago, TheBiscuits said:

 

It'll be a German one if it exists.

 

I recently scrapped my 17 year old Audi with 220,000 miles on the clock because it needed a new clutch and the parts alone were about twice the value of the car.  Broke my heart to do so, but I figured it had had a good old innings!

 

I had to treat myself to a newer, younger model - this one is nearly run in with 180,000 miles on the clock ...

The reality is some Tesla's have clocked up a million kms in 8 years and an American has done 400k imiles n 3 years sort of shows you why the future is electric 

Edited by peterboat
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5 hours ago, Oddjob said:

Best reason for a steel boat is at end of life it can be recycled but what do you do with tons of GRP? Same as aircraft the 787 fuselage is carbon fibre what do you do with at end of life carbon fibre coke tins lol.it 

As to electric what harm is done making shed loads of batteries which have a limited life span. The thing to look at is the carbon foot print over the items complete life birth, use and death. A few years back a Jeep Wrangler was best for this as its mostly steel little plastic and limited electronics so overall came out top for life time carbon foot print.

 

Yes I read an article on womb to tomb carbon footprint that put the Jeep Wrangler and Land Rover Defender top.

 

It was because of their long life spans. Thus they didn't need loads of heated and air conditioned office space filled with designers designing cars to be replaced every three years.

 

There is a lot more to carbon footprint than manufacturing costs.

Edited by cuthound
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2 hours ago, TheBiscuits said:

 

It'll be a German one if it exists.

 

I recently scrapped my 17 year old Audi with 220,000 miles on the clock because it needed a new clutch and the parts alone were about twice the value of the car.  Broke my heart to do so, but I figured it had had a good old innings!

 

I had to treat myself to a newer, younger model - this one is nearly run in with 180,000 miles on the clock ...

I have a 1988 audi 200 quattro with 728000 miles on the clock, original engine and gearbox, ok there has been a few repairs over its life but it still goes like a scaleded cat... fuel consumption is pretty poor tho ?

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1 hour ago, cuthound said:

 

Yes I read an article on womb to tomb carbon footprint that put the Jeep Wrangler and Land Rover Defender top.

 

It was because of their long life spans.

Bought my Defender with not many miles on it 22 years ago - it was 18 months old then and I bought it to drive it until it fell apart. It's well over 200,000 on it now, still starts on the button, no smoke and has cost me peanuts in spare parts. When something does go wrong you can generally fix the existing part, rather than just swap it out for a new part, so it's not just the vehicle longevity. Admittedly you have to put up with noise, leaks, draughts etc, but then there aren't many cars that still make me grin when I drive them.

I reckon it's got at least another 20 or 30 years in it (assuming I can still buy diesel).

 

I've also got a 62 year old Land Rover still going strong, so that must be *really* green !

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6 hours ago, IanD said:

mining all that lithium

So where does the lithium and other constituent elements come from?

 

4 hours ago, magpie patrick said:

If you happen to know of an old car with 30 years/one million miles life in it I'm interested! I normally get about 5 years and 80k miles from mine! 

The one before last blew up its turbo at 130k miles (Mk2 Focus). I've had the current one (Focus again) for nearly 7 years and just over 100k miles, in that time the tailpipe CO2 emissions are 24.4 tonnes. 

MOT next week. 

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40 minutes ago, Goliath said:

All this bla bla bla bla bla bla a bla bla bla bla de bla bla bla about Electric boats bla bla 

I’ll get a donkey. 
Eyore Eyore Eyore. 

 

 

???

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1 hour ago, Goliath said:

All this bla bla bla bla bla bla a bla bla bla bla de bla bla bla about Electric boats bla bla 

I’ll get a donkey. 
Eyore Eyore Eyore. 

 

 

If it's anything like the brexit thread, and the switchover dates are to be believed,  we've only got another 30 odd years of people speculating about it.

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5 hours ago, Richard Carter said:

This is the Then of electric, I suppose ...

 

1802942759_SolarSolo1977small.jpg.431cf9e65848208d4fb270e5ba657147.jpg

 

Apologies for the image quality, I only have a 1970s photocopy.

 

 

Straight from VIZ?

30 minutes ago, Rumsky said:

If it's anything like the brexit thread, and the switchover dates are to be believed,  we've only got another 30 odd years of people speculating about it.

?

Edited by Goliath
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To go back to the start...

 

Ken Burgin is a friend of mine, gained through my involvement with The Cotswold Canals. Ken has something of a reputation for getting stuff done. Possibly because our conversation was verbal, not online, his boat was a lightbulb moment for me - a kind of "you mean you never have to plug in...?!" moment. There wasn't endless theory, just "I've gone electric and this summer we went on the K&A and the Oxford"... 

 

I realise that both Ken's style of boating and my own don't really fit the overall modus operandi of most boaters, we are very happy with basic boats - it floats, it has a bed and we can make a cuppa first thing, the moment you start adding big domestics even on a Caracruiser you'll probably need to plug in. But, with the ever lengthening threads elsewhere, what Ken has done is make an electric boat that I could go cruising on tomorrow - it suits most of the waters I'd like to cruise and can be trailed round those not suitable for it. 

 

In short, it's captured my imagination, and if in ten years time you find I'm cruising my own solar powered cruiser round the canals of France then that moment started here.  

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1 hour ago, magpie patrick said:

To go back to the start...

 

Ken Burgin is a friend of mine, gained through my involvement with The Cotswold Canals. Ken has something of a reputation for getting stuff done. Possibly because our conversation was verbal, not online, his boat was a lightbulb moment for me - a kind of "you mean you never have to plug in...?!" moment. There wasn't endless theory, just "I've gone electric and this summer we went on the K&A and the Oxford"... 

 

I realise that both Ken's style of boating and my own don't really fit the overall modus operandi of most boaters, we are very happy with basic boats - it floats, it has a bed and we can make a cuppa first thing, the moment you start adding big domestics even on a Caracruiser you'll probably need to plug in. But, with the ever lengthening threads elsewhere, what Ken has done is make an electric boat that I could go cruising on tomorrow - it suits most of the waters I'd like to cruise and can be trailed round those not suitable for it. 

 

In short, it's captured my imagination, and if in ten years time you find I'm cruising my own solar powered cruiser round the canals of France then that moment started here.  

Plenty of others have done what Ken does so it is practical, my own electric truck is the same but it does have LifePo4 batteries, it does however charge from the sun and gets used most days with no emissions

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12 hours ago, Richard Carter said:

This is the Then of electric, I suppose ...

 

1802942759_SolarSolo1977small.jpg.431cf9e65848208d4fb270e5ba657147.jpg

 

Apologies for the image quality, I only have a 1970s photocopy.

 

 

I wonder why they think Rugby is on the Grand Union. 

 

Anyway fast forward 43 years not much has changed. 

 

This is my solar electric canoe and yes it does run off the sun and do 2.5mph :)

 

 

IMG_20201023_090102.jpg.106c19698cf7ecb4aefee08800aad2d1.jpg

 

It's a 17ft long GRP former training rowing boat. £25 on eBay was a bit of a steal I have to admit !! 

 

Next plan is to put a second 80w panel over where my legs are with a gas strut so it can be opened up to get it and out and when closed it will protect ankles from sunburn. Also a handy picnic / beer table.

160w on there should improve the range to run all day on one 20ah LFP battery. At least that is the general plan. 

 

It's just a single hull vessel so takes very little power to push it. I put a 28lb thrust minn Kota pod on it with a 8x6 RC aircraft propeller. 

 

 

 

Edited by magnetman
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An article in the latest Towpath Talk reports on an initiative by Barrus in conjunction with land based technology providers. It seems to me that this is close to the technology trajectory I have been speaking about (regardless of the specific technology). That is to say, canal boat solutions will derive from those that evolve for much larger markets and are the adapted by specialists for ours.

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1 hour ago, magnetman said:

I wonder why they think Rugby is on the Grand Union. 

It was the Daventry Express, bless 'em. It must have been exciting enough to be reporting on something in the neighbouring county ...

1 hour ago, magnetman said:

 

Anyway fast forward 43 years not much has changed. 

 

This is my solar electric canoe and yes it does run off the sun and do 2.5mph :)

 

 

IMG_20201023_090102.jpg.106c19698cf7ecb4aefee08800aad2d1.jpg

 

It's a 17ft long GRP former training rowing boat. £25 on eBay was a bit of a steal I have to admit !! 

Twice the length of boat is progress, surely? Mr Alan Freeman of Percival Road would have been happy to see it

 

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2 hours ago, Mike Todd said:

An article in the latest Towpath Talk reports on an initiative by Barrus in conjunction with land based technology providers. It seems to me that this is close to the technology trajectory I have been speaking about (regardless of the specific technology). That is to say, canal boat solutions will derive from those that evolve for much larger markets and are the adapted by specialists for ours.

Yes Barrus. 

 

They have already badged some Chinese electric outboards recently. I've seen a few on the Thames including some electric hire vessels at Cliveden near Maidenhead. 

 

Interesting to see, it's a lot nicer than using petrol. 

 

These units. 

electric-outboards-2.png

 

Which I suspect is a Goldenmotor unit

 

EZ-outboard-S06-electric-outboard-with-r

 

 

Interesting to see how much Barrus charge for their sticker. 

 

On the Goldenmotor website thy are $1460 but probably add a bit for tax and delivery. Maybe $2000? 

 

I guess they will be doing a drop in replacement for diesel soon. 

 

 

Edited by magnetman
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23 minutes ago, Jen-in-Wellies said:

I always understood with outboards of any type that it was very important not to drop them in.

Jen

I was referring to inboards. 

 

Outboards arrr usually designed as a drop-out solution. 

 

 

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