Jump to content

Electronic pod propulsion


mickvw

Featured Posts

Dunno about that but I seem to remember half a steel joey boat was around in the early'70's with two props, one was on the centreline and driven by diesel (?) and one was a 'wing' mounted prop driven by battery. It was at Lapworth for a while. Don't think I dreamt it. Wing mounted props were not that unusual in sea going boats. Some old Dutch sailing barges had a lethal compromise, Engine on the foredeck mounted transversely, some sort of gearing to turn the drive 90 deg and a damn great shaft with a propeller on the end that you could lower over the side with a bit of bodged ironwork so it didn't chew through the hull. Think it was called a 'lame arm',.Bit like the Asian long tail boats but even more dangerous.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Give it another ten years and narrow boats with electric pod motors in the rudders will be commonplace. 

 

Modern ones, old ones, it's the way to go. 

 

Current manufacturers are all German, Austrian or czech it seems.. 

 

Torqeedo, Aquamot, Krautler, Marvin, Piktronik to name a few. 

 

Wouldn't it be nice if there was a UK company making these things...

 

 

 

Edited by magnetman
  • Greenie 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, ditchcrawler said:

Its been done quite often with hydraulic drive

hydraulic drive - Boat Building & Maintenance - Canal World

 

 

Or a photo taken by Alan on his blog

IMG_5032.JPG

This looks good the electric pod I've seen is £7000 I've been looking at hydraulic if I can find something that will work ,I can power the pump with a car electric motor cost about £1000 + 500 for controller

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 minutes ago, mickvw said:

This looks good the electric pod I've seen is £7000 I've been looking at hydraulic if I can find something that will work ,I can power the pump with a car electric motor cost about £1000 + 500 for controller

Hydraulic drive has low efficiency so unless you have endless supply of power (diesel generator?) I think this might not work very well. 

Just now, mickvw said:

You wouldn't need the 10. The 4kw would do it I reckon. No guarantees though and you would need to do the slowing down well in advance of the stopping...

 

And I wouldn't buy a torqeedo product myself as too much marketing going on.

  • Greenie 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Exactly. That's why I reckon a 4kw would do it. 

 

A while ago I bought an Aquamot 1kw outboard motor. It is a strange looking beast but very well engineered. I am quite keen to see the 4.3kw motor they do at a price of £3k. That could be rather interesting. 48v. 

Edited by magnetman
  • Greenie 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 minutes ago, Jen-in-Wellies said:

With steering a butty, not being able to slow down is all part of the experience! Shame most of the strapping posts are now missing.

It would also be useful at bridgholes. Just put a PA on the boat and announce "good afternoon. I am unable to stop the vessel so will be proceeding through the bridge shortly". 

 

Dealt with. 

Edited by magnetman
  • Haha 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

26 minutes ago, magnetman said:

Give it another ten years and narrow boats with electric pod motors in the rudders will be commonplace. 

It makes a lot of sense. The electric motors are compact. You don't have to worry about a leaking stern gland ever. The motor is much less likely to overheat. The butty stern shape is very pleasing. Only problem will be them getting stolen!

  • Greenie 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

27 minutes ago, mickvw said:

This looks good the electric pod I've seen is £7000 I've been looking at hydraulic if I can find something that will work ,I can power the pump with a car electric motor cost about £1000 + 500 for controller

ARS were the main suppliers

Link to comment
Share on other sites

23 minutes ago, magnetman said:

Give it another ten years and narrow boats with electric pod motors in the rudders will be commonplace. 

 

Modern ones, old ones, it's the way to go. 

 

Current manufacturers are all German, Austrian or czech it seems.. 

 

Torqeedo, Aquamot, Krautler, Marvin, Piktronik to name a few. 

 

Wouldn't it be nice if there was a UK company making these things...

 

 

 

Hopefully price will come down would be happy paying £3/4000 for motor and controller. Second hand car motor with inverter £1000 + controller £500 second hand tested car batteries £1000 each, would need 3 or 4 and need charger, solar panels cost and generator ?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

27 minutes ago, magnetman said:

Hydraulic drive has low efficiency so unless you have endless supply of power (diesel generator?) I think this might not work very well. 

 

How do you think it compares with a gearbox, prop shaft with Hardy Spicers and stuffing box with the thrust then hitting the rudder.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

17 minutes ago, Dav and Pen said:

This is an unusual arrangement fitted to a wooden peniche called Aster. No reason it couldn’t be electrically powered.

3A7CADDC-587E-4C0A-9DA7-EF21236796B4.jpeg

I like this I could then use a car electric motor would then be cheap if I can find a engineer to do something similar ?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

28 minutes ago, ditchcrawler said:

How do you think it compares with a gearbox, prop shaft with Hardy Spicers and stuffing box with the thrust then hitting the rudder.

Hydraulic drive seems to be okay for diesel prime movers but I somehow doubt it would be efficient for an electric, presumably battery based, prime mover. 

 

I bought my Aquamot outboard from ARS formerly called BSP Hydraulics . They also quoted me for an Aquamot 4.3 pod motor. 

 

 

Must say I do sometimes look at the little 3.9kg gas bottles and think to myself "cut it in half and put a big, low kV brushless motor in it, sort out a thrust bearing ball, seal the output shaft, add a vertical tube for the wiring then weld it up.

 

Job done mount it into the rudder. 

 

 

Something like this for the motor maybe 

 

 

https://alienpowersystem.com/shop/brushless-motors/120mm/120100s-sensored-outrunner-brushless-motor-50kv-25000w/

 

It looks like once you get above about 5kw you need to start thinking about water cooling for the pod and the controller.

 

Having said that the Karvin 6800 seems to be ok just with the pod being submerged. I guess it depends on the space between the motor itself and the housing and whether it is an inrunner or an outrunner. Outrunner being more awkward to cool. 

 

And temperature rating of the magnets. 

Edited by magnetman
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.