Electric outboards

[magnetman]

 

It will be AC not DC. 

 

 

A corded electric outboard could be interesting if you don't want to go far. You could keep the wire on one of those reels they put electric fencing wires on. 

 

It would halve the power consumption as you could just pull the dink back to the boat by hand afterwards. 

 

 

[rusty69]

A solar bluetooth winch system could work. 

 

 

Or a system of bungees 

[magnetman]

Someone told me once that they had managed to make a clockwork outboard motor and it wss functioning. 

 

I'm sure it was a windup. 

 

[David Mack]

1 hour ago, magnetman said:

A corded electric outboard could be interesting if you don't want to go far. You could keep the wire on one of those reels they put electric fencing wires on. 

 

It would halve the power consumption as you could just pull the dink back to the boat by hand afterwards. 

 

 

[magnetman]

Looks like Honda and Mercury are entering the electric outboard market. 

 

Mercury calling theirs a 7.5 (750w) a bit cheeky. I would have thought a better branding approach would be to call it a "one" and relate it to horses. 750w is one horsepower. 

 

I think the Mercury thing is going to be expen$ive. 

 

[BilgePump]

38 minutes ago, magnetman said:

Looks like Honda and Mercury are entering the electric outboard market. 

 

Mercury calling theirs a 7.5 (750w) a bit cheeky. I would have thought a better branding approach would be to call it a "one" and relate it to horses. 750w is one horsepower. 

 

I think the Mercury thing is going to be expen$ive. 

 

I've got an old Mariner electric outboard. Rated at 314w, so less than 0.5hp with 48lb thrust. Don't know what age it is as it came with a small sailing boat off a lake where petrol outboards were banned. It can move a half ton boat easily enough, at a sedate pace, if there's no wind to battle. Any wind and all bets are off but you get that problem with little boats and small outboards regardless of power source. Never seen a Mariner branded electric before or since. I imagine one of the smaller Minn Kota ones would be fine for a little dinghy on a canal.

[Bubblebuster]

2 hours ago, magnetman said:

Looks like Honda and Mercury are entering the electric outboard market. 

 

Mercury calling theirs a 7.5 (750w) a bit cheeky. I would have thought a better branding approach would be to call it a "one" and relate it to horses. 750w is one horsepower. 

 

I think the Mercury thing is going to be expen$ive. 

 

That name has always attracted a premium price. Used to have one on my 'back in the day' small fishing boat. Not impressed tbh. Some might not take to those low priced outboards out of China - but I've yet to see any home grown rockets to the moon or otherwise! 😂

 

[magnetman]

You can't go far wrong with a Minn Kota. Just be careful about the noise. There should be very little. Put your ear to the control handle and listen. If there is any uneven grinding noise it could be the brushes. 

 

I do countless hours in my floating electric beer drinking platform on the Thames and the only time I get problems is fishing line in the propeller shaft opening up the lip seal. Water in the motor pod is bad news. 

 

Other than that they are good items and often to be found cheap second hand. 

 

I have six Minn Kota outboards mostly spare motors in case of breakdown on the floating electric beer drinking platform. Maybe slightly excessive. 

 

 

Edited July 28, 2023 by magnetman
typo and removal of terrible slur

[BilgePump]

On 28/07/2023 at 09:13, magnetman said:

Looks like Honda and Mercury are entering the electric outboard market. 

 

Mercury calling theirs a 7.5 (750w) a bit cheeky. I would have thought a better branding approach would be to call it a "one" and relate it to horses. 750w is one horsepower. 

 

I think the Mercury thing is going to be expen$ive. 

 

Just as another follow up to your post, it prompted me to pull the Mariner 48lb Whisper Thrust motor out. On closer look it's got the Mercury Marine sticker on it, Brunswick 1996 Made in USA. So, it seems they did dip a toe in the market as far back as that. Mine is still running okay but coming off the sailing boat has always been stuck in the dead ahead position on heading so still haven't tried it on the little canal cruiser. Now, I've managed to free it off and get it nicely moving so cheers to the OP for starting this thread. It set me off doing a job I've been meaning to do for a couple of years!

[magnetman]

Yes Mercury and Mariner were linked in the 90s. I've seen Mercury trolling motors but not Mariner. 

 

48lbs thrust is quite a good level for a 12v motor. 

[BilgePump]

Just now, magnetman said:

Yes Mercury and Mariner were linked in the 90s. I've seen Mercury trolling motors but not Mariner. 

 

48lbs thrust is quite a good level for a 12v motor. 

Yes, they were. Before that some Mariner outoards were actually Yamaha under the hood, 70s early 80s time.

[magnetman]

Yes my Mariner 4hp outboard is a Yamaha. It is from around 1988. 

 

I don't know if Mariner ever actually made anything. It could just be a brand. Mariner outboards these days seem to be Tohatsu units. 

 

 

[BilgePump]

1 minute ago, magnetman said:

Yes my Mariner 4hp outboard is a Yamaha. It is from around 1988. 

 

I don't know if Mariner ever actually made anything. It could just be a brand. Mariner outboards these days seem to be Tohatsu units. 

 

 

I think you're right about it just being a brand. The 5hp Yamaha from c.1980 that I use has an identical Mariner branded twin.

[magnetman]

I wonder if they picked up excess stock from other manufacturers and distributed it under their brand. Lifeboat ribs used to have Mariner outboards which seemed a good advert. 

 

My Yamaha Malta 3hp outboard was never produced as a Mariner but is a similar age. It seems a better unit than the 4hp so perhaps Yamaha didn't have enough of the Maltas to let other people sell them. 

 

These days of course at least for smaller units Tohatsu, Mercury and Mariner are all the same. 

 

Funny old world of outboard motors. 

 

Evinrude 2.5hp 4 stroke is a Suzuki. 

The new H

onda electric looks interesting. Not in production yet but it won't be long and they are looking at using interesting batteries. 

 

 

[BilgePump]

6 minutes ago, magnetman said:

I wonder if they picked up excess stock from other manufacturers and distributed it under their brand. Lifeboat ribs used to have Mariner outboards which seemed a good advert. 

 

My Yamaha Malta 3hp outboard was never produced as a Mariner but is a similar age. It seems a better unit than the 4hp so perhaps Yamaha didn't have enough of the Maltas to let other people sell them. 

 

These days of course at least for smaller units Tohatsu, Mercury and Mariner are all the same. 

 

Funny old world of outboard motors. 

 

Evinrude 2.5hp 4 stroke is a Suzuki. 

Only time I bought a new outboard was twenty years ago and at the time Mercury Mariner were the same as were Johnson Evinrude iirc. I got a Yam back then which didn't have a rebadged equivalent. Have a little Mariner 3.3hp which would have been last of those 2 strokes from 2007, identical in every part except colour and badge to the Mercury.

[magnetman]

Just to confuse things even more some of the bigger Mercury outboards are apparently Yamaha products and Selva also sell outboards which are actually Yamaha. 

 

 

 

 

[Theo]

On 27/07/2023 at 11:42, magnetman said:

Very few ebikes catch fire. Sometimes people fall in from boars and drown. 

If your stupid enough to go riding around on wild pigs then you deserve all you get.  A mention in the Darwin awards.

[Bubblebuster]

Regarding electric v motorised outboards, I wonder how long it will be before all electric outboards have (like strimmers such) clip on/clip off lithium batteries. There are some out there I know but in many cases we are talking about a couple of grand.

This leaves the financially considerate with two options when it comes to weight. The weight of a conventional ontboard compared to that of a much MUCH cheaper 'just the motor' electric outboard, along with a much MUCH cheaper lead acid battery to go with it. 

 A sort of quid pro quo, as it seems to balance out.

[1st ade]

32 minutes ago, Bubblebuster said:

Regarding electric v motorised outboards, I wonder how long it will be before all electric outboards have (like strimmers such) clip on/clip off lithium batteries. There are some out there I know but in many cases we are talking about a couple of grand.

This leaves the financially considerate with two options when it comes to weight. The weight of a conventional ontboard compared to that of a much MUCH cheaper 'just the motor' electric outboard, along with a much MUCH cheaper lead acid battery to go with it. 

 A sort of quid pro quo, as it seems to balance out.

 

Not a terrifically bad idea - if compatible with other manufacturers  / batteries

 

I've got a Bosch (cordless) hammer drill, angle grinder, strimmer and chainsaw. And six (identical) batteries / three chargers. If the strimmer runs short (as I forgot to charge it) I reach for the battery from one of the others...

 

Now if Bosch made outboards... even if I had to set off with a pocket full of spare batteries...

[BilgePump]

22 minutes ago, Bubblebuster said:

Regarding electric v motorised outboards, I wonder how long it will be before all electric outboards have (like strimmers such) clip on/clip off lithium batteries. There are some out there I know but in many cases we are talking about a couple of grand.

This leaves the financially considerate with two options when it comes to weight. The weight of a conventional ontboard compared to that of a much MUCH cheaper 'just the motor' electric outboard, along with a much MUCH cheaper lead acid battery to go with it. 

 A sort of quid pro quo, as it seems to balance out.

 

Cheap leisure batteries work out at around £1 per Ah. Weight wise about 4Ah per kg. Even just a single 80Ah battery and the motor and battery will weigh a lot more than the lightweight tiny petrol outboards. My Mariner 3.3hp two stroke weighs about half the weight of a battery plus electric outboard. A single battery just wouldn't have the range of even the internal tank, and you can carry a small fuel can to top it up. However, cost wise, say 3x80Ah (£240) batteries and 1x small electric outboard (£160 plus) is still much cheaper than a 2 or 3hp new petrol outboard of any quality.

 

Good thing about bog-standard leisure batteries is that they can be used for all sorts of other things at home or on the water. 

[Mad Harold]

Trouble wth electric on canals is the fact that to go any distance you will need a genny as well.Solar will certainly help, but a genny will be necessary.So out of the window go your green credentials.

Modern fuel injected outboards are among the most efficient engines available, most are Euro 4 compliant,and very quiet too.

Charging on the canals will not be available in my lifetime, so It's ICE for me.

[Francis Herne]

Depends what you're trying to do.

 

For many applications that 'return to base' - tenders, small workboats, day/weekend pleasure cruising and trip boats - enough battery life is very feasible.

 

On narrowboats hybrid is much more fuel-efficient even if 100% of the energy comes from a generator; big diesel engines running near tickover (or doing nothing at all in locks) are quite wasteful. Not enough to cover the up-front costs on financial grounds though.

 

I don't know if the same would be applicable to a cruiser with a petrol outboard - probably depends on the mix of usage? If you were based in a marina and made a lot of weekend trips but the occasional long journey the genny wouldn't get used much.

Edited August 6, 2023 by Francis Herne

[Jim Riley]

On 27/07/2023 at 11:42, magnetman said:

Very few ebikes catch fire. Sometimes people fall in from boars and drown. 

Always a pigging pain when that happens. 

My trolling engine is being creative tonight.