Little Boating

[magpie patrick]

Ello all,

 

Val and I have been thinking of getting something along these lines

 

3 metre inflatable

 

with an outy of course

 

question is

 

what will it navigate (legally) that we can't get a bigger boat at, a trailable I mean not a 62 foot narrow boat

 

and

 

If we had an electric outboard could we carry enough battery for a day trip?

 

It has to be an inflatable like this because we have no garage or drive to store a rigid on. The plan is it will supplement other boats, although we may go camping as well, as in, camp by a lake and use it.

 

Any other thoughts that would be useful

[carlt]

The battery on my outboard (85Ah) lasts about 4 hours but that is pushing a 12' wooden boat in tidal waters. We turn around after 1.5hrs and have never (yet) had to resort to the seagull that sits alongside.

 

As for where you can go I look on Google Earth and, if I can see another boat, then I count it as fair game.

 

I have been to several campsites, over the past few years and grumbled about how we should have brought a boat.

 

For a list of navigable waters that "don't count" because you can't get a big boat up, Imray's Inland Waterways is a good pointer.

Edited April 22, 2010 by carlt

[Naughty Cal]

Our electric outboard lasts around 4 hours on full tilt but considerably longer on the lower settings. This is on an 85AH battery. Its only pushing along a 6ft plastic dinghy though. We have yet to run out of power for it and we have it rigged up so that Cal charges the battery when running and it provides spare battery capacity for Cal should we not use the dinghy.

[FadeToScarlet]

Presumably you're taking the inflateable in a car to places anyway, in which case surely a second battery to parallel the first and (is it more than double because of Peukert or something) double the capacity wouldn't be impossible to bring? That way, you've got a contingency plan and a much longer range.

[WJM]

"a second battery to parallel the first"

 

Better to keep the second one separate and connect it up when the first one is dead. That way you avoid being the bunny without Duracell, you know when to turn back!

[alan_fincher]

"a second battery to parallel the first"

 

Better to keep the second one separate and connect it up when the first one is dead. That way you avoid being the bunny without Duracell, you know when to turn back!

Would it be overkill to fit a Smartguage to the batter (or battery bank) to act like a kind of fuel gauge ?

[Naughty Cal]

Would it be overkill to fit a Smartguage to the batter (or battery bank) to act like a kind of fuel gauge ?

 

You can get battery boxes which have a battery guage on them. We have one for our dinghy battery, green = fully charged, amber = half dead, red = not very well. Not very accurate, granted, but gives some indication as to state of charge.