electric sailboat

I'm a sailor. I would imagine the best approach would be a catamaran with solar panels covering the deck between two hulls. I think that could generate enough power for a small electric outboard motor and electronics.

 

How much information do you want? How much time do you have?

I have a small sailboat and it has lights, refrigeration, hot and cold pressure water, diesel fired hot water heat, diesel fired domestic hot water, shower, a gimbaled stove with oven, and a few other luxuries. You don't need a huge boat to get into a lot of systems.

Addressing your questions:

1) There are trailing generators which use the boat's motion to generate electricity. Generally these require too large of a propeller for meaningful amounts of power. They were okay for older cruising boats, where you only needed enough electricity to power the radios and maybe a light or two, but they aren't very practical for today's needs. Some of the new electric propulsion systems can be run in regeneration mode to make electricity. I don't have enough experience with them to tell you if they are practical in this respect.

2) Solar panels and wind turbines are the two leading forms of green electrical generation on cruising boats. Which works better depends on where you sail. In the Great Lakes, solar panels work better since our average wind speed is low. In the Caribbean, wind turbines work well since the trade winds are generally steady. Wind turbines are larger and make noise, while solar panels require a lot of clear open space. Pick your poison.

3) Most sailboat spend the bulk of their time in a marina or on shore. For these boats there is no need for wind turbines or solar panels. Shore power handles most of the need, while a bank of batteries work under way.

4) We don't have solar panels or a wind turbine. I'm not against either, but the cost and space requirements make them not practical for my boat. Our approach is to be very thrifty with power use. We can typically go for over ten days on our house battery. Normally we have to run the engine long before that, so battery charging becomes a transparent part of moving the boat under power. The exception to this is when I do electronics development while at anchor at some remote island. Running computers, development equipment, the stereo and such puts a steady load on the battery. In these situations I may run the diesel strictly for power generation about every fourth day.

Tom

 

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Tom

 

I saw this one in Sydney Harbor last October (http://www.solarsailor.com/technology_FAQ.htm).

 

Most sail boats ... particularly small ones, use all the surface for 'people' ... whether tacking, furling/unfurling, sail packing/unpacking etc. Not very practical to be walking on your panels. But I was just thinking ... the paintable/flexable solar from JA Solar is in production as of this year (2010):

JA Solar and Innovalight team up to commercialize 'silicon ink' solar cells -- Engadget

I duno how they do it ... but the dang stuff is pretty efficient, too.

http://www.jasolar.com/products_services_cells_mono.php

I wonder how hard it'd be to sew these suckers onto the sail ... provided they, and the wirng wasn't too heavy.

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PV panels are sometimes "glassed" into the deck so that they can be walked on. The two main problems with glassed in panels are: 1) You can't easily replace a failed panel, and 2) Heat dissipation. Not being able to shed heat reduces the effective capacity of the panels.

Some sailors mount PV panels up in the air, either on davits or on some sort of pole. This gets around the deck space and cooling problem, but it means you have more top hamper and stuff to get in the way.

Tom

 

This is also nice… It’s “normal†powerboat with electric hybrid technology.



http://www.greenlinehybrid.com/

 

Last year there was some information about a new hybrid/solar power boat that looked interesting. I can't find anything now, so perhaps it never made it past the prototype stage. It featured an easily driven catamaran hull with a large coach roof covering most of the boat. The coach roof was covered with PV panels that were supposed to provide enough power to drive the boat at 5 kts in full sun. Without sun you could run from batteries or a genset. Using the genset you could push the boat up to around 15 kts if you were in a hurry.

Several things about this really appealed to me:

1) For normal cruising you would never need to run the diesel genset.

2) When at anchor, the big PV array is perfect for charging the house battery.

3) When the sun isn't enough, you have a nice diesel genset.

Tom

 

Not my boat.

Tom

 

That link what I did send, is about boat what can go electric 6 knots up to 25 nautical miles. Charging can made from solar panels or from diesel. Top speed with diesel is 15 knots.

I think it is mostly fiberglass boat because it’s so low cost boat in that size.

I agree that sails are much better choice for moving than diesel, I just like more motor boats because they are better in archipelago. We have much more shallow water here than you have.

 

How brave are you?
Forget the sun and wind, how about food powered?

Native Watercraft Ultimate 14.5 Propel - Pedal Hybrid - Canoe / Kayak - Pedal Kayaks - Capacity Sports - Sale, Layby, Rent / Hire, Try Before You Buy

 

Is that one of those styles that propel like a fish/dolphin fin? I've seen those things in use ... they REALLY move along!

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