rogerthebodger
Well-known member
The mini dingy my frind is using
Thinking about an electric outboard for the tender
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The mini dingy my frind is using
dgadee
Well-known member
My Mariner 3.3 is 20 years old and while it looks like new I am sure no one would steal it. Theft of e-ouboards sometimes comes up as a worry. Is it in reality?
ylop
Well-known member
Why would nobody nick your 20yr old engine? I’m sure e-outboards are quite nickable given they weight less but I have wondered if they are a bit harder to flog on?
dgadee
Well-known member
I'd better start padlocking it.
Chiara’s slave
Well-known member
This comes up frequently. A horse can manage about 750w all day. A human, 750w if your name is Jason Kenny, for about 5 minutes, and about 200w for 5 mins if you’re a passably fit sailor, forced to row against the tide because the pub is closing. The full on e-outboards do 200w for 5 hours, or 750w for over 1 hour. Even a flubber with an electric is quicker, for longer, than a rower in a fibreglass dinghy, unless it’s a specialist rowing craft. Our inflatable floor flubber is just as quick with it’s e motor as it was with a small petrol motor. Unless you can plane reliably with your petrol motor, I cannot see how this would be different for anyone.
B27
Well-known member
Yeah, one horse can pull a narrow boat all day. On a canal.
It will be different into chop.
Maybe the question is:
Do you ever use your engine in situations where you could not make progress by rowing?
A dinghy is easy to row up to a certain speed in calm and flat water.
When wind, tide and chop are against you, it can be a different matter.
Don't forget, power = force x speed
I casually know a chap who uses a Bison trolling motor. It's impressive for what it's meant for, and good value.
But he has a fairsized Yamaha to go further/harder/faster.
It's a shame there is no middle ground between the £150 trolling motors and the £2k Torqeedo market.
I'm very attached to my little Yamaha, but I like quiet places and it's sometimes unreasonably noisy.
Tranona
Well-known member
There is - what I suggested might be "category 2". Ian explains it in more detail in several earlier posts.
Plum
Well-known member
There are at least 3 in the middle ground, as discussed in earlier posts that look interesting to me
B27
Well-known member
They seem to be Bison performance at pricing heavily influenced by Torqeedo.
Unfortunately, people are buying things converted from strimmers at 1/4 the price for twice the power.
Tranona
Well-known member
They are very different from Bison types having an integrated battery and specifically designed for short term dinghy use. It is up to consumers to decide whether they offer sufficient value to be successful in the market.
Trolling motors benefit from being designed and made for a much larger volume market with different requirements, but are imperfect for most dinghy users partly because most are poorly made for use in salt water and require a separate battery.
Chiara’s slave
Well-known member
We were given a trolling motor to try. It lacked the power to move us against the tide at The Folly, where we used to moor.
B27
Well-known member
Personally, the separate battery has pro's and con's.
The battery might have other uses.
I feel the thrust/power/speed of a 500watt model is a bit lightweight for the price.
I wonder if the market might change quite quickly in the next year or two, given how cheaply Li-Ion battery packs can be acquired these days.
It's a compromise with capacity of course, but £200 gets you a lot of e-bike battery and fairly powerful brushless motors are not terribly expensive.
I feel the existing players in the market are complacent with high margins and small volumes.
The battery might have other uses.
I feel the thrust/power/speed of a 500watt model is a bit lightweight for the price.
I wonder if the market might change quite quickly in the next year or two, given how cheaply Li-Ion battery packs can be acquired these days.
It's a compromise with capacity of course, but £200 gets you a lot of e-bike battery and fairly powerful brushless motors are not terribly expensive.
I feel the existing players in the market are complacent with high margins and small volumes.
B27
Well-known member
Are we talking about the tri or a tender?
While since I've been to the Folly, but at full ebb or flood, I'd be wanting my Yamaha on the rubber dinghy from what I recall?
Good place to park a yacht without losing steerage way though...
As with any motor, the correct propellor is a pre-requisite of course.
Andrew_Trayfoot
Active member
So some interesting stats....
Used my DIY 800w outboard to go to the mooring and back at full power (about 3knts) roughly 1.2 nM round trip, with the return trip against the tide.
Have just recharged the 12v lithium batters (used in series, charged in parallel).
20a charger.
Recharge took just over an hour from the mains and used 0.4 of a kwh to recharge.
So cost was roughly 11p.
If I has charged it overnight it would have cost me about 3p...
Used my DIY 800w outboard to go to the mooring and back at full power (about 3knts) roughly 1.2 nM round trip, with the return trip against the tide.
Have just recharged the 12v lithium batters (used in series, charged in parallel).
20a charger.
Recharge took just over an hour from the mains and used 0.4 of a kwh to recharge.
So cost was roughly 11p.
If I has charged it overnight it would have cost me about 3p...
Chiara’s slave
Well-known member
That was a 2.7m Zodiac inflatable floor job. It’s not far out to the pontoons, but the Medina can run fairly fast at certain stages of the tide. And just to spite you, nothing at all if you’re ever trying to moor up in a crosswind.
Tranona
Well-known member
That is what markets are about. If these new entrants meet buyers' perceived needs they will sell. Trolling motors have been around for 40 years - I remember seeing them in Chicago in 1979 when I worked for Seagull and being worried about them. However in the intervening years they have never made any real inroads in the UK despite the price advantage.
BTW 2 out of the 3 new entrants are from totally new makers, neither of whom have any marine background.
Andrew_Trayfoot
Active member
What is interesting is that the existing players in the ICE market are only just starting to offer electric options. By the time they get there act together in the small electric outboard market they will be left behind.
dgadee
Well-known member
They can cut profit to the bone to increase ice market share to give them extra time to develop?
Andrew_Trayfoot
Active member
It just amazes me how long they are taking...
dunedin
Well-known member
So haven’t Yanmar bought Torqeedo? And Brunswick, the huge group that owns Mercury etc, have been producing bigger electric outboards for some time (they tended to rebrand Tohatsu for the small ICE stuff anyway). USA is a huge market so once that starts to move they will have big opportunities,