The Sailing Uma youtubers just posted a video of their upgrade from home-brewed electric with shaft drive to the Oceanvolt with saildrive. Didn't look too terrifying as boat projects go. I hadn't watched their vids for at least a year prior, but assume they also documented a battery upgrade somewhere therein.
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Wheel to tiller conversion and electrification
- Thread starter mike cunningham
- Start date
The Sailing Uma youtubers just posted a video of their upgrade from home-brewed electric with shaft drive to the Oceanvolt with saildrive. Didn't look too terrifying as boat projects go. I hadn't watched their vids for at least a year prior, but assume they also documented a battery upgrade somewhere therein.
mike cunningham
Freedom 30 "Jacqueline"
Yes, I watched part of the video but completed my treadmill walk before it finished. Going to watch the rest today.
I do have a colleague in Seattle who owns a Freedom 30. He just completed an install using the https://electricyacht.com/ system. He is very enthusiastic about the result. He indicates his range is better than predicted using a 9.6KW bank (48 VDC x 200 AH). Slower speeds are your friend when it comes to electric propulsion. He noted the biggest challenge has been to figure out where to locate all the bits and pieces, in particular, the batteries which consist of 4 each 12 VDC 200AH Lipo4s configured in series. He still has not finalized the batt location and as a temp solution has them strapped down in the aft cabin right behind the motor. He's a tech guy who really did his research and has suffered through the learning curve on a copy my boat. He is interested in the SHTP so I regale him with sea stories (some true and some...) as I pump him for info. on the install. It is a win win. He did all the work himself and reports it was very doable for a reasonably skilled DYIer. I like the electric yacht system because it is basically turn key with exception of the shore power charger and batts.
He mentioned I could purchase a bunch of fairly small 3 VDC cells and build up a more or less form fitting battery for whatever space is available. This requires purchase and config of a seperate battery management system but, according to him, these are available and have some decent operational heritage. I haven't looked into this much but it is pretty interesting and might solve some battery location/ boat trim challenges.
There are some weird things regarding Lipo4 charging that he has mentioned. Assuming you discharge out sailing and return to the slip for recharge, you should not leave the charger on long term. You get the batts close to 100% and turn the charger off. Apparently Lipos don't like to be on charge 24/7 365. It seems like there would have to be a way to automate this to make the batts happy, but he turns the charger off when the batts are full. This, in turn, creates a bit of a challenge managing the 12VDC service on board. If you downconvert from the propulsion 48 volt bank , you are in the slip with charger off and your have an active load like a bilge pump, obviously you are going to have a dead battery at some point. Again, hard to believe there is not a way to address this. You can install a stand alone 12 V battery and an isolation switch but that seems pretty goofy when you have a 9.6KW bank at your beck and call. In my 20 years of owning my boat I have never had to rely on a bilge pump for other than convenience getting an inch or two of rainwater out of the boat, but you never know.
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solosailor
New member
All the battery monitoring and controlling is done via a BMS (battery management system). There are more than a few doing electric propulsion systems, shaft, sail drive, etc.