Electric Engines?

[LondonGuy]

Hi, Virgin boater here again!

I was looking a boats for my first beoads trip. I saw one or two that were 'Eco' and seemed to have electric engines, powered by generators.

Does this work well or to is it to be abvoided?

I of course know no differance.

[MauriceMynah]

Personally, for the moment I'd say avoid, for no good reason other than it seems silly (and probably inefficient) to turn Diesel into electricity, then turn that electricity into movement, when you can just turn the diesel to movement thus missing out the "middle man".

[annv]

The boats are powered from batteries which are charged from shore power, if shore power s not available then they have a small generator to charge the batteries,  as the generator is designed to run  at a constant speed they are more environmentally better than a bigger engine being run at half speed which is less environmental as it is designed to run over a wider rev range, the small geny will only be able to run the boat at a low speed if only geny power is available although they may also have solar panels these will recharge the batteries without shoe power but only at a slower rate but over the whole day dependant on how much sun shine there is, so over all they sail just the same as engine powered boats, but do of cause have certain limitations that engined powered boats don't have such as not being able to sail 24hrs a day at high speed, but are perfectly able to accomodate holiday sailing and providing power while moored and of cause being very low pollutant to the environment and silent and cheaper on fuel,   unlike  diesel powered boats are. John

[TheQ]

Diesel Electric , has been around for decades in big ships, and has moved down to smaller ones.

I have a Diesel Electric 27ft boat. 

She has solar panels which charge up the batteries if it's just a short trip.

For a long trip the generator is wound up to keep the batteries topped up. But she will do about 5-10 miles on just batteries if I wished, but that takes cycles out of the battery life..

I find electric throttle control Is infinitely more adjustable than a diesel which tends to have "favourite" throttle positions

I believe some of the electric powered hire Boats also use the generator to produce electricity for cooking..

Mine will get shore power charging when I get round to it, I've got all the bits to do it..

Overall I think I save diesel in it's use. Mostly because of the many short trips I do..