Hi David and All, Luckily E boats have been around for a century mostly as yacht club launches and private cruising and transport craft, especially in NE US that like electric cars then, owned by the rich who, like the electric cars they liked for quite reliable power vs the no so much gas engines of the day, rather loved.
Here in Fla, Silver Springs attraction has used them for 70+ yrs. So it's always been known to yacht designers. Not to mention all the submarines made there. Also at least in Tampa Bay and south especially Sarasota bay you can read by the glow from just waving your hand through the water the plankton are so bright. And with highs recently in the 70-80's, can enjoy it now. I guess we'll get winter sometime. Either sailing or motoring through it at night too is a amazing sight with the bright glow trailing from the keel/rudder or prop, again at times so bright you can read by. Starting my next EV, a new E Woody to use up my pile of EV parts on Jan 1st. Since it's a rebuild it won't cost me the money, hassle to get it titled. Not as much money being the key factor. Only have to buy the plywood as have most everything else. Jerry Dycus On Monday, December 30, 2013 5:41 PM, EVDL Administrator <[email protected]> wrote: A bit OT, but here's a real world (commercial) application for E-boats. A couple of years ago Margaret and I were playing tourists in Puerto Rico. Everybody said "don't miss the bio bay," so we didn't. The "Bio Bay" is actually three different destinations, all with dinoflagellates, plankton that emit a faint green glow when disturbed. Very nifty. Kind of like northern lights in the water, but less colorful and very dim. The night has to be just about pitch black, or you'll miss them. These "bio bays" are a big tourist attraction. Years ago dozens (hundreds?) of private companies ran boat tours on the bays, but the ICE exhaust was starting to kill off the dinoflagellates, so ICEs are now illegal. Most tours these days are in canoes. We were about to do that, but then I found a company running electric cats. I'd never been in an E-boat, and wasn't going to to pass up a chance to try one out! To cut it short, the cat had two DC motors (the pilot didn't know what kind). The golf car batteries were under the seats. He said the batteries were good for about 4-5 seasons of use, which sounds quite reasonable to me. Since there was another group waiting when we returned, I assume they run at least a few trips per night. It was pretty quiet, just some prop noise, yet another manifestation of the EV grin. I thought it was interesting though that everyone else on board just took it for granted. They were there for the glowing plankton, this was the way to get to it, no big deal. Probably too much to hope that they'd eventually think of their daily drivers the same way, but I digress. The trip on the bay was comfortable and pleasant, though I can't say the same for either the diesel cat ocean crossing to the island of Vieques 8 miles off PR's eastern coast (rough seas), or the (ICEV) van ride to the bay over some of the most rutted dirt roads I've ever seen. Still, I'd do it again, and would recommend it if you're there. David Roden - Akron, Ohio, USA EVDL Administrator = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = EVDL Information: http://www.evdl.org/help/ = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = Note: mail sent to "evpost" and "etpost" addresses will not reach me. To send a private message, please obtain my email address from the webpage http://www.evdl.org/help/. = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = _______________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org For EV drag racing discussion, please use NEDRA (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA) -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://lists.evdl.org/private.cgi/ev-evdl.org/attachments/20131231/6808365d/attachment.htm> _______________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org For EV drag racing discussion, please use NEDRA (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA)
