Norm of Bandersnatch wrote: > Ken, > > I am looking forward to the report of your prototype's voyages. > > I do suggest you find out all you can about the Island Pilot DSe Hybrid at > www.dsehybrid.com
I have little money to spend on the idea right now so who knows when I could install the system. But it should be noted that the guru Nigal Calder has sold his brand new boat to make a sister ship which will be powered in a very similar manner to that I have mentioned. There are some interesting things about that boat in the link you sent, but I think most small sailboats do not have room for 6 kw worth of solar panels, and do not need a 75 hp diesel. Besides, the serial hybrid nature (electric motor and internal combustion engine must turn the same shaft at all times) of their design makes it so you must tie the diesel to the prop shaft so you then loose one of the big advantages of the design I favor, with the genset(s) able to be mounted anywhere, and the possibility of having multiple gensets on line at different locations as needed supplying prop or house loads as required. What's more such a serial design as they have does not fully de-couple the diesel from the prop shaft so does not obtain max efficiency of either the electric motor or the diesel. There are some strange things, as well...using the thrusters in regun while under diesel power to obtain electric power from them just makes no sense at all in terms of efficiency, for example. I do not like using a high voltage battery bank, either. It makes more sense to convert the voltage so that the battery's can be replaced or the numbers of them can be changed without any problems (one or more get weak or short) and you can have more flexibility. And the claim that discharging and charging the battery's will not shorten their life span is hog wash. Overall I find the concept sound but the implementation suspect. Maybe it best meets their goals, but I remain skeptical of even that. In any case there are much better ways for this with a small sailboat.-Ken _______________________________________________ Liveaboard mailing list Liveaboard@liveaboardnow.org To adjust your membership settings over the web http://www.liveaboardnow.org/mailman/listinfo/liveaboard To subscribe send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] The archives are at http://www.liveaboardnow.org/pipermail/liveaboard/ To search the archives http://www.mail-archive.com/liveaboard@liveaboardnow.org The Mailman Users Guide can be found here http://www.gnu.org/software/mailman/mailman-member/index.html
