Big News - Repowering with an Electric Motor
12 10 2011 Posted by Daniel
Wow friends, have the weeks flown by! Now that I’ve put a huge amount of effort into the boat recently, I have something to announce: I’m repowering Aletheia with an electric motor instead of another diesel! Yes, we’re “going green” with our propulsion. I could write a diatribe on why (and, probably, will do at some point in the future). But this post is mostly to introduce the idea, talk about the how, and give you a little bit of an update on what kind of progress has been made and what will be about to happen.
First, the idea in general: after the incident with the “Perkebeke” (my old Westerbeke 40 / Perkins 4-108 engine) I mentioned a few weeks ago, I did a cost analysis of both repowering as well as repairing and maintaining the existing engine a few years into the future. Since I’ve always sworn that if I ever were to repower, I would go with an electric motor, I took a good hard look at those options as well. It turned out that repowering with an electric motor would be about break even with the immediate cost of repair and a huge gain on forward maintenance. Add to that my inherent unhappiness with the diesel (leaky, smelly, noisy, and generally a huge pain in my ass) and the choice became dead clear. So I called up Scott at Electric Yacht, who was exceptionally helpful and knowledgeable. I’ll talk more about why I chose EY in the future, but let’s just say that its my belief that they have both the currently most practical solutions for boaters as well as a very fair price and superb support.
After placing the order for their 180ibl motor, I listed the Perkebeke on Craigslist, where a number of individuals contacted me within a day or two - who knew these engines were so desired? I was able to sell the old engine and my offshore spares kit as a set - saving me the hassle of individually parting them out and saving the buyer a nice chunk of change for my convenience. All in all, it was roughly an even swap for the electric motor setup. When you factor what I’d already budgeted for more spares for offshore, even the batteries were a break even. And that puts me ahead of the unanticipated repair cost already. Triple win.
Pulling the old engine was dead simple: we towed the boat over to the hoist that the smaller J/24’s use for getting in and out of the water, lowered the hook down the companionway hatch, a few bolts later and a little swearing, and out she popped.
The old engine, recently freed from the boat. She should have a long and prosperous life as the prime mover for a water taxi company in New Orleans!
Once the boat was emancipated from the engine, I took it upon myself to rid the bilge of 33 years of slime, grease, and nasty seaborne organisms that had populated its depths.
The old, nasty bilge - AFTER a couple hard scrubs with TSP!
The process took 3 entire days of cleaning, rinsing, vacuuming, sanding and stripping, acetone washes, and more, in a seemingly never-ending procession of getting the majority of the bilge down to bare, prepped fiberglass. Finally I felt it would hold a new coating, so I put 5 coats of epoxy in the lower half, and coated the upper half with a one-part polyurethane topsides coating for durability and easy cleaning. I should note that before you intend to recoat oily, dirty, slimy fiberglass, not only should you wash the oily slime off (which will take quite a lot of effort and some serious cleaners) but you should still dewax, sand, wash, rinse, dewax, and solvent clean the surface again - preferably a few times, just in case the oil and nasty junk has penetrated surface cracks. Without the benefit of bilge pumps to keep the bilge dry (since they kind of have to be gone and out of the way to clean and paint anyways) I used an ordinary shop wet/dry vac to slurp up the soapy rinsewater. Naturally I did NOT dump it overboard!!
There’s a bit of a color difference between the tinted epoxy and the shiny topsides paint, but the extra immersion resistance of the epoxy is worth a slight cosmetic difference - and besides, its a bilge!
The end result is really satisfying, especially after such hard work:
Finally! A clean, shiny, and most importantly, visible bilge - makes it so much easier to both find things you drop, and know when its time to clean again!
I’m now just waiting for the motor to arrive to begin the next phase: electrical prep and mounting the engine to the prop shaft. Stay tuned for more in this exciting transition!
______/)_______
Categories : Maintenance / RepairsFirst, the idea in general: after the incident with the “Perkebeke” (my old Westerbeke 40 / Perkins 4-108 engine) I mentioned a few weeks ago, I did a cost analysis of both repowering as well as repairing and maintaining the existing engine a few years into the future. Since I’ve always sworn that if I ever were to repower, I would go with an electric motor, I took a good hard look at those options as well. It turned out that repowering with an electric motor would be about break even with the immediate cost of repair and a huge gain on forward maintenance. Add to that my inherent unhappiness with the diesel (leaky, smelly, noisy, and generally a huge pain in my ass) and the choice became dead clear. So I called up Scott at Electric Yacht, who was exceptionally helpful and knowledgeable. I’ll talk more about why I chose EY in the future, but let’s just say that its my belief that they have both the currently most practical solutions for boaters as well as a very fair price and superb support.
After placing the order for their 180ibl motor, I listed the Perkebeke on Craigslist, where a number of individuals contacted me within a day or two - who knew these engines were so desired? I was able to sell the old engine and my offshore spares kit as a set - saving me the hassle of individually parting them out and saving the buyer a nice chunk of change for my convenience. All in all, it was roughly an even swap for the electric motor setup. When you factor what I’d already budgeted for more spares for offshore, even the batteries were a break even. And that puts me ahead of the unanticipated repair cost already. Triple win.
Pulling the old engine was dead simple: we towed the boat over to the hoist that the smaller J/24’s use for getting in and out of the water, lowered the hook down the companionway hatch, a few bolts later and a little swearing, and out she popped.
The old engine, recently freed from the boat. She should have a long and prosperous life as the prime mover for a water taxi company in New Orleans!Once the boat was emancipated from the engine, I took it upon myself to rid the bilge of 33 years of slime, grease, and nasty seaborne organisms that had populated its depths.
The old, nasty bilge - AFTER a couple hard scrubs with TSP!The process took 3 entire days of cleaning, rinsing, vacuuming, sanding and stripping, acetone washes, and more, in a seemingly never-ending procession of getting the majority of the bilge down to bare, prepped fiberglass. Finally I felt it would hold a new coating, so I put 5 coats of epoxy in the lower half, and coated the upper half with a one-part polyurethane topsides coating for durability and easy cleaning. I should note that before you intend to recoat oily, dirty, slimy fiberglass, not only should you wash the oily slime off (which will take quite a lot of effort and some serious cleaners) but you should still dewax, sand, wash, rinse, dewax, and solvent clean the surface again - preferably a few times, just in case the oil and nasty junk has penetrated surface cracks. Without the benefit of bilge pumps to keep the bilge dry (since they kind of have to be gone and out of the way to clean and paint anyways) I used an ordinary shop wet/dry vac to slurp up the soapy rinsewater. Naturally I did NOT dump it overboard!!
There’s a bit of a color difference between the tinted epoxy and the shiny topsides paint, but the extra immersion resistance of the epoxy is worth a slight cosmetic difference - and besides, its a bilge!
The end result is really satisfying, especially after such hard work:
Finally! A clean, shiny, and most importantly, visible bilge - makes it so much easier to both find things you drop, and know when its time to clean again!I’m now just waiting for the motor to arrive to begin the next phase: electrical prep and mounting the engine to the prop shaft. Stay tuned for more in this exciting transition!
______/)_______
