Gas turbine power for cabin cruiser

[camglasgow]

Hello all,

I'm looking to come up with a conceptual design of a propulsion system for a cabin cruiser of roughly between 45-50 feet in length. Looking at similarly sized boats tells me I'd need a prime mover capable of producing about 1000hp (most have twin 500hp diesel engines). The idea is to get a suitable gas turbine and pair it up with a waterjet unit.

Can any one point me in the direction of gas turbine engines that produce this sort of output?

Also, what would I need regarding generators and batteries etc?

Cheers,
Chris.

[D'ARTOIS]

You should have a look at the GNOME heli-gasturbine, delivers around 800/1250 hp

www.turbinemarine.com supplies complete sets but are VERY expensive
(USD 100.000,- and more range)

This is not a game for cheap projects!

[dereksireci]

Single or even twin gas turbine installations are full of design challenges. An enormous amount of air must be fed into the engine compartment and out the exhaust. The exhaust ports can be subject to swamping if the engine is shut off and a wave hits the boat. Special transmissions are needed to enable slow speed operation, like using a trolling valve. Used Gnome engines can be found but some of them only run on kerosene, not available at most marinas. Looks like this Turbine Marine has solved most of these issues but from my experience they are not worth the trouble. They do not operate in a way familiar to most boaters.

djs

[Guillermo]

Yeap! Wally had a lot of trouble with their 118 Wallyvpower model...

[camglasgow]

Thanks for the responses,

It seems that gas turbines have their place in a/c and much larger boats then!

Assuming I want to power a boat using a diesel-electric propulsor, where is a good resource for generator/battery information?

Cheers,
Chris.

[Guillermo]

Visit thread:
Solomon Technologies - "Electric Wheel" electric motor propulsion systems