so why doesnt it work?

What might come first is that some Marina's/countys will make a rule ( or the EPA wil do it) that you can't run your engine in the marina only once you are outside?
Boats have only just started to be hit in the US so there will be plenty to come.
Electric only boats on some lakes cant be far away.
Electric boat racing in the US is growing.
Some or all of the above will move technology forward

 

We have such rules on many European lakes, therefore (no wonder) Austria has the highest density in electric boats.
But these rules did not make any battery system storing more energy than before.
As far as we rely on batteries as our storage, we have to wait at least for another 20 or more years before the situation might change. Industry and science do not even know in which direction to think about substantial improvements, let alone test samples. And from the first ideas to reliable and affordable proucts, suitable for marine use, 20 years are not uncommon.

 

Maybe we need to introduce a racing class based on weight/distance etc etc to drive some research?
Is there electric boat racing in Austria?

 

Dunno.............

 

Two examples how racing and rules stimulate electric boating:

1. In this year's "Friesland Solar Challenge" in Holland there was a solar powered planing boat that really worked. A huge craft with only a cramped cockpit surrounded by solar panels.

2. The Plitvice waterfalls in Croatia are in a nature park with a number of lakes where IC engines are not allowed. Many thousands of tourists are transported each day by electric boats, each carrying up to 60 people. The boats are operated from sunrise to sunset and are charged at night. At the main jetty there are sockets for additional charging in summertime during the unloading and loading of passengers, which is then stretched to approx. 30 minutes. When the days get shorter and the number of visitors drops, they omit additional charging.

 

I´ll come back on that, once the Friesland Rallye goes round Cape Verde and back, or the Plitvice boats open the New York line on daily schedule.

Ok?:?:

 

That will be around the same time when the Atlantic power grid will be operational: floating sockets with a radar reflector every 50 miles.

 

If important sponsors would find it convenient to throw their money in such a competition, It might work. It would probably have to be a world-wide hyped event, like a F1, a MotoGP or the America Cup racing, in order to attract sufficient audience and bring sponsor money to the research.

But I believe that military-funded research will probably deliver the results in this field in much shorter time. Let's just hope that it won't be too long before the resulting technology becomes available for civil use.

 

But I believe that military-funded research will probably deliver the results in this field in much shorter time. Let's just hope that it won't be too long before the resulting technology becomes available for civil use.



You could have written that anytime in the past 40-50 years.

The world is desperate for more efficient energy storage .

Batteries suck, compressed air sucks , and pumping water up a hill sucks.


Money is not the simple answer as tons have been blown , world wide, looking for a better storage system..

IF it does happen , it will be a "Game Changer" , but when ,?????

FF

 

http://bandmmarine.com/ElectricBoatSpeedRecord.aspx

 

What do you want to prove with all these non related links? That you have enough time to search the internet?

None of these links have any relation to the offshore yachts and boats in question.

 

Great link

When there is progress in electric boating or racing in this case, I find it helpful that the party involved provided their system details. We now know what it takes to make a hydroplane go 100 mph for a short time. Can this be appiled to a runabout going 15-20 mph fpr a few hours? Sure, but the initial cost is high. Safe LifePo4 cells run around $0.50/Wh. Everything else is cheap compared to gas.

I agree that hybrids don't work in boats but work very well in cars in city traffic. I hope the wave of hybrid and electric cars coming out in the next few years will lower the cost of the Li batteries. I realize pulling power off the grid involves many issue including losses.

There are just as many issues (actually more) with burning gas. Crude oil doesn't majically appear as gas in our tanks. In the US, we pay about $2.50 a gallon but that could go way higher whenever the oil companies wish. Most places in the world, it is two to three times the cost. I love cruising around in my Bayliner but I doubt I would keep taking it out at $300 a fill up.

For long open ocean voyages, electric drives have no place unless it's a cruise ship with the electric pods. For the rest of us who enjoy a day on the water, I see a possibility of electric boating in the future.

 

Electric boats will only work if you can get power from a nuclear or isotope powered reactor. Such reactor are possible in safe small sizes, and could be built at an affordable price if it wasn't for all the nuts that would want to build bombs with them. Imagine 70 foot boat with its own nuclear reactor.. thats the ultimate passagemaker.

 

Well, this isn't true (making bombs from atomic fuel rods or reactor materials). Weapons grade fissionable materials are much more highly refined. It this highly refined stuff that's really hard to get. Don't get me wrong, nothing short of digging up your own material and processing it down to a mostly singular heavily element, isn't easy either, but it's hell of a lot easier to refine it to reactor grade stock then weapons grade. The cost of doing this is beyond rich Arab ******* bank accounts and can only be funded by nations. In fact, your nation has to be fairly well off to fund it, as North Korea has found out, unfortunately at the starvation of it's own people. To give you an idea of what it takes, when the Manhattan Project started making fissionable material in WW II, the electricity necessary to accomplish this task was 10% of the total output in the whole country! It ain't cheap or easy.

 

These small generators aren't reactors at all. They just contain a bit of decaying nuclear waste, slowly cooling down. No way anyone can turn that into a bomb.

But prying the lid off does result in a massive radiation leak that can harm lots of people, including the one with the screwdriver. In the wrong hands, such an innocent looking cylinder would be extremely dangerous.