masalai's model movie

At a guess I would say Kanga Bartles or Tennant... I do not think Robin Chamberlin did anything skinny with other than a plumb bow - but I could be wrong (again)

 

Thank you Landie & Fanie - - a good read and learning opportunity....

Would you guys like to "pontificate" on a system of electric drives, gensets (DC? as per polar power?), batteries and solar panels - - - Starting with electric drives of 10kW each and in modular form to achieve the rest as technology improves?

I have been looking at 3Kw of solar panels, - - this engine, http://www.polarpowerinc.com/products/generators/3-8kw_Lom-1003.htm without the "co-gen stuff" and the 10Kw 6255 as used in this version of the same engine http://www.polarpowerinc.com/products/generators/7-10kw_lombardine.htm, (around 10Kw at less than 5.3 litres/hr?)... - - - Batteries would be one bank, which would do for "house" & "power" with genset starting pretty quick (batteries are the weakest link, being too heavy & low on power density to put in a decent capacity).... The solar panels would keep the batteries up for the 80% plus time whilst not needing the power to go somewhere....

Most of the reading I have done suggest, drive motors should be higher voltage the better, which implies something around 96 to 140VDC using pulse controllers - I have only found 2 or 3, being "African Cats", Maine cats? (but they may have reverted to 48V) and Glacier Bay / OSSA Powerlite using the Mercedes diesel powerplant... 6 litres/hour with 25Kw...! - - - So, ? minimal batteries to start with, either powerplant as they are both light and very fuel efficient and use the same generator by the looks - brushless too... all to be held inside a 39 ft x 24 ft cat yet to be designed as I need to be able to say what it needs to carry, (or go less to cut weight), and hope technology allows minimal need for diesel fuel soon..... I am getting to a stage where I have to start moving or stay landlocked - Oh what a horrible thought.....

Does this make any sense? - A massive challenge to my mind...

Some reading http://www.cruisingworld.com/capable-cruising/systems/whats-going-to-power-your-cat-53845.html and fbm files cannot be read by freeship between versions (different author or something) 2.6 and 2.9+ and fef are not cleared for use herein so will email as requested.... by anyone...

 

Sean, I was having another look at that "Tennant" and it seems the "naughty owner" has "overloaded" it quite a bit beyond the design waterline I have seen of his similar styled boats - and of other similar designs/builds - like the Chamberlin C10 in my gallery....

 

As I have responded in the other thread - and some.

Mas, if you talk about 10kW of power... man that is a serious LOT of power !!! To give you an idea... one sq meter of SA sunligh has about 1000W of power available in it (according to the clever people). To be able to sustain your 10 000W you will need 10sq meter of sunlight, not accounting for losses, which is limited to about 8 hours per day and only on good summer sun shining days. 10 000W will draw a modest 833 amp off your 12V while if you install the looooong mains cable to your boat then current at 230V would be about 44 amp Get the idea ? Go check out a welder that can supply that current... you may get some in 3 phase and if you do it is a serious piece of machinery.

Here's how you get an idea of how much power is a bit of power. I'm sure you can find a 10A 12V DC motor somewhere, ok. Put a handle on the thing and crank it... see what voltages you get. Then put a load on it and crank it again... see what output you get. Then fetch the drilling machine and crank the motor with it... again see of the drilling machine is up to it. Only now the truth will begin to set in.

I have put a 5hp victa lawn mower motor on an alternator... (when I was young and still pretty). The lawn mower motor doesn't make one more turn when you connect the alternator to a battery, it stalls it in it's tracks.

Let me put it into another perspective for you. A radio needs a few watts to talk to someone on the other side of the world, and here we are blowing thousands of watts on something else. Granted, not the same thing but I keep thinking the way we use power is a bit like candy floss.

I have obtained a small phosphor radio active source with half life of I think it is 15 years. It's been at my bedside for about 10 years now, still happily glowing away day and night, never gets switched off, no power source, no charging it up, no sun or wind required, no putting petrol in it... it just keeps going. Isn't this the thing we should look at ? We could do away with sails all together, reserving them for fun sailing only, your radio active motor can run 24 / 7 with no emissions other that steam. Power on demand.

I'm considering hi-jacking one of these nu-ki-lear (George Bush) submarines and use those power sources in my cat I'm sick of running around with smelly and expensive petrol... it so... so... old.

I know the subject is fascinating and intriging, but unless you have lots of money to throw around this is not a sustainable means of power. You cannot generate enough power off the sun and or wind to keep you going like ie your iron horse can. Technology is not ready for it yet. Trust me on this.

You can test this on a smaller scale. Get a trolling motor say 110lb thrust, a big fat battery for it, and some some solar chargers. Do it on the same scale as you would with the big idea. Take the weight and cost into consideration and see where this leaves you. This setup will only have some value with what we have available if you can get the rig to mains to charge it up properly every night. Thumb suck you will have power for about 6 to 10 hours before you have fully depleted your battery and you take to oars the rest of the way back to mains power. Your battery will also not last very long if you keep this up constantly.

Now one solution would be if you use much smaller motor(s), and big solars and a fairly substantial wind power generator. The relationship should be such that the solars can supply to the electric motors full steam, and have some reserve output to charge the batteries to a decent state. It is going to be of no use if you travelsome distance on the electrics and deplete the batteries, and from a practical point of view if you get into a storm or foul weather you are going to be in real **** if it outlasts you batteries... you end up at the North pole. You know... the place whre there is lots of ice and if the Eskimo likes you you have to sleep with his wife...

I think we should discuss Eskimo's instead

Look, if this was a workable solution then the show would be littered with electric boats. All of this is still in a very young and undeveloped phase. There are practical issues you have to experience to understand. On paper everything looks good and cosure.

I know you're rearin' to go get your hands dirty on the new boat. My advice is, get yourself a nice sailing rig, fit a couple of a bit oversized motors on it and get the basic thing working. THEN you start playing with the other stuff, make mods and see how little this technology has to offer at this stage.

On my own boat I'm putting sails and a couple of outboards, the outboards being my backup for maneuvering and on the occasion someone hooks a big fish they will operate. A couple of solars for charging batteries to sustain the instrumentation and run some lights... probably a fridge and a 2000W inverter to run the microwave for the wife. Gas for showers, stove and braai (BBQ) and that's it. I'm not even considering electric propulsion.

 

I get offers for substantial amounts of money to develop smaller power sources for mobile use, and for that matter for boats. No can do so easy. I hate this topic when a customer walks in here with zero technical knowledge and no feel for technology. That's the kind of guy that loans your tap and breaks it Waving the blank check just adds to the frustration

 

The gensets are there http://www.polarpowerinc.com/product...w_Lom-1003.htm and "rated at 10kw", and, the motors to propel the boat Thoosa 9000 are rated at 9kw to drive the boat, and the solar array is to keep the batteries topped up for "domestic use & maintain battery charge condition" - - I only seek 20 minutes under moderate power before the chargers kick in - as batteries are presently too heavy and expensive - I hope for improvements in the batteries before too long...

Does that make more sense or is the domestic (non propulsion) draw a no-no? - so that part could be hived off to be independent......?

Is the status of electric propulsion still too immature? I am not seeking to have you develop the system, just review and analyze what is available / presented for consideration? sorry if I seem a pain in the arse but this new technology does not have sufficient analysis and technical info on their respective marketing sites.....

Thanks

 

You will get better efficiency running the props directly from the diesel motor shafts. Converting to electricity has some losses and when you convert to mechanical power you have losses again, not even adding the cost for the generator and electric motors.

I didn't think you want me to develop such a system, and in my opinion not a good way of doing it.

Sorry Mas.

 

Since the power cuts we had here, half the population rushed to buy their petrol or diesel generators. Most of them were in for a shock. They thought a modest size generator was going to take over their household for them... the geyser, kettle, hair dryer or stove makes the generator cut out, and the second eye opener was the cost for fuel to generate power for a few hours.

Every second tom and harry with a swingin' d3ck is into this here, and they are all going to get filthy stinking rich overnight

 

I hope you dutifully relieve them of some of their not yet got moneys first - in cash!

I am trying to plan for the prospect of NO fuel unless one owns lots of coconuts.... I know how to get fuel from them.... thanks for thinking of me.....

 

I also don't like to be dependt on fuel.

There was rumers of a technology that would not split atoms, but join them. When the joining process happens it gives a sharp high power burst of energy, and it can be controlled other than splitting atoms which has a chain reaction that can go out of control. So, save you potato peels, and don't throw rubbish away. Who knows what the future holds

 

Mas your coconut oil fuel idea is viable.Aparently on some islands out your way it is used to fuel a insurgency. We have been involved in a fuel ethonol project in Mozambique. Huge tracks of land are being set aside for sugarcane production. Mozambique is also rich in coconut plantations. It takes one inspired individual to start somthing like this.

We have purchase a bio Diesel plant to refine cooking oil. We run all our transport on this bio diesel. It does smell like fish and chips. We run four diesel vehicle's in our small company and we save at least R8000.00 per month doing this. Your coconut oil will take less refining than old oil.

What ever you have perfected patent the thing and export it asap

Regards
Butch

 

It seems everyone with a diesel have his own oil refinery here. Foreigners ariving may think we're big on fish and chips and russians.

 

Look at this contraption selling hundreds of units on Ebay:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/HYDR...004QQitemZ140251796043QQrdZ1QQsspagenameZWDVW

There must be a sucker born every minute...or second? Either it doesn't do anything (most likely) or it works a little and you have a bomb in your car.

 

Hoooley Doooley, Look at that good looking boy, was that taken in your golf playing days? - - So where do I get the energy to make hydrogen? and why not use that and bypass the middleman with his aluminium tank which wont hold hydrogen and becomes brittle over time when in contact????? waste of effort & money...

Coconut oil does NOT need refining, just filtering.... Been proven since around 1986 on Bougainville Island, and used by Solomon Tropical Products, Honiara, on their diesel landcruiser since 1991, and also in the sump.... I have driven it and power is as good as a new one.... as extracted using a standard "expeller process" and filtering.... You can also use this oil to cook your chips, fry your eggs, treat your sunburn, anoint ones skin for a nice massage, hairoil, hand and skin moisturizer and flu preventative.....

 

I must say that pretty looking clark boy looks all juiced up or what eh

There are guys here claiming you get to save between 20 and 50 % on fuel with hydrogen...

Maybe you just don't understand golf