boats

Finally! My new boat is about ready. I’ve been working out the gremlins the past few weeks. I have the electronics dialed in and there is “no limit” as to what I can see below the water. Next getting my batteries balanced after some charging issues, ( due to charging in series) lithium batteries are funny that way,(not really) lol. Now there is “no limit” as where my new boat can go! I’m really excited for the upcoming season and to see how my new boat performs! This is probably my last reservoir boat and I thought about giving it a name! The first one that came to mind was “No Limits”. Well that one was stupid, especially for a tournament fisherman’s boat! I may as well call it “The Great White Nope”!! Who needs to name their boat anyway? Maybe the next boat LOL. See you on the water.

A number of people have been asking about the new motor that I have been using for the past couple of weeks. This Elco 7, uses a water cooled brushless PMAC motor. It is a remarkable piece of equipment. The Elco 7 has power equivalent in thrust to an 11 HP gas outboard. The Elco 7 has a Sevcon controller. Both the motor and the controller are neatly oriented under the cover of this outboard, each with their own water jacket. The outboard's water pump circulates water through these jackets to keep the system running cool and efficient. This works! The Elco 7 is staying very cool even when it is being run fast. As important to the addition of the new motor is Elco's new 48 volt lithium pack. The Lithium pack I am using is a prototype. I am testing it for Elco. The Lithium pack looks like a small brief case. This provides 48 volts and 100 amp hours and only weighs 100 pounds. This lithium pack replaces 520 pounds of lead acid batteries in my boat. In practice for tournaments, Max and I were able to log multiple 18-plus mile days with this pack, with energy to spare. As you can imagine, these long days did not include much full speed running. During our last tournament, we ran full speed for over 4 miles to start the day. The rest of the day, we took it easy on the battery with no full speed running. We had energy to spare at the end of the day. Two lithium packs would be ideal for long runs at Liberty. The Elco 7 pushes my 16 foot Alumacraft much faster than my Parsun 4. The amount of weight in the boat has a significant effect on speed. With 1 person and no tournament gear we have seen 9.3 Mph as a top speed. With two people and full tournament gear, livewell, tackle, coolers, etc., we run at a top speed of 8.1 Mph. This is in a boat which struggled to reach 6 mph, (with a full tournament load), previously. Not bad. I hope to test the new Elco 9.9 shortly, but this will definitely require a second lithium pack. I'll keep you all posted on my testing. These new advances in technology are changing the approach that many of us will take to electric boat design.
There will be more information coming as we continue to run & test these new products.

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