K Smith wrote in message ...
wrote:
If they can make a car go 70mph with an electric motor, why not an
electric motor asist for large yachts,(50-60 ft) run off batteries
that are charged off a solar array situated on the canopy.
Seems like any assist would be worth while considering large yachts go
thru 1000's of gallons of fuel.
Just a thought.
Solar panels only put out tiny amounts of power, a standard large one
is good for about 80 watts, in the very best of circumstances i.e. at
noon in the tropics under a clear sky, it would take 10 to make 800
watts or about 1 HP.
Ten of the big panels would be as big as a reasonable sail area, as if
not more difficult to mount & keep oriented straight at the sun, cost
much more, weigh much more.
Then once you got 1 Hp out of them on the rare times when everything
was perfect, you'd need a huge bank of heavy, bulky expensive batteries.
They'd need at least 666 amp hours of battery capacity just to be able
to with stand a continuous charge at that level.
The electric motor is reasonably inefficient also so double all
calculations.
We had a solar powered boat here some years ago, who claimed to set
some world record or other (what BS:-)), but it was running very slowly
up & down a very protected river (we have lots of sun:-)) but it was
purpose built, other peoples' money no object, virtually a floating
battery box & not much else space left for anything else.
K
That's odd. We have a solar car race here, with cars developed from
the engineering schools around the U.S., and they do quite well. And
666 amp/hours isn't a "huge bank of batteries".