Charlie Morgan wrote:
On Mon, 10 Jul 2006 21:20:04 GMT, Rick Cortese wrote:


CAINE wrote:
snip
40 lbs of thrust is nothing to sneeze at anyway. I think the min
recommendation for trolling motor is something like 5 lbs thrust for
every 1,000 lbs of boat and passengers. 40 lbs in some circles would be
good'nuff for a 30' sailboat with lead keel.


I absolutely assure you that that is not even close to true. I own a MinnKota
that was marketed as being 3hp "rated". In other words, it was supposed to have
about the same thrust as a 3hp gas motor. I tried it as the aux for a 17 foot
1300 pound sailboat and it was probably more like a 2 hp gas motor. The regular
3.3 hp gas motor on the same boat was a LOT more powerful. Close to double. That
3hp "rated" motor has about 70 pounds of thrust. A 40 pound thrust electric
would hardly move a 30 foot keel sailboat in completely still water. A ten year
old kid with a paddle would be just as effective.

What part of minimum did you not understand?

You didn't tell how many amps your motor drew, only what the sales blurb
gave out as gas equivalent. If you happen to have an amp meter I would
be interested in the results, otherwise it is just sales hype.

40 lbs *IS* a lot if it is *REAL*. That is ~a filled 5 gallon water
container. Tie a rope around the neck of a 5 gallon container and pick
it up. I think you will find that is about as hard as you normally pull
on a line to move/dock a boat.

Apparently 40 lbs is what Caine has and he is quite happy with its
performance pushing his 14' boat with 3 people.

And how big a battery would you need to power an electric that draws 85 amps? A
100 amp hour battery weighs about 70 pounds, and since you can't draw down a
deep cycle battery more than 50% without dramatically shortening it's life, you
would have about 30 minutes of run time. So that means about a 2 mile range
between recharges.

OK, here's what is happening local to me: All two stroke outboard motors
are bannedexcept a couple of late models and only thing that is legal
everywhere is sail/oars/electric. I believe there are only 1 or 2 dams
that even let you use 4 strokes.

What people are doing is wiring two batteries in parallel so you get
double the capacity and ability to deliver double the current. An hour
run time is plenty for our reservoirs. Just heard Lake Tahoe is/has
banned two strokes too so it may be the wave of the future on fresh water.