John Cassara wrote:

Well whats wrong with a good electric blanket and a heavy comforter to keep
warm over night. That would be alot less taxing on an electrical system. You
still have to be able to recharge, but getting through the night should be
easy.

John

"Larry W4CSC" wrote in message
...

"Meindert Sprang" wrote in
:


It's already there. AFAIK all new VW marine diesels have a 42V system to
power the injectors.

Meindert




I think the Toyota Prius hybrid takes this even further with a 480VDC
system, doesn't it? A friend has one and it's quite impressive, once you
get used to NOT starting the engine to take off from the parking lot.
That's a bit unnerving, just turning it on and driving away...(c;


The eliica car seen recently on Discovery uses 8 each 100 brake
horse power electric motor regenerators built into the wheels,
lithium ion batteries, and would need high voltage and high variable
frequency switching I expect. It goes 350 KM and about 400 KPH and
0-100 in FOUR seconds! Not all ot once, I expect.

Would not one such wheel motor be capable of driving a boat and
regenerating charge with the propellor providing the juice on a good
day? Why haul useless lead ballast if a keel was all batteries
immune to sea water / chlorine gas dangers?

A 5 horse genny could wait for an excuse for quite a while, if solar
cells were in the mix and harbour navigation was all that was really
needed. Even a long haul in doldrums would be tolerable at two or
three knots, using the genny if the batteries were flat. Relatively
slow water transport takes little energy, while a good sailing day
would likely keep batteries up unless you ran an air conditioner or
heater.

Terry K