That's an incredibly cool idea. It might make a hybrid boat concept
work. You could motor under quiet electric power when you wanted
maximum ambiance and have power instantly available without having to
get a diesel started and warmed up. Reverse generation from
freewheeling the prop under sail might be feasible. Solar, windmill,
and any other power would just go into the same pot without separate
systems.

My mind is racing but I'm kind of busy with this boat:

http://home.maine.rr.com/rlma/UMDconcept.htm

right now as well as the Titanic

http://home.maine.rr.com/rlma/Titanic.htm

post expedition investigation.

Batteries are not all that heavy and additional ballast would be
needed. So, make that keel out of 1/2 or 3/4 inch steel plate with a
thicker bottom and you would have a boat that would bounce off just
about anything.

--

Roger Long



"Larry" wrote in message
...
Bil wrote in
news:3ebvo1lujj9hblfr8iu9g5aefpolvle9ea@
4ax.com:

250 Amps of nominal 14VDC

What Ampere-Hour batteries are you charging with this much current,
and
not boiling them? Will the boat float that much battery weight?

Some day Roger will design us a hull with "battery ballast" built
into
the keel, instead of the dead weigh that's down there, now. The
"battery
ballast" will be 5000 AH of specially-shaped cells to make the keel
shape. All the thousands of pounds of weight will double as keel
deadweight for sailing. As this special keel is where the batteries
are
located, all the space they're hogging in the boat, now, will be
freed up
for useful living space and storage.

The "battery ballast" will be removable when the boat is hauled for
easy
replacement when you go to paint the bottom. They might bolt to
either
side of a narrow keel with a skid shoe for grounding under the
"ballast
batteries" without damaging them. A protective forefoot along the
front
of such a keel across the bow end of them would also help protect
them.

Being naturally water cooled along their long sides, amazing
charging and
discharge currents could be shoved through them without overheating,
like
batteries in the bilge would cooled by air.

I think this would be a great use for the AGM maintenance-free
wetcell
technology of today......and the Toshiba 60-second-recharging
Lithium-Ion
cells that electric auto industry will be using in the future.....

How 'bout it, Roger? Good idea?