On 2007-12-15 03:50:00 -0500, Heikki said:

I have been speculating about a diesel-electric propulsion for a
smallish sailboat. Does anyone have links to, or experience with, small
electric motors that are suitable for continuous use - most of my
googling finds bow thrusters and other extra machinery.

I am thinking of a fairly small engine, say 5-10 Hp, to be used mostly
in manouvering in and out of marinas, and occasionally coming home from
a calm sea. Would it make sense to mount the whole engine on the
transom-hung rudder? That way it could turn with the rudder, and give
good steering in both directions. When not in use, it could be lifted
out of the water, so I could use a decent size of propeller for it.

For that sort of application, I'd go with a largish solar cell and
battery bank. During the week, let the sun charge things up, then use
it. Our little 10w solar cell would easily give a hour or two usage
with the new electric outboards reviewed in Practical Sailor recently.
Just in case, I'd have a little generator, but probably gas for light
weight.

http://www.practical-sailor.com/ for the outboard review.

--
Jere Lull
Tanzer 28 #4 out of Tolchester, MD
Xan's pages: http://web.mac.com/jerelull/iWeb/Xan/
Our BVI trips & tips: http://homepage.mac.com/jerelull/BVI/

wrote in news:df918b70-350c-4fa7-80a1-
:

Somehow I found this site:

http://members.aol.com/westernstar66/indianlisters.html

that lists a 20 hp diesel for $3250, a real bargain for a new
engine
compared to most diesels for boats. These are low rpm diesels
that
can run on vegetable oil and are very efficient.

So, what would you do for a transmission? Maybe you could use
a belt
with an idler pulley that was lever controlled. Tension on the
idler
pulley would sorta regulate the speed. Maybe the engine has a
speed
control, I dunno. Reverse would be a real problem. These look
heavy
but just cool as hell. I love simple stuff, great engineering.


http://tinyurl.com/create.php

Pep Boys Auto Parts had this 6KW diesel genset, electric start,
quiet cabinet, ISO900x certified, painted yellow but from this
Chinese company, for $1599 last fall. I'm running 2 diesel cars
and a V-8 diesel stepvan on used frying oil from Chinese
restaurants, so decided to buy one for the house in case of
hurricanes here in Charleston.

It's a great little genset, 120/240 60 Hz for the American
market. It turns 3600 RPM from its 1 cyl OHC 4-stroke diesel and
runs a LONG time on a single fueling. Its only headache is its
WEIGHT! The Chinese now seem to have VAST resources of HEAVY
STEEL and aren't afraid to USE IT in their products. It has
wheels for a reason. None is going to carry it off without a
fight...(c; The cylinder, for instance, isn't a cast iron sleeve
in an aluminum case...It's a CAST IRON CYLINDER, the old
fashioned way!

There's a compression release so you can hand crank it with the
included crank handle if the battery goes dead. Even comes with
a little AGM starting battery you can't pronounce.

I ran it on diesel for the first 20 hours to make sure it wasn't
going to be a return problem, but have migrated it, now, to my
cooking oil soup of 1 quart of mineral spirits mixed with 20
gallons of cooking oil and it cranks right up.

Whenever I crank it, my smartassed neighbor shows up with his
drop cord, the price I have to pay to run it 24/7 in
emergencies...(c;
I'll even have 220VAC hot water....

Larry
--
Merry Christmas!
http://youtube.com/watch?v=Qi_NhFS4xEE