DIY Electric Sailboat Conversion for Under £500! ($660) 

Guys I don’t wanna discourage what you’ve done but that 5Kw motor isn’t nearly powerful enough to push your displacement. Keep in mind your testing in no wind and no current and no waves. Out on open waters if you need motor or you have an emergency, that motor won’t move that hull. With sailing and liveaboards redundancy is imperative and safety is paramount. In a head on 20knot wind with 2meter waves you’ll be going in reverse at full power 5Kw at 48 Volts is avg 6hp., Abd the amount of battery you’d burn would be staggering. With a 6 battery setup in ‘ series ‘ confined to 48volt you’d have about 1.5-2hrs of useable power at 3/4 max throttle Your boat is 15,000+ lbs displacement if fibreglass and around 21k-24k if steel You need a minimum of 13hp to achieve 5knots and that’s at full throttle That hull is rated for a 23hp minimum to a 36hp recommended. I have the Volvo 18hp 2cyl and a few weeks back in Lake Erie in 20 knot winds and 6-8ft seas I was maxing at 5.5-6knots head in wind The reason I’m telling you the numbers and details is there are MANY situations where your motor is your LIFELINE. IF it’s not reliable or powerful enough you could easily find yourself praying you live.out the situation I love the fact you guys are fossil fuel conscious, but don’t jeopardize your life on it. An alternative to the noisy inboard diesel ,, which I hate is a stern drive mounted outboard of around 25-40hp ( welded on a lift bracket ) or if you really want electric the Bellmarine Torquemaster variants are the best, but silly expensive I strongly suggest going back to diesel with a Yanmar or Volvo 18-28hp diesel or an Atomic 4 gas and just don’t use it unless you need to. At least you know in an emergency you have the power to outrun a storm or make safe harbour. You can pick up a warrantied used motor for around $2500-4000. Depending on brand and specs. If you were closer I’d sell you my Volvo 18hp model D1-20 ( 310hrs on it ) as I’m upgrading to the Volvo D1-30 ( 28hp ) as I plan a Pacific crossing in Spring, and the Panama Canal adventure. Take Care guys. ps. Keep in mind my comments and suggestions are based on experience and safety and things I’ve been taught. Doesn’t mean it’s dead-on accurate

Very inspiring as I sit here with my seized diesel engine on my narrowboat !! 48 volts and water cooled a must so I hear ...

Exactly what I was looking for!! Subscription earned, what a likeable couple🙂

Great video!!! i love that you are not hiding the changes that you had on the "way" I think a lot of people would only show the results without the problems that are bund to be there!!

Great work, thanks for sharing.

Great stuff. Living the dream.

Nice progress👍

If you increase the Mah per battery it will increase the overall motor output and maximize energy output as well. Also look into a small water pump and some rubber and copper tubing to make a water cooler for the electric motor and controller. Will also help maximize power and help with gains instead of losses.

Hello, my name is Martin I'm doing the electric conversion diy as you. I'm wonder where do you buy the shaft extention and the pulleys?

Love this! I am purchasing a boat with a similar set up, but installed very poorly and without proper batteries. I want to do 48VDC with solar charging, would you share your set-up specs and experiences?

That is awesome!!

Good job. How far can you travel on a full charge and at what average speed? Do you resize/repitch the prop? What is it equivalent of motor KW power to diesel engine HP? Thank you.

Great Job! Might want to add a belt tensioner at some point to help with belt stretch :)

Can you please tell me the name for each parts of the gear reduction.Looking to make my own like you guy's thank you in advance.

Interesting, but im going to use an Oceanvolt system as they generate power using propeller when under sail

Those motors are great for sailboats they put out 10 horsepower that's a lot of horsepower coming from that little small motor they're quite expensive 5 to $600 for a brand new one but well worth it they will push a boat along pretty good because they have a lot of torque and like I said 10 horsepower is enough to push your boat along pretty decent if you don't want to go water skiing but I've seen them on little small boats and people actually water ski behind them

Wow, lucky of you to have found that motor! We hope to be as lucky :). Thank you for the inspiration, it is giving us the confidence to go forward with our own conversion, also... we have never met other sailing vegans haha, happy to have found you two. Will be keeping up with your adventures, in food and sailing!

Thanks for sharing your experiences. I bought project boat recently with what appears to be the same motor and controller retrofitted. The physical installation was completed but not the wiring. The controller is made by Sevcon but I can't make out the motor manufacturer and model. Any information you can share on your motor would be greatly appreciated i.e. manufacturer and model? DC or AC? Series- or shunt-wound? wiring schematic? etc. Thanks again and good luck.

Its a great idea, and execution. I'm trying to find here in Brazil one similar project. How its the electric motor work with all wheather condiction that you faced until now? Thanks for sharing.

I have several DC motors laying around up to one horsepower do you know what the approximate RPM would need to be on the motor?

Would be cool to see the arduino schema . Loving the huge savings you made. What did you for the voltage/current limit on the board?

Great job guys... looks like you're making good progress! And for not a lot of money :-) I'll be curious to see how it does with the full battery bank. Do you have a meter to tell you how much charge is left in the batteries? I'm sure you've thought of it, but that's something you'll probably want to make sure you don't get stranded with no power.

i sized a system for a Grinde 27, using one of the newer axial flux motors and got the pack down to 24V ( 25.6Vnom ).....that's the gold, because the system can still be electrically floating.. On Salt, anything over 25.6Vnom ( up to 51.2V Max nominal Li-Ion ), you really need the center tap sea ground, to center reference the pack; but as soon as you put in a sea ground, you need faraday cages, and a way to rote lightning current to sidarcs..

What made you choose to go 2:1 rather than direct drive ? Is the motor not working twice as hard and using more amps to spin the propeller ?

Great stuff... I hope to do this with a 31' Pierson presently motorized with a 4.5 HP Atomic gas engine. Also, I'd like to rid the vessel of its rudder steerage and replace it with a 'Wheel'. Doable? Thanks, Ken ... happy sailing.

Lovely!

So happy and excited for you both. Can't wait for the next video 💚✌️

Thank you for the great video! How much did you end up spending on batteries in the future after this video? Are you still using that same motor?

How do you charge the batteries , ? What capacity is your battery bank ? Led batteries , you drawing 50a with 300 ah you have 2 hours of running time ,if you don't run the batteries down to damage them. ?

Considering installing an electric motor in my boat as well. Are you happy with the Arduino to control the motor? Would you rather have gone with an off the shelf controller instead? Thanks for sharing.

Can you let me know where to get the pulley kit from?

I'm new subscriber, what is your boat? displacement? hp of old engine? I'm looking for probably 10, to 15 kwh. replacing 36hp old Volvo. what prop do you have? expect any regen?

this is the way to go on a Sailboat i strongly suggest a Honda Inverter/ generator to keep your batteries charged up as they have a 12 volt outlet and you can even purchase a harness with battery clips to charge up or will run a DC. battery charger my next Sailboati plan on doing a similar conversion they are quiet ,reliable , and fairly reasonably priced to do why did i mention Honda ? i’ve owned them and they are Quiet , Reliable , and sort of easy to find parts for World Wide none of my generators ever needed major repairs with normal maintenance either ,the negative of Honda’s are the overall cost of purchase price

there may be some provisions, in the emerging code, having to do with connections; which may allow for higher voltages than 51.2Vnom. but i think that center tap sea ground may have to be there, at some point; for packs over 25.6Vnom.....and the same connection code Might allow for floating packs, under those regulations, which are a little higher than 25.6Vnom.

I'm a bit late to the party, but I'm doing a similar conversion and would love to know more about the motor specs

Nice video. What resources have you been using for research? Would love to replace the stinking 4 litre Perkins on ours but suspect it would be virtually impossible without breaking the bank. Recognised the flats straight away 🤣 we’re at CYC. 👍🏻

I am so into what you all are doing. I asked around and some outfits wanted over $25,000 USD to install an electric motor. I call that insanity.

Can’t wait till I do the same on mine !

Is it turning the same direction as before? Maneuvering will be different otherwise :)

This is a very interesting conversion project. Seems so well suited to a wind powered boat. Now if only someone would "invent" a solar panel that doubles as a sail, your charging issues would evaporate overnight. There is a flexible panel material available now, but I doubt it would hold up to wind.... Oh, and the title of your channel gave me a smile... How absolutely "stereotypical" of Vegans to announce their food choices to others! A friendly wave to you, from Cowichan Bay Village BC Canada.

What kind of Electronics are you using to display the throttle?

Lovely conversion, would love to know how it is holding up now three years down the line (and if you would have done anything differently if you did it again?) - Currently building a similar setup but using two 10Kw brush-less (water cooled) motors instead as my boat is a bit heavier. Just posted the first episode on RU-vid of the motor housing design if interested. Keep the good videos flowing:) Thanks!

Great spend so far. I guess if you are only going with lead batteries your range won’t be very far, though should get you in and out of the harbour....it is a sailing boat after all Some observations. That very thin ply plate, can’t see that lasting long under full power. Have you used coated cables? I have been following a electric conversion thread on the Junk Rig Facebook, worth a look if you haven’t seen it. One thing they mentioned is the power cables and fittings, they take a lot of current, so need to be up to the job. Is your propeller matched to the power and rotation speed of the new motor. I would make sure all the electrics are as high up as possible, and protected from any splashes when it gets rough and there is water in the bilge. With a longer belt, the motor could be higher? Hope you find this helpful. Keep up the good work, and I look forward to hearing more.

Have you considered adding a alternator to the motor to aid power generation

Wood for mounting the motor - did it work? Looks so fragile.

How many hps does this motor have? And what kind of motor is this? Very nice conversion and good skills

Isn't it so that you would go twice as fast if the motor was connected directly to the propeller shaft instead of the gear reduction?

What is the autonomy? How many miles do you get with your battery bank?

Very ingenious. You found a bargain motor and controller. I'm not sure a custom Arduino controller is something the average sailor could build, but you apparently did. I do hope the motor is brushless, otherwise it is a source of spark and you must not use any gasoline or propane onboard.

I almost saw my boat.....I'm in the marina next to you :-) I know a guy who has done the same he has 8 x 130ah batteries and well........He needed to be towed back with a dingy last week. Not 100% sure what happened. Can you guys get the CoffeeCo wifi from there?

Thanks for the video. I have a atomic 4 gas I want to rip and replace with electric. I think I can do this BUT you lost me at "I built and soldered my own controller board" 😬😬😬

Veganism with Sailing earned you my subscription.

A chain would be nosier, but hardier and potentially repairable. Just food for thought :) Also.....I hope those batteries were rated for that amp draw, because if not, you basically just did the same thing that cause early mechanical vaporizers to become hand grenades. That controller probably saved your life.

Wow what a fantastic video ....clever boy Johnathan ! Thanks for sharing . BtW did i miss the thrust block set up ? Regards Terry

How much does your boat weigh wet?

I don't see the plywood holding up .

Hello guys. Just amazing channel. My wife and I we just get a sailboat and also we are look for “green Sailboat” We are refit our sailboat right now here in Mallorca, by the way you guys are really welcome to visit us. I love do this project in our sailboat, can you help us? Thanks a loooooot

Hey Voyaging Vegans, I just watch this video and loved it. I am currently going electric and would like to ask you some questions if you wouldn't mind messaging me.

You are a few steps ahead of me and my partner's dreams in owning an electric sailboat what

1.5 knots for 400W. You may get 3 knots at 800W of solar you have on a very sunny day. I'd consider doubling your solar as sailing performance also improves if you can motor sail at low power on solar to eliminate propeller drag or point higher with some thrust. And more solar means less load on batteries so they last longer. High current draw is what reduces battery cycle life significantly. If you can afford them Lead Carbon or LiFEPO4 are better for your current draw requirements than those lead acid you show here.

Wow!!!

Not even going to read the comments I can hear the safety police and the people that want it over done screaming just do what you Gotta do love it

Yes ,but not enough solar to charge the batteries in a timely manner,i would have kept the diesel motor ,couple that to the electric motor Generator, a hybrid,and would charge your batteries,🙂

why add the complexity of the belt drive or just go direct drive

A bimini,with 8 200 watts panels and 48 volts with a lithium bank and you are off grid and diesel fumes fre

I've seen a couple that look exactly like you. On the Prom? I was tempted to say hello, but they may be nasty :-D

Go on solar power Bank on top

A 110 Ah 48V battery should run at 100A for around 30 minutes ... does not sound very practicable to me ...

Hi guys, what batteries are you finally looking to use? Lithiums? What do you think about these Silicate salt batteries, for cold temperature operation... ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-3RIdm-ZXtA8.html

what a beefy job¡¡

meeeeeet moooo

Low energy, everyone sounds half asleep!!

could you change recording system, microphone especially. the sound is very bad

Last thing needed is a good diesel generator to recharge the batteries !!

way cheaper and more sustainable, you buy a three-phase motor in your next door for 50$ and you make a DIY three-phase AC rectifier and use a DC-AC inverter with second hand batteries. and way cheaper AND NORMAL (GREANER?), you use a pneumatic turbine to attach to the propeller and butane tanks and fill the tanks with a DIY vertical axis savonius turbine attached to a compressor

bonjour, pouvez vous me renseigné s'il vous plait je recherche un moteur diy pas cher,voici les caractéristiques du bateau type:vedette modéle:sundowner 205 constructeur:four wins année:2003 poids:1T800 longeur de coque:6,15 métres largeur de coque:2,45 métres moteur inboard fixe volvo modele 225cv puissance en kw 165,6 puissance en cv 24 je ne cherche pas la vitesse mais un moteur avec du couple,je navigue en mer et lac,navigation plaisance,type de recharge quai, j'ai un budget assez limité si vous pouvez m'orientez vers un moteur pas trop cher s'il vous plait. merci bonne journée

Golf cart 220 amp 6 volts Trojan clones are popular lead acid battery .They are good for 550 cycles deep cycles 80% or more than 1000 partial 50% cycles . They need topping up with water but are tough as nails However you need 8 of them to do 48 volts . At 100 amps you get 5 kilowatts for one hour 60% discharge and go about 5 NM at 5 knots tides and winds depending . However day time with solar panel should be able to get about 2 knots for 5 hours of sunny day. . Good if you can to get old 2 stroke 10 hp outboard to help in sticky situations and useful for tender for boat. My plan for my 30ft deep keel narrow beam 1969 ssil boat is to hetba 24 volt electric out board and 4 of thr 220 amp 6 volt golf cart batteries.That will make about 2.5 kilowatt or about the same thrust on the prop as 5 hp outboard . That should in calm waters pushme at 3.5 knots full tilt 100 amps or 2.5 knots at 50 amps .Then with 500 watts of 4 of the 120 watt 12 volt panels might be able to get 1.5 knots with solar power. for 5 hours midday times. I will still keep my 13 hp 2006 era yanmar 2ym 15 oily for heavy weather If the inboard breaks complrtly i will probably opt to get a second hand old 10 HP 2 stroke outboard as back up and make a well for it in back hatch aft of the spade rudder.. For me the cost to do the bigger solutions with inboard electric and lithuim and the rest isnt looking intetesting..for my small budget. Keep us posted and good luck

10:1 to 20:1 is a far better ratio, yours is just to small, your working your motor too hard at that low ratio!

She is a very sweet girl, but it is hard to understand her voice sometimes because of its pitch.

Sorry the delivery driver that brought the motor was eating a hamburger on the drive to your stop. You should notate down the line of everything you buy that no one should be eating meat while they stock or deliver your vegan foods or new boat parts. It’s a tall order but I think if we all try we can get to true vegan one day.

welcome to the world of electronics ....please don't for get about fossil fuels

PETA, People eating tasty animals.