I noticed the rather disparaging comment about electric outboards next to a photo of a boat fitted with twin Torqueedos in the latest CMBA magazine.
Certainly a classic boat with a classic engine is a thing of beauty, but on speed restricted water and locations where quietness matters it seems electric outboards have a lot going for them.
There are significant compromises to make with regard to cost,range and maybe not being able to get a boat planing but there are big advantages too they are quiet, have no exhaust fumes, no servicing and none of the components individually weigh more than 25Kg (handy with my bad back)
Anyhow I may well be going down the Torqueedo route once my Penn-Craft is sorted so can see if the reality matches the theory.
I may though have to start calling it a runabout rather than a speedboat
Does anyone have any experience of using them?
I have been using an electric outboard on a little dinghy on the local canal for a few years. It is only a 40 Lb thrust unit but pushes the boat along at an acceptable (legal 4Mph) speed and gives about 4-5 hours on a 100Ah lead acid battery. I have seen the Torquedo motors around but cant understand why they are so expensive, I imagine a good part of the cost is the bespoke integrated battery which according to online info has a service life of 6-10 years this to me seems a bit limmited, particularly if the batteries are no longer available by the time you need one.
I would go for a more conventional electric outboard using a seperate leisure battery which will still be made 10 years from now. Although I would be interested to know how you get on if you decide to go for it.
I have a customer with a Torquedo, I thought, when he told me he was going to get one, that it seemed a little expensive, however, after I got to see it I changed my mind, yes it is a lot of money, but when you see how well its thought out and how well its finished I can understand the price tag, he has owned it for about 3 or 4 years. All he ever says about it is "if it ever went wrong I'd buy another one "
I have never had much to do with electric outboards, but I think they have a lot going for them if you just want to cruise , also, they are very simple to use..............Hmm.............would suit most of our member in that case...!!
Thanks for the replies.
I too have a trolling motor on a dingy on the canal and it does work OK but there's no chance of any real speed and it doesn't come in a remote control version.
Torqueedo seem to have spotted a gap in the market and I suppose they'll take advantage of this.They do though seem to be of real quality, I had a long chat with the G Comm team at Southampton and they'd sent someone over from Germany to help demonstrate.It was all very impressive.
Parsun do in theory sell an electric outboard that looks like a conventional one but its very hard to find out anything about it.There''s also an american company called Ray Electric who do them (and they have a nice retro look) but they don't seem to be available here.
Here's an advert for them featuring a nice wooden boat
Some feedback after a couple of seasons using the Torqueedo for anyone who may be considering one. In the end I bought a Cruse 2.
No doubting their expense but its been fantastic for use on the canals and coped admirably with a full day on Windermere.
With their lithium battery it will run at canal speeds (3mph) for 20 hours meaning a full day return trip holds no stress. The clever integral GPS shows percentage battery left and range in either hours or distance and constantly readjusts depending on speed. One of the main benefits is slow speed control it will happily crawl along with the prop barely turning so you can turn easily on a narrow canal and manoeuvring onto a trailer on a slipway is easy.
We had a full day on Windermere doing a large loop and covering 20+ miles. Top speed was 8mph which I know isn't much but felt fun for a while.At this speed the battery was draining fast so would have had only had an hours runtime.
Its had no faults, no maintenance needed and both the battery and motor are light and easily moved around but the greatest benefit is the very low noise making it very relaxing.
