Thank you Jared, Very useful information! Recently I've been struck with the urge to switch to an electric motor. From what I can tell, a Newport Vessels NV-Series 62lb Thrust Saltwater electric motor is equivalent to ~0.93Hp, and with a 100ah lithium battery, would run for a little under 1hr at full throttle (58Amps max draw - and lithium batteries can provide almost all of their rated amps). A honda 2.3 can push an M15 at ~hull speed at a little under half throttle in nice conditions, but if 55lbs of thrust was not enough under less than nice conditions on an M17, I'm not sure whether it would be enough on an M15 either. On my first time out with my M15 a few years ago, I tried a little 30lb Minn Kota. Getting out was fine, and sailing was a blast because a little squall came up. But I started getting worried when it started to rain and became more gusty than I liked (south part of Coeur d'Alene lake), then almost couldn't make it the last ~200 feet back to the dock at full throttle into the wind. Anyway, maybe in another few years the 200+Ah batteries will be cheaper and the 100lb motors will be too. Best, Sam On Sun, Jul 19, 2020 at 2:11 PM Jared Prindle <gojopo@gmail.com> wrote:
This is for Sam (I apologize but even after doing this mail group for 10+ years, I still don’t seem to know how to reply to the correct chain). Sam, the motor is a 12v 55lb Minn Kota (with a chip on one of the prob blades). The motor worked fine for me as I just used it for docking. I had to back the boat upwind for 20’ or so and then turn it into the wind. From there I turned the motor off. In fact, I have since removed the motor as I don’t like having anything hanging off the arse end of my boats and am willing to take the risk of the wind dying out leaving me with a paddle. If I were to use the motor again I’d run heavy gauge cables from the house battery to the transom as I really just used the motor for 60 seconds or so. That said, I’ve tried motoring into a decent headwind of 10-12 knots and with any sort of wave action, no this motor really doesn’t push the boat well. I’m sure somewhere on the Google machine, there’s a translator from electric lbs to gas hp. Jared
On Jul 19, 2020, at 11:00 AM, montgomery_boats-request@mailman.xmission.com wrote:
M_Boats: M17 for Sale San Diego