Plans sites
I feel that
Selway Fisher is the most prolific designer of wooden boat plans in the UK, and his electric boat designs are second-to-none in terms of traditional appearance and style. Paul Fisher, who is the design talent in the business, is very approachable and is always willing to discuss design changes to existing plans, or the creation of a completely new design.
Glen-L is a long-established US supplier of boat plans and kits (mostly IC, unfortunately), but they do have
this inspired series of 12 pages describing the construction of an electric 'outboard' motor from low-cost/second-hand parts. This is only part of the wide-ranging
Glen-L site which also features some designs for electric power:
Glen-L also have two
videos describing the background to electric boats and showing the construction of three of their designs (also
here).
They also have a short
article on building their PowerYak.
Boat Designs is a re-seller of boat plans with some being suitable for electric power.
A Jim Michalak design is available from
Duckworks Magazine. It is an 18 footer, with a cuddy.
Chesapeake Marine have a
15' open design inspired by the Electric Boat Association.
Two 1930 designs that could lend themselves to electric conversion are Black Arrow and Buzz. The plans are in the form of scans of the original magazine pages in .gif format. There is one zip file for
Black Arrow and two for Buzz (
A and
B). Each .zip is about 1.5 Mbytes. Note that these designs are not in line with the efficiency principles described on other
pages of the site. These designs are more in the nature of 'fun' boats. Also note that no warranty or other guarantee is implied by making these designs available. It is up to any intending builder to satisfy himself that they represent safe and sensible craft.
U.S. Electric Boat-Builder Sites
Black River Boats - a commercial site with details of kayak and open-canoe style electric craft
Elco, a dedicated electric launch manufacturer with a range of boats
(14-33 feet) and drives.
Cobalt Marine have a range of medium-sized designs.
If you want wood, and you want classic, then you have to look at
Budsin. They won't be cheap, but they will be worth it.
Duffy Electric Boat Co. have some large models to offer.
There is a beautiful
fan-tail design available at SteamLaunch.com, which they say, is suitable for conversion to electric power. The site also features an
add-on cuddy and canopy to provide weather protection and simple accomodation.
Another collection of designs brimming with nostalgia and tradition -
The Canadian Electric Boat Company
This page describes the Fiesta Marine Products low-cost
Neptune which uses an electric-outboard from
Rayeo. They also make the
Sunray range and have a page on
electric motor selection.
Electra Craft offer a range of attractive glassfibre electric boats.
U.K. Electric Boat-Builder Sites
Creative Marine (also known as the Secret Boatyard) specialise in custom builds and restorations of electric craft. They are at Matlaske in North Norfolk.
Henwood and Dean, based near Henley-on-Thames, are recognised in the UK as specialists in traditional wooden boat building and restoration, including many electric projects
Bossoms Boatyard also produce a range of classic wooden boats from 14 to 32 feet, suitable for electric power. Their boatyard is in Oxfordshire.
In the English boat-building tradition,
Peter Freebody is a builder and restorer of classic Thames launches.
Electric Motor manufacturers
U.S.
The well-established
Minn Kota electric trolling motors.
Motorguide electric trolling motors.
AMEMCO - manufacturer of an electric trolling motor
A purpose-designed outboard electric motor is available from the
Outboard Electric Corp. It does however cost $3,500!
A long-established US electric-outboard is available from
Rayeo
The Reservoir Runner is another electric outboard motor fitted with a specially shaped duct around the propellor, which is claimed to increase efficiency by at least 50%.
Description and
Specification pages are available.
The
'Electric Wheel' - an inboard drive for boats from 23' to 37' (it does, however, need 120v d.c. to power it!).
An
inboard drive system from Beckman Boatshop is described here. They also have a range of
classic launches.
The Lighthouse Tole Shop offers an electric drive built into the rudder of small boats.
Europe
The
LEMCO motor is the one used in Terrapin.
A well-established U.K. producer of saildrives,
Silette-Sonic, has added its know-how to that of LEMCO and produced a through-the-hull
electric saildrive. This link is to a .pdf showing the units, together with dimensions, for which you will need
Adobe Acrobat.
The
Thames Electric Launch Company are re-sellers of the Lemco motor and also sell the small but powerful Combi saildrive.
Vetus, another well-known name, has recently announced its own all-in-one
electric propulsion system for quite a lot of money. I am suprised about its need for water cooling, but otherwise it looks suitable for the larger vessel.
E. P. Barrus is a U.K. supplier of the Mariner range of electric trolling motors.
The Mariner and
Mercury ranges are re-badged Motorguide units.
Yamaha are marketing a re-badged Minn Kota range. They are all 12 volt units, with current from 30 to 55A and thrust from 26 to 45 lbs.
A U.K. supplier of Minn Kota motors is
Heyland Marine in Buckinghamshire.
Motor Controllers
US
Curtis Instruments are the most well-known motor controller manufacturer.
ElectroCraft, a Canadian company, produce a low-voltage (12-24 volts) controller that will handle up to 70A.
UK
The UK arm of
Curtis Instruments sells the same range of controllers. In the case of the Lemco motor used in Terrapin, Lemco
recommend the 1204 or 1205 for a 12 volt application and for 24-48 volts, the 1207, 1207A, 1214, 1215, 1219 1225 or 1227, depending on current.
4QD are a company making their own controllers, and providing a wealth of data about the circuitry surrounding motor controllers - extremely rewarding for the serious pipe dreamer.
EB component and accessory suppliers
US
ElectroCraft supply a range of EV accessories, including chargers, converters and controllers.
Text-only page with a few U.K. electric sources.
Cloud Electric supply a lot of motors and accessories for electric vehicles. There will be items of value for EB use in their product range.
Electo Automotive are EV-biased, but provide a useful component resource
UK
Although not strictly an electric boat site, this is an independant U.K. supplier of
epoxy resin and related materials with some useful constructional tips.
This site is a U.K.
battery distributor, specialising in batteries for marine use. They also stock solar panels and DC to AC inverters.
A U.K. manufacturer of
carbon fibre reinforced batteries for leisure and commercial vehicles.
Another U.K. battery distributor of sealed lead acid batteries is
Multicell Ltd.
EB-related sites
Jim Kerr's site - a comprehensive resource for things connected with boats and electricity.
James Rudholm's
site shows the constructon and use of a Briggs & Stratton E-Tek motor on two Phil Bolger Designs: a Diabolo and a Sneakeasy (at the bottom of each page is a link to the next page).
There are two pages by James M. Graham III, one giving extremely useful calculations to determine
boat speed, and the other linking to his interesting-looking
Reservoir Runner electric outboard motor home page (note the ducted propellor!).
Ev World - an EV news site.
An American university EV site with some links is
Cal Poly Pomona University.
The Porta Bote (!) Company - its the best-looking portable I've seen (which may not be saying a lot), but could it take the weight of a couple of batteries?
'Link' sites or pages
A very good page of links is available on the
Solar Navigator site.
BoatOwners.com is an on-line boat store with a very extensive set of boating links. There are two pages of links, one for
electric boat building and the other for
boatbuilding projects and resources. They also have a comprehensive
boat plans page. There is a sister site,
BoatingNews.com.
Part of the
Marine DIY'er site, a page of categorised links.
An electric vehicle (EV) site with a
page of links to electric boating pages.
Electric Boat organisations/associations
This is the official Home page of the Electric Boat Association.
An electric boats
Yahoo Club has been in existence for some time, it may be worth joining as a source of knowledge and support.
General information pages
Gavin Atkin's site - an eclectic (?) collection of links and articles and designs.
The National Maritime Museum at Greenwich has a
site with a varied collection of maritime links.
William Darden's
Car and Deep-cycle Battery FAQ is a valuable and continually updated source of battery information.
Another excellent deep cycle
battery FAQ from Northern Arizona Wind & Sun.
The Oerlikon site has some technical but comprehensive pages on
lead-acid batteries. This is their
home page.
How things work - if you search the topic 'Electric Motors', you will get some basic information
Historical background to electrically powered boats
Originally printed in 1894, this is a reproduction of an Edwardian book titled
"Electrical Boats" It could be invaluable if you are building or restoring a classic design.
Solar Energy sites
The company supplying Terrapin's
solar panels has a page with some interesting links.
Home page of
Sunelco - a solar & photo-voltaic components supplier
Northern Arizona Wind & Sun (they certainly have more of the latter than the U.K.). This is partly an information- and partly a commercial-site
Sierra Solar - a commercial solar/renewable energy site
If you have an electric boat link that is not listed here then please add it to my visitor's link database, and I will see that it is included on these pages.
