I've been spending some time working on a minor revamping of the electric drive on "So It Goes" trying to make it a somewhat more integrated system which has been the stuff of much gnashing of teeth and banging head against bulkhead. The hard part of electrical propulsion is not making the boat move ( that is surprisingly easy) but the sorting out the various voltages, charging systems and storing of energy in a way that makes some kind of sense instead of the Rube Goldberg sort of mess that most boats tend to become when electrical propulsion gets added to the mix.
Of course I put a lot more demand on my boat system than most in that we live on the hook and are mobile so shore power is never an option and when you add in the three computers for video editing, running a charter business with all of its communication needs and all of the other stuff that living aboard 24/7/365 entail...Safe to say we take the electrical system to the max.
There is however hope and I've spent the last couple of days sorting though catalogs and spec sheets looking for some kind of break through that will make the idea of an integrated system come closer to reality and am happy to say I have found some very promising widgets that show a lot of promise. Hopefully over the next few months I will be able to report some in depth tests and reviews as I slowly revamp the system while meandering towards Trinidad and Venezuela for the "H" season.
While we are down island we will be shooting several film projects on various aspects of cruising, living and working aboard...More on that soonish!
The other project on the list is to finish the book project which has now grown into two books, one on boat building from the keel up and the other on the refurbishment and improvement of older boats and classic plastic. I'll admit that I am enjoying the process of writing and covering some new and different territory than what is already out there ...
Why Bikes?
2 weeks ago
