I've bought a boat!
It's a 1976 Catalac 9M catamaran, older than me. Now it had two 30HP perkins diesel motors. These were completely overpowered for a sailboat like this, they usually have two 10HP diesels. They're also really heavy, and smell like diesels. This is a major problem for my wife, as she is part bloodhound and would simply not live on a boat that smells of diesel.
So the diesels have been removed, along with the gearboxes, shafts, and propellors. Then as I like things simple, I've decided to replace them with two 6kW ePropulsion outboards. This also frees up a huge amount of space in the giant engine bays that I have other uses in mind for.
Then in terms of batteries I'm thinking of a 16S1P pack of Eve 280AH cells or similar for just over 14kwh of power. I could be persuaded to go for a 16S2P or two 16S1P packs, which would increase range, but I'm tempted not to as I think the 1P pack would be enough battery for my typical use, and I like the idea of lightening the boat somewhat. Another option would be to put a Yamaha 9.9 outboard for added range/redundancy, but if that can be avoided I'd rather do that.
To keep it all charged my plan is for somewhere between 2800w and 3600w of solar, made up of between seven and nine Sunpower Maxeon 3 400w panels. These will be all in parallel to avoid shading issues, and run to three 48v Victron Smartsolar 100/20 MPPT charge controllers.
From someone I know with a similar boat, he gets around 5 knots on 2500 watts of power, so in good sunlight I could motor a very long way and still have power for using at night. When not motoring, the large battery pack will send power to a 48v inverter, to give my wife some of the creature comforts of home, such as hot showers, a washing machine, and all the electricity she wants for other things.
In our current apartment we use around 10kwh per day, and the amount of panels on the boat should support that on non-motoring days.
The 12v bank will be a 4S1P pack of the same batteries, charged by a DC to DC.
I've attached some pictures, but note that they're 3+ years old from before the boat was stored on land, so it's quite a lot worse for wear. As I plan to live onboard I'm willing to put in the time and money to get it back into even better condition again.
Happy to hear your thoughts, and if you have any better ideas on what to do.
It's a 1976 Catalac 9M catamaran, older than me. Now it had two 30HP perkins diesel motors. These were completely overpowered for a sailboat like this, they usually have two 10HP diesels. They're also really heavy, and smell like diesels. This is a major problem for my wife, as she is part bloodhound and would simply not live on a boat that smells of diesel.
So the diesels have been removed, along with the gearboxes, shafts, and propellors. Then as I like things simple, I've decided to replace them with two 6kW ePropulsion outboards. This also frees up a huge amount of space in the giant engine bays that I have other uses in mind for.
Then in terms of batteries I'm thinking of a 16S1P pack of Eve 280AH cells or similar for just over 14kwh of power. I could be persuaded to go for a 16S2P or two 16S1P packs, which would increase range, but I'm tempted not to as I think the 1P pack would be enough battery for my typical use, and I like the idea of lightening the boat somewhat. Another option would be to put a Yamaha 9.9 outboard for added range/redundancy, but if that can be avoided I'd rather do that.
To keep it all charged my plan is for somewhere between 2800w and 3600w of solar, made up of between seven and nine Sunpower Maxeon 3 400w panels. These will be all in parallel to avoid shading issues, and run to three 48v Victron Smartsolar 100/20 MPPT charge controllers.
From someone I know with a similar boat, he gets around 5 knots on 2500 watts of power, so in good sunlight I could motor a very long way and still have power for using at night. When not motoring, the large battery pack will send power to a 48v inverter, to give my wife some of the creature comforts of home, such as hot showers, a washing machine, and all the electricity she wants for other things.
In our current apartment we use around 10kwh per day, and the amount of panels on the boat should support that on non-motoring days.
The 12v bank will be a 4S1P pack of the same batteries, charged by a DC to DC.
I've attached some pictures, but note that they're 3+ years old from before the boat was stored on land, so it's quite a lot worse for wear. As I plan to live onboard I'm willing to put in the time and money to get it back into even better condition again.
Happy to hear your thoughts, and if you have any better ideas on what to do.