Electric Power Cat Shuttle

[Midnightsun]

Got to ride my first 100% electric powered boat. This is a perfect application where the runs are short and vessel is parked every evening. About a 20 minute ride at most from the airport to the resort. They can do this 4 times a day (back and forth) without recharging with room to spare. The resort owns 2 of these which is more than enough for all their needs even in the busiest of times. Not sure how fast she can cruise but I doubt not much over my estimated 10 knots we were travelling. Obviously no vibration whatsoever and no noise at all. Pure bliss.

Also comes equipped with solar built in to the roof which helps some but I question the need with such a small amount it produces compared to what is required. They plug in every night when the cat is secured for the evening.

IMHO general boating is far from being ready for electric propulsion however this case is an exception and as mentioned a perfect application with todays battery technology. As battery development gets better, it may rule the boating world one day however I think this will be for the next generation to entertain.

IMG_3524.jpeg

IMG_3523.jpeg

[RGrew176]

Some day perhaps but for those of us old school boaters not yet. Limited use in certain situations yes.

[km1125]

With those narrow CAT hulls I bet it uses less power and has a bit higher hull speed than a big monohull. Not a bad application for something that never more than several miles from a destination (at one end or the other). Could probably even do some recharging while passengers are boarding/discharging at both ends if they really needed to.

[Midnightsun]

The maintenance expense must be close to nothing on one of these. Nothing really to service except maybe a shaft seal every few years or so and regular cleaning of the boat.

No more temp or oil pressure or any gauges left except maybe a battery percentage indicator and rpm. Will take a picture of the cockpit when we leave and try to get a little more info from the captain.

[Midnightsun]

As promised here is a little more info. The boat is setup just like a Tesla. High voltage for the motors (around 360v) and a (low voltage) 24v volt system for electronics. The solar panels embedded into the roof serve to charge the 24v system only as there is no dc to dc converter on their system however being in French Polynesia sunshine is not a problem.

Take a look at what would be rpm gauges where there is also displayed a KW reading in the centre which obviously will vary depending on motor output.

The smaller upper centre battery indicator shows the low voltage system @ 27.9v @ 83% capacity drawing 5.8 amps

The 2 lower, left and right battery indicator are the main batteries that run the engines. As shown they are at 61% capacity @ 359V drawing 70.5A each. Below that one can see 1h 16m which is the estimated run time left at this speed which is presently at 8.7 knots. Max speed is around 11 knots but range would suffer.

IMG_3811.jpg

IMG_3808.jpg

Surprised to see they have the same Ultra anchor I installed on Midnight.

IMG_3807.jpg

Boat is manufactured by Soel Yachts. https://soelyachts.com/synew/

IMG_3809.jpg

[pepmyster]

Thanks for sharing Hans!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Viper]

Hans, any indication that they are monitoring motor temps?

[Midnightsun]

Viper,

It's there between the low voltage battery gauge and each RPM/Kw gauge. they monitor both controller and motor temps.

Also shown is water temp @38C (100F) inside the speedometer. Needless to say, very comfortable for swimming. a whole lot of information on a single screen as opposed to 10 gauges for each engine like in the past.

Same way with cars nowadays, everything going digital to a screen.

Screenshot 2024-03-05 at 12.14.12 AM.png

[Viper]

Cool.