Nordic 17 Putt Putt Electric

[Lonesome Boatman]

In the days of planing hulls and powerful outboards I have decided to go retro and electric for my next fishing platform. I have been looking for Australian built fibreglass small displacement hulls and there are none being built anymore. I have come across the Nordic 17 which was built by Ideal Marine Sydney in the eighties in either a open or half cabin version. They were used as hire boats on Sydney waterways apparently and it appears numerous were built. I am trying to find one as a fixer upper to remove the small inboard diesel and fit a inboard direct drive 6kw electric motor hooked up to a 400ah @ 48Volt LiFeEPO4 battery pack. By using a Nordic 17 which is very easily driven I would be able to achieve a 6 to 8 hour run time at 5 knots. The Nordics are double ended, have high free board, great lines, very stable and well built. Also for a number of other reasons I have decided that a Nordic 17 is the best option for my electric conversion, but finding one suitable to convert has proved difficult. I am appealing for help to locate a Nordic 17 or any other information about these boats. If you have seen any about let me know and I will follow it up.N17.jpg

[tug_tellum]

Love the look of them. I would stick with the diesel.Putt Putt Putt Putt Great sound. My opinion only
Tug

[Noelm]

There's still a couple of old wooden open putt putts in use near me, most just disappear when the owners either pass away, or just can't use them anymore, there was a fantastic ex Navy 20' that was so well built and maintained, you would swear it was fibreglass, until you looked inside, had a small twin cylinder diesel and was pretty speedy, don't know where it went, a truck turned up and a crane, lifted it from the water and away it went.

[Chimo]

If you cannot find one there is always this sort of thing, https://www.boatsales.com.au/boats/d...=0&pss=Premium

Cheers
Chimo

[Chimo]

or https://www.gumtree.com.au/s-ad/sydn...ss-/1145098070

[Chimo]

Ready to go (but is there an issue ) https://www.gumtree.com.au/s-ad/lane...nch/1148563291

[Chimo]

Or then there is this https://www.scarboroughengineering.c...ass-hulls.html

[Lonesome Boatman]

Thanks for the links, I have checked them all out and still prefer to try and find a neglected Nordic 17. The Scarborough Eng 18ft clinker looks interesting. With the cost of electric motor, controller and batteries I need to find a Nordic 17 which will be a straight forward conversion to electric and keep my budget in control. There must be one sitting in a paddock somewhere waiting to be put back in the water.

[Chimo]

This one is not too neglected looks good but........https://www.boatsales.com.au/boats/d...15&pss=Premium

Cheers
Chimo

[Lonesome Boatman]

Hi Chimo Thanks yes that is a great boat, I also have found one in Brisbane for sale. Both have had recent rebuilds. Unfortunately my pockets are not deep enough for this project to buy a refurbished boat. Plus I will be removing perfectly good propulsion systems and carrying out extensive modifications to the bilge area to fit the battery pack. I will keep looking as I may be able find one that needs a engine replacement that I can buy for a reasonable price. I am hoping someone has one one which will meet my needs.r

[Chimo]

As a matter of interest what would it cost to set up an electric unit?
I guess your also including solar panels an lots of big batteries etc ?

CF to th small nani ie 7HP I think the one I found had, what is the performance difference?

Chimo

[chocolatemoose]

the savage dolphins are now being remanufactured here in melbourne. classic hull australian design. ive been looking at one myself for a company boat. im a bit over big glass boats with big outboards.
now looking at something slightly bigger.

would love to here how you go.

[Chimo]

Here is a bigger one for you.

Be a nice trip Qld to Melb if you pick your days.

https://www.boatsales.com.au/boats/d...=0&pss=Premium

[Lonesome Boatman]

Ball park figures for high end quality Electric Boat gear after shopping around on the net. About $12000 all up. Add a hull even a cheapie will take the project over 20K

1; 5kw brushless DC high torque low RPM motor, controller, contactors, throttle, switches, fuses and cable. $4000.
2; 48 Volt Charger, Solar Charge Controller & DC-DC Converter $2000
3: Solar Panels 1kw $1000
2; LiFePO4 48 volt 150AH battery bank with BMS. $5000.
The cost's can be reduced by going to flooded lead acid golf car batteries which is what most of the electric boats use or other cheaper components. LiFePO4 Lithium batteries are the best as they will last over 10 years with a BMS (Battery management system) Plus they put out higher voltage's for longer. Also heaps lighter than golf car batteries and take up a lot less room. LiFePO4 - 100Wh/kg The Tesla car batteries have 350wh/kg.

The technical conversion is 1.35hp = 1kw. A 5kw electric motor is 6.75hp
I have not had much to do with outboards but from my experience of diesel and petrol inboard motors generally the performance rating is at the engine shaft. With power losses through the gearbox the shaft horse power will be less. As an example a old worn 7hp Nanni may have only 5hp at the prop shaft. What is more important with a displacement Putt Putt boat is torque. A DC brushless motor has full torque as soon as it start to rotates, unlike internal combustion engines which are idling and as the revolutions increase so does the torque. This is the reason why coal trains are diesel/electric, only a electric motor has the torque to get them moving from standstill. With the higher torque from a 5kw electric compared to the worn 7hp Nanni a larger or increased pitch prop could be used to increase boat speed. Other advantages of DC brushless motors are, direct drive, no gearbox, long motor life, no brushes to replace,no moving parts only a couple of bearings. Disadvantages are obviously protecting it all from water and moisture, the electronic controllers can fail, and the elephant in the room, the watt hours required in battery storage to get a decent run time. Bang for your buck watt hours per kg of fossil fuels will never be beat.

[Chimo]

Very interesting project.

A positive return on investment is hard for me to comprehend particularly given the very vulnerable setting electrical fittings are being placed in and the comparitive cost of more conventional propulsion such as the Nani or other small diesel motors.

As science project it would be fun but then what?

$8 k for one without a motor used to be electric?
$18 for one ready to go ............. with diesel