My Electric Boats

I have built one electric boat and am working on another. I'm always looking for ideas and thought this book might help. Information on hulls contained in this book would have been a big help and would have saved me a lot of work and money on the first boat.My main interest was in power plants. Here is where the book really disappointed me. There are all sorts of practical ways of powering an electric boat and he presented some in good detail, while totally ignoring others which I consider more practical. What was odd to me was that he spent most of his time discussing a motor that does not exist. Moreover, this second edition seems to leave out some practical bits that were in the first edition.He did a fair discussion of batteries that are readily available and those coming available. He never touched on what may be the best, albeit hardest to get, choice.In my opinion, more effort should have been placed on practical power plants and batteries and less on ideals and theories.He could have used a little more diversity in boat types too, but that was a minor concern.Electric boats are fun and practical. Mine will go 80 miles on a charge, if I take it easy! If you are just starting out this book will be a big help to you, but it is not the last word on practical electric boating.

For anyone with a serious interest in DIY EV this book is great. I was curious about what kinds of motors I should be looking for and how controllers worked and this book did a great job of explaining it in a practical means that anyone can understand.

The author did an incredible job of journaling all his experiments with electric motor propulsion on his various sailboats.Electric propulsion is NOT mainstream yet for the boating world, but books like this will help people think about it and try their own experiments.B

think I bought the wrong book

Excellent, thank you

I purchased this book based on an article I read online where the inverter from a honda civic hybrid was used as a speed controller. No where in the book does it mention anything of the use of the speed controller. It briefly mentions the drives hybrid cars use and their voltages and how he found 36 or 48 volts to be the best. I feel like I was ripped off. Its basically a reprint of Electric Propulsion for Boats

Completely out of date with today’s technology. May have been useful 10 years ago. Someone should write a relevant electric conversation book.