From underwater to water fueled, a new life for an old boat!
Our 1996 25' Ocean Star Catamaran had been sunk off Prince of Whales Island in Southeast Alaska. Years later we found it in the village of Hoonah sitting on a trailer. I had been looking for the right vessel to electrify for quite a while and this boat had a great hull design for electric propulsion so we bought it, and brought it to Juneau to rebuild.
After gutting the vessel we completely rewired it for pure electric propulsion. The Southeast Alaskan weather can change rapidly, and there's not always another vessel around to assist if needed so we chose to build redundancies into our design. There is no single point of failure in our electrical configurations. DC house, AC charging and DC propulsion systems are completely independent, with additional port from starboard isolation.
We chose to re-power our 4,500lb composite power catamaran with Torqeedo Cruise 10.0 RXL electric outboards x-2; Torqeedo HP 26-104 Li-NMC batteries x-8; and Torqeedo 350w chargers x-8. Total 48v. propulsion battery reserve is 20.8kWH, which is charged with hydro-electricity from an independent commercial power grid, located in the Tongass national forest. Our 12v. DC house load batteries, are charged from 2- 100w solar panels w/controller.
Top Speed is 9.6 knots and we cruise comfortably 4.5 knots for 16-20 NM (with sea-margins) w/50% reserve. For about $1.20 US per trip to operate she makes boating very affordable. We call her "Tongass Mist" because she doesn't require very much rain and or glacial runoff to recharge her. Tongass Mist actively fishes and recreates in the local waters of Juneau, Douglas and Auke Bay, Alaska.
After gutting the vessel we completely rewired it for pure electric propulsion. The Southeast Alaskan weather can change rapidly, and there's not always another vessel around to assist if needed so we chose to build redundancies into our design. There is no single point of failure in our electrical configurations. DC house, AC charging and DC propulsion systems are completely independent, with additional port from starboard isolation.
We chose to re-power our 4,500lb composite power catamaran with Torqeedo Cruise 10.0 RXL electric outboards x-2; Torqeedo HP 26-104 Li-NMC batteries x-8; and Torqeedo 350w chargers x-8. Total 48v. propulsion battery reserve is 20.8kWH, which is charged with hydro-electricity from an independent commercial power grid, located in the Tongass national forest. Our 12v. DC house load batteries, are charged from 2- 100w solar panels w/controller.
Top Speed is 9.6 knots and we cruise comfortably 4.5 knots for 16-20 NM (with sea-margins) w/50% reserve. For about $1.20 US per trip to operate she makes boating very affordable. We call her "Tongass Mist" because she doesn't require very much rain and or glacial runoff to recharge her. Tongass Mist actively fishes and recreates in the local waters of Juneau, Douglas and Auke Bay, Alaska.
