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Zerojet - Electric alternatives to petrol outboards

6K views 98 replies 32 participants last post by  5x5 
#1 ·
Righto team. I was going to tac this topic onto a recent post about electric outboards but for the life of me I cant find that thread now.

Thought I would share this because despite how deep the sand is where you live at some point your collective head will need to come up for air and alternatives will have to be found to petrol outboards. I can hear the blood pressure in you Texans rising as I type. Chill, have a beer fellas.

I saw this on the news tonight (in New Zealand) BOAT REVIEW ZeroJet OC350

It's early days but rest assured some clever kiwi's are working on an alternative. I am just going to come out and say it "before my life's end, Hal Chittum will put something like this into one of his skiffs".

Laugh all you want, he has already travelled to God's own land to talk carbon and resins with the world industry leaders. I am going to get more mileage from that yet.

Anyway, the way the water temp is rising in my fishery, I'll have your tarpon here within 10 years.

It's just a topic for thought. You can go back to your lives now.
 
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#8 ·
The general public is being hoodwinked with this sort of carbon reduction tact. Utility power distribution systems will need billions $ nationwide investment to handle amperage requirements to recharge this rudimentary, environmental disastrous and expensive technology. Current neighborhood transformers simply cannot handle the load recharging in an acceptable (let’s say a few hours) time. The public is not being told anything about how much the transmission infrastructure spending will increase their monthly bills nor do many understand the disposal issues with battery components or the astronomical cost of replacement that can exceed the original cost of a vehicle or in this case motor taking inflation into account. Also, the rare earth elements used are largely held by countries that are not our friends and their mining is disastrous to the Earth. This pipe dream just trades one set of problems for another and compounds it by taking yet more control from individuals. Hydrogen will be the long term innovation area, along with expanding nuclear and reprocessing of what is now disposed fuel after a once through fuel cycle. The once through nuclear fuel cycle we practice wastes 70% of available energy in a nuclear fuel core.

(Continuous power & gas utility career since 1985 backing up my statements).
 
#10 ·
So with batteries (standard not extended) roughly 260 lbs for a 20 HP. They will have to work on that, maybe a prop version would be lighter, I don't know because I know nothing about "jets". Given the instant torque of electric motors, they may be great for hole shot.
 
#12 ·
Righto team. I was going to tac this topic onto a recent post about electric outboards but for the life of me I cant find that thread now.

Thought I would share this because despite how deep the sand is where you live at some point your collective head will need to come up for air and alternatives will have to be found to petrol outboards. I can hear the blood pressure in you Texans rising as I type. Chill, have a beer fellas.

I saw this on the news tonight (in New Zealand) BOAT REVIEW ZeroJet OC350

It's early days but rest assured some clever kiwi's are working on an alternative. I am just going to come out and say it "before my life's end, Hal Chittum will put something like this into one of his skiffs".

Laugh all you want, he has already travelled to God's own land to talk carbon and resins with the world industry leaders. I am going to get more mileage from that yet.

Anyway, the way the water temp is rising in my fishery, I'll have your tarpon here within 10 years.

It's just a topic for thought. You can go back to your lives now.
🤣🤣🤣🤣
 
#13 ·
They will be just limited to California....LOL. California where in a few years you can't purchase a vehicle that uses gas but you can't charge your car during certain times because the grid can't handle the power demands.

Really, I hope that someday we get there but the technology just isn't there yet.
 
#16 ·
Really, I hope that someday we get there but the technology just isn't there yet.
This is where I'm at. I have no problem with electric cars, boats or whatever, but the technology has got to be good enough to allow for a seamless replacement. I'm not jumping in until upfront cost and lifetime cost of ownership is competitive with gas engines, range is competitive (the big one for me). Right now, pulling my boat, and driving by myself I can reasonably drive 800 miles in a day (about 12 hours) including fuel stops and piss stops. I did it a few times last summer. Electric needs to be able to compete with that including recharging stops. I also of course need performance, towing etc to be as good as gas. The power grid is going to have to improve to accommodate demand, and for it to be meaningful in terms of emissions reduction it's going to have to be "clean" power. They are going to have to suck it up and build more nuclear plants, it's the only way they can meet the increasing level of demand without burning fossil fuels.
 
#19 ·
I’ve got it figured out , this is how they are going to stop sea level rise with electric vehicles. So when they strip mine the earth to get the minerals to build the batteries, they will channel the sea water into the giant holes they’ve created. Inevitably destroying the exact thing they tried to save.
 

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#24 ·
Agenda politics and infrastructure limitations notwithstanding, it is a neat idea although not ground breaking. I first a used Torqueedo electric outboards as an auxilliary motor on small sailboats 15-ish years ago. A friend of mine put one on his Skanu and it works great for what he uses it for. I see it as a small yacht tender moreso than a poling skiff in its current design. Jets are way less efficient than propellers though. It fills a niche segment of the market and while wildly different from a poling skiff, poling skiffs are a niche market with requirements specific to their intended use. The limiting factor is the battery technology and it has a long way to go.
 
#25 ·
I mean all the complainers here are using trolling motors that are all electric already. I think its less the technology and more the cost. If you had a amped up trolling motor without the shaft to contend with and Dakota Lithium Batteries it would be a handy tool. Think 10 horse for a Kayak with and aggressive prop. You would do 25 mph!
 
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#28 ·
Paul Mills stated: ‘Thought I would share this because despite how deep the sand is where you live at some point your collective head will need to come up for air and alternatives will have to be found to petrol outboards.’

Yeah, no worries mate about the child slave labor in Africa and China to mine all those essential rare earth elements required for electric batteries. Who cares about those kids anyway, right mate? But at some point you’ll need to pull your collective head out of you know where.
 
#56 ·
This. No one stops to consider other "intangibles" like absolute slave labor to obtain those rare earths for the batteries, let alone headaches relative to disposal, sucky weight-to-power ratios, just a whole range of negatives. Not to mention that the power infrastructure is not capable of providing charging to millions of EVs. And renewables are a pipe dream. Possibly when free energy tech is released then real progress can be made; until then not happening.
 
#34 ·
Righto team. I was going to tac this topic onto a recent post about electric outboards but for the life of me I cant find that thread now.
Not sure if this was the one you are referring to that I got lambasted over. Not that I care but this thread is trending there.
 
#38 ·
I read a while back about some companies trying to solve this problem with diesel outboards. They had a lot of problems to solve but if successful diesels create a lot of power and get great gas mileage. The article mentioned the biggest issue for a diesel outboard is weight. I dont know enough about engines to know if this is even feasible but Im open to all ideas. My wifes diesel car can get 50mpg. If you can improve outboard mpg by 40-50% thats not insignifcant.
 
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