Somebody stop me!
Please.
I'm thinking about putting a step on the bottom of my electric Windsprint.
I just use the boat with a trolling motor. It goes 3-4 knots, but I want
more range. A second battery is going to require some woodwork to mount
and stiffen the bottom, anyway.
And so I was thinking how nice it would be to have those two batteries
low down. At the center, a square sided step needs to be 24 x 7 x 9
inches deep, then faired to the stem and stern posts.
The displacement of the actual battery box on the above dimensions looks
like 54#, which is exactly what the specs show a group 27 ds battery
weighs (although, lifting it, my Exide seems heavier than that).
Displace another 50# or so for the rest of the volume, with 35-50# for
structure, and the boat should float about the same freeboard on a 12" draft.
All the PB&F step sharpies have straight sided sponsons too, I think,
but that doesn't seem an absolute requirement.
The main drawback for me is probably throwing away the car topping,
which I now do quite well using a Quick-N-Easy roller bar rack. I just
go to pretty mild water, but would not want to reduce the ability for
dealing with sudden Bayliner wakes.
I want a boat to camp the islands of the Columbia River estuary, far
from the steamer lanes.
Is this too goofy for words? Or does anybody here think this could work?
Thanks,
Mark
I'm thinking about putting a step on the bottom of my electric Windsprint.
I just use the boat with a trolling motor. It goes 3-4 knots, but I want
more range. A second battery is going to require some woodwork to mount
and stiffen the bottom, anyway.
And so I was thinking how nice it would be to have those two batteries
low down. At the center, a square sided step needs to be 24 x 7 x 9
inches deep, then faired to the stem and stern posts.
The displacement of the actual battery box on the above dimensions looks
like 54#, which is exactly what the specs show a group 27 ds battery
weighs (although, lifting it, my Exide seems heavier than that).
Displace another 50# or so for the rest of the volume, with 35-50# for
structure, and the boat should float about the same freeboard on a 12" draft.
All the PB&F step sharpies have straight sided sponsons too, I think,
but that doesn't seem an absolute requirement.
The main drawback for me is probably throwing away the car topping,
which I now do quite well using a Quick-N-Easy roller bar rack. I just
go to pretty mild water, but would not want to reduce the ability for
dealing with sudden Bayliner wakes.
I want a boat to camp the islands of the Columbia River estuary, far
from the steamer lanes.
Is this too goofy for words? Or does anybody here think this could work?
Thanks,
Mark