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Motors


Dave R1

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Hey there. With the sailing season creeping up soon here in Minnesota, I've been working on getting the boat ready for it. I've been thinking I want to add a motor but since I can't afford anything like Mike's 9.9 Honda I figure I'm looking at an electric motor.

Any opinions on thrust needs for a Weekender? I'm thinking about a Minnkota Endura 46.

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It will work, at least it will work if you don't have to fight any currents. If you are in a river or have tides like Ray gets in Maine, then you have to time your excursions or "go with the flow," as they say.

But if its flat lake water, the electric will do fine. Always keep the battery topped off, and fully charged. You can use the handy MinnKota charts to see how much juice you need to run a certain number of hours.

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One problem with using an electric trolling motor for auxiliary propulsion in a sailboat is that the propellers they come with have a very low pitch, designed to move big heavy bassboats slowly. Their top speed is therefore limited regardless of the amount of thrust available. (low pitch is kind of like low gear in an automobile good for pulling, but not for speed). For a light sailboat, giving up pulling power for speed is probably a good trade off.

There aren't many propeller options available, but Kipawa Propellers makes a higher pitched prop that might be useful.

3123746.jpg

I have one that I'm modifying to fit the 30 lb motor I use on my catboat, but haven't finished or conducted speed trials yet.

A higher pitch would provide a higher speed through the water and allow you to fight faster currents than the stock trolling motor prop. I don't know how much faster, though.

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On this topic I am a 'as much as you can afford' dude.

Although I have said this before on this forum (somewhere), I use an older 6hp Johnson on my WE and it is not too much. Yes it is big, and kind of ugly...but man, it is so cool to have that power back there.

I have had the opportunity to try a smaller 2hp gas and didn't like it at all.

I have towed up to two more sailboats out to 'the wind' when becalmed and I can make headway in any conditions if needs be. I can't imagine you guys in the saltchuck using those electrics. :shock:

But then, that new prop might just be the ticket for the electric lads who are not getting enough jam.

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I e-mailed these folks and asked for a suggestion as to what trolling motor they think would be appropriate. I told them I've got a 16' sailboat that, with 3 adults on board totals about 1200 lbs. They seemed to thing something like Minn Kota's 46 lb thrust motor would be appropriate. They didn't go into details about why.

The steeper pitch on the prop ought to load the motor a bit more than the OEM prop and increasing current draw. I wonder if the higher thrust motors are able to handle this better than the lower thrust units. I don't know enough about the motors used in trolling motors to be able to know for sure.

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Practical Sailor had an article about using a Minn-Kota Riptide 55# thrust motor on their dinghy (November 15, 2004 issue). It pushes their 70 pound dinghy at about 4 knots. At half throttle, they estimate it will have a couple of hours of run time, but about half that speed. They talked to Minn-Kota, and the company said the motors are not built for 100% usage all the time ... they have a customer who uses them for bumper boats in an amusement park and he replaces the brushes frequently. The company thought Practical Sailor's 12 minutes of full throttle, with a cool down time afterwards, would probably be OK.

They asked for reader reaction to the trolling motor issue. Several people wrote in to say that they use them for larger boats, up to several thousand pounds, and that once you get some momentum going they work fine. All of them said they have gas powered backup, but that silent running in the harbor, the electrics worked fine.

I would think an electric would work fine for a Weekender or Vacationer sized boat for getting away from and back to the dock. You aren't going to get fast with these, even with a performance prop, but with fresh water electrics under $200, I think the trade offs are probably worth it.

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Dave,

I have a MinnKota PowerMax 47 (47# thrust) on my weekender. It works great on MN lakes. We sail on a lake where the boat ramp is separated from the main lake by a 1/2 mile channel. The motor has pushed our weekender through that channel against a 18 knot headwind without a problem at half throttle.

So, I would not worry about the 45 Endura you're considering. As for the battery, we got a 80 Amp Hour deep cycle and never have run out of battery juice.

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This spring I bought a refurbished 36# MinKota from Cabela's (which has 250,000 sq. ft. store 20 miles west of my parent's home in Allentown) for $99 (I think). Unfortunately, I haven't been able to use it yet. You will probably have to reregister your boat if you're adding a motor.

I have the fresh water type and I can return it. How much of a difference is there between the salt and fresh water models? What if I were to use motor in brakish or salt water? What if I were to modify it like the Stevensons did on this following web site: http://www.stevproj.com/EMotorIdeas.html which I intend to do eventually?

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