1st step in converting to electric is to remove the engine. The old Atomic 4 was refreshed and working fine after I overhauled it, but it sucks gas. Not being diesel I wasn’t comfortable with the thought of running a gas engine. Going green was the way to go, and solar and an electric engine was a go.
Never having worked on removing an engine out of a boat before, it was actually simpler than I thought. Loosening the collar on the propeller shaft and then the bolts on the gear-drive separated easily. This left the engine detached from the propeller shaft.
4 anchor bolts on the body/mounts were removed and the engine was free to pull over.
I also removed the alternator, the starter and exhaust and wiring to make it simpler for the crane to do it’s work and not have extra components to bang the cabin on it’s way out.
Thanks to Matt and the team at Harbour West for their help and my friend Rocco for helping get it to our shop so I can put it back together to either sell it or turn it into a generator. Very appreciative of the help and watching the crane was cool. I put this into a timelapse.
Hey there follow DIY retro-fitter! I’m in the same business, I just pulled the Dead Universal M25 Diesel out of my 1987 O’Day 35 here in MD and I’ve actually just purchased the same golden motor as a replacement. I’m working on the mounting plate right now, and will definitely be following your posts channel as I go! I’m hoping to be underway by the spring, heading to the St. Lawrence River. Email me sometime so we can bounce ideas off each other. Good luck!
Glad that my blog had some value to you. I wish you the best of luck on your engine overhaul. It all gets done in small steps doesn’t it! We’re still under lockdown I can’t even access my boat right now for winter work, I’ll keep the dream alive though. Cheers!
Hello Dan!
Me and my girlfriend also want to switch from diesel to electric on our sailing yacht. I watched some of your videos and I saw that you are using a 10kW BLDC motor on your North Star 1500/35. We are from the Netherlands and have a 36 foot Dutch designed one-off. She has a 26,500 lb / 12.000 kg displacement, whereas your vessel has a 12,00 lb / 5.400 kg displacement. I was think about getting the ME1302 (DLC-28) Brushless 15 kW – 38 kW Liquid-Cooled PMAC Motor 24-120V. But now I’m thinking that might be overkill. Maybe a 20kW motor is enough for our boat? We find it hard to figure out what is right for us, so we hope that you can share some of your knowledge with us :).
Greetings from the Netherlands!
Greetings from Canada! I was apprehensive in the start as I didn’t have much info and not too many people were DIY’ing it. The best advice I had was to review the efficiency stats of the motor, as the more efficient, the less power as batteries are the weakest link. The more efficient the motor means that you can motor longer on the same batteries. I think that this was valuable. In addition, my old atomic 4 was gas, and about 30% efficient. So although rated at 30HP I was likely getting 10HP. The 10KW is close/compared to 13HP and 80%+ efficient so all the power at low RPM. It’s my own thoughts but I feel I have twice the power over the atomic 4 in terms of real world results. I do believe I could have made due wit the 5KW but I am glad to have more power than I need. In a storm with 58knots blowing against me I had no issues motoring, dragging my anchor with me against it. That was a story!
Today, I changed my mounting to direct drive and I regularly use 800 watts in and out of the harbour and about 1.2 to 1.6KW to get over 3.5/4 knots. Any more than that and my battery consumption really sucks.
I hope my blog finds you some info valuable in your project. Best of luck to you! Someday I will be on your side of the world, I start my journey next year down the St Lawrence out to the sea. I am in no rush. My daughter went to the Netherlands and you have a beautiful country, it’s on my bucket list!
Greetings from Holland, starting up to get all part in for a new build with 5Kw golden motor in it.
It will be as yours direct driven, but I’m having a hard time calculating the propeller.
what size of prop did you put on the 10Kw?
Hi always nice to meet another Danny! For my prop, I kept the original Atomic 4 prop for now. It’s a Michigan Sailor 2 blade, 16RH14. I have reprogrammed my controller to only allow the RPM to reach 2500 which is close to my estimated top end. I know it’s not the best, and I am on the lookout for a 3 blade folding prop but to be honest I haven’t done any calculations. I feel that my prop is undersized for my boat, by stopping and starting power is fairly sluggish, but it’s what was on the boat originally and I wanted to compare the electric to the known performance. With the 10Kw it’s definitely got better performance over the gas, but that just might be because you have to rev the crap out of the gas before you start to get similar horse power. Best of luck to you!
Hey SVNC, thanks for the reply, being my howl life in “regular” power it’s a new ball game.
have to work now with torque instead of top end horsepower.
have the prop calculation programs at work so will give it a go Monday.
Have a good one,
Danny
I was very touch and go for me as I didn’t have a practical understanding of the changes I would experience. What translates from ‘paper’ to ‘reality’ for example. I am a touchy-feel-it type person. I ran with the best advice I could find and made sure that I had a little more than I needed. It’s been a learning curve but I am not going back to gas. No fumes and smells! Best to you and good luck! Dan.
Thanks, will report back in when I have some things running.