solar electric boat needs more boyancy

hi bluebell,

I answered your questions in the previous reply.

Another problem I have is boat creep. I keep adding stuff. I added nav lights and forward flood lights last fall. then I took it out a few times at night before the snow came. boating at midnight as the only one on the lake is really quite quite an experience. the wildlife that comes out in the early morning hours is amazing.

 

boating at midnight at cutler canyon dam

 

Nighttime and most especially full moon electric boating is quite an experience!

I don’t think moving your deck forward a foot will do much, and it might adversely affect handling and introduce more cavitation/ventilation of props.

Do you have cavitation/ventilation plates on the motors?

Again the problem with the Classic hulls is the amount of rocker in them.

As you shift weight forward like a rocking horse, once you get past a certain point, the bows will start to plunge and stuff more easily.

One thought is if you don’t mind taking an efficiency hit, you might consider adding tubes along the insides of each hull up near the tops just under the thick deck to hull joint. You can drill through that lip to anchor the “buoyancy assist” tubes without compromising the hulls.

The tubes would be hidden so you can keep your look, and they would add some assist (and drag of course) with one aboard, but then really help to offset the extra weight of passengers while also increasing stability.

There’s a fellow on YouTube I think that experimented with this on a plastic sailing dinghy (Walker Bay if I remember correctly) by adding large diameter irrigation tubing around the perimeter to increase buoyancy and stability similar to the pontoon skirts added to jet skis these days by big wave surfers which protect surfers from being struck, but also help stabilize the ski and allow it to carry more gear.

 

Interesting responses Scott.

Sounds like you're stuck adding more buoyancy
( which I might add, will add more weight ).

You have entered the world of "one-foot-itis".

Good luck.

 

I spent the last two days working with my son to move the deck forward 14 inches. we took it out to the lake and tied it to the ramp. the improvement was much more than I thought it would be. the boat is no longer low at the stern. you can now stand at the back of the boat without the tops of the pontoons going under water. it makes much more use of the mid-pontoon buoyancy.

maybe I don't need another pontoon after all. once I get the motors remounted I will take it for a test ride.

 

Nice

Nice!
You can calculate it with the volume of water the hulls will displace for every inch drop in the water.
That way, if you have 3-4 inches left before the hull drop under water, you will know how much XXX pounds you can add.

 

P

 

I have moved the deck forward about 14 inches. This has improved the bow to stern balance issues. I am now thinking that the original buoyancy is enough for what I would like to do without adding another pontoon.

Thanks so much for all your help