StreamDancer
Marine/Ocean
- May 12, 2006
- 8
Designing an electric powered personal fishing catamaran.
We started with two trolling motors for propulsion and differential thrust steering but the trolling motors must draft at least 15". The craft drafts only 5" and we would prefer to have propulsion wherever the boat will go.
We have recently embedded the trolling motors vertically in the hulls and attached flat-backed impellers to the shafts. We then covered the impellers flush with the hulls, exposing 90 degrees of the 360 degree rotation to the water below and also cut a 2" hole in the cover to let water into the center.
The boat actually moves forward and reverse, but very slowly. We need someone with sump pump savvy to help us improve efficiency. We know that our straight vanes are not as efficient as spiral shaped vanes, but that would prohibit reverse.
Any guidance would be appreciated,
John Zimmerlee
Marietta GA
770-565-4420
We started with two trolling motors for propulsion and differential thrust steering but the trolling motors must draft at least 15". The craft drafts only 5" and we would prefer to have propulsion wherever the boat will go.
We have recently embedded the trolling motors vertically in the hulls and attached flat-backed impellers to the shafts. We then covered the impellers flush with the hulls, exposing 90 degrees of the 360 degree rotation to the water below and also cut a 2" hole in the cover to let water into the center.
The boat actually moves forward and reverse, but very slowly. We need someone with sump pump savvy to help us improve efficiency. We know that our straight vanes are not as efficient as spiral shaped vanes, but that would prohibit reverse.
Any guidance would be appreciated,
John Zimmerlee
Marietta GA
770-565-4420
