Our solar-powered dinghy (Posted 3/14/2010)

Everywhere we go people are always asking us about our "solar-powered" electric motor dinghy which is very unusual. Most people use a stinky, finicky, smelly, noisy, polluting gasoline outboard motor for their dinghy. Our electric trolling motor on our 8 foot dinghy elicits a lot of questions such as, "How do you recharge the battery?", "How far can you go before re-charging?", "Does it have enough power?", "How do you like the electric motor?", "Does the solar panel provide all the charging?", etc.

During the 4 years we have been cruising and living aboard Enchantress, we have always used an electric motor (except for about 8 months when I got "stupid" and bought a used 3.3 hp gasoline "infernal combustion" engine (AKA, an outboard motor). I spent that 8 months pretending I was a mechanic, cussing, taking the carburetor off numerous times and cleaning it, cussing, fiddling with it, cussing, going deaf from the noise, cussing like a sailor, etc.

To answer everyone's questions, we have been very pleased with the electric motor and HATED the "infernal combustion" engine when we had it!!! The electric motor starts every time with none of the pulling and pulling on a starter cord, choking the engine, cussing and cussing, etc. that the outboard motor required. It has never failed to take us where we want to go, no matter how hard the wind was blowing. It has plenty of power but you just can't go as fast as you could with an outboard motor. It certainly moves us as fast as I could row and any faster would just get us wet from spray anyway.

We recently added a solar panel to the dinghy and it is now totally solar-powered, no need to charge the battery with a charger as we did originally. The solar panel provides so much charging that I had to install a solar controller to prevent the battery from being overcharged! There is plenty of charge in the very small half-size U1, 31 amp-hour deep cell battery for our trips to and from the boat to the marina each day. The answer to "How far can you go on a charge?" is probably about 2 miles. If we installed a larger regular size deep cell battery, we could probably go 4 miles.

Here is a photo of our solar-powered dinghy:

When the wind is behind us either going into the marina or returning to the boat we use our "Mary Poppins" spinnaker (a golf umbrella!) to sail and save some amps for when we need them. Everyone in the harbor always gets a big kick out of this and gives us the "thumbs up". I tell them I am just trying not to be a hog and use up all the solar energy so that they can still get their tan! right?". Of course, occassionally someone comes over in their dinghy to "rescue" us as they think our outboard must have quit! Then I say, "No, we're fine, just out for a sail!" (GRIN)

Here is a photo of us using our "Mary Poppins" spinnaker sail:

So our reasons for having a solar-powered electric dinghy have nothing to do with "saving the environment", "reducing pollution", or giving Al Gore and the other "Global Warming" nuts a good night's sleep! We have it because it is much more reliable, less expensive, requires less maintenance and is QUIET! The less "infernal combustion" engines I have to deal with the better!! We also have a sailing rig for the dinghy (mostly just for fun sailing around a harbor) and can also row the dinghy with oars.

By the way, Enchantress has her own solar panels which provide us with most of our power. They power the refrigerator, lights, marine radio, cell phone charger, etc. We do have to run a gasoline generator with an "infernal combustion" engine for Linda's sewing machine, the color TV/DVD, and for the electric heater when it is cold. But we use a very small amount of gasoline to run the small generator.