Mark Milham, Torqeedo Electric Motor Info:

Posted By: Victoria's Secret Ready to Go!
Date: 5/26/08 8:08p.m.

Report: outside forum guidelines

Here it is: That tangle of cables is the red & black electrical; a lanyard in case the motor falls off; a thick cable & padlock to thwart marine pirates. Operating this motor is intuitive. I find it much simpler than a gas engine. And at 42 lbs. (thought it was 37) I can lift it fairly easily. The Tohatsu 5hp weighed 55 lbs. Way too much for me. Tilting the motor is so easy... gas pressure springs do all the work. A plastic key (they give you two) without which the motor won't operate. The plastic key goes into the top of the motor. Not trying to be "artsy-fartsy" with this shot -- took it on garage floor with sun showing through window. This metal key is like an advanced kill switch. You insert it into a metal receiver that's wound within the cables and again, the motor won't start without it. It's precious, so I have a lanyard and a carabiner attached. I don't store this metal key on the boat -- I bring it from my car and attach the carabiner to an eye strap on the stern. Then the key can't get lost. Two types of keys: metal & plastic; two back-up systems to protect your motor from theft. The shaft is 29.3 inches long which is perfect for the Sun Cat. Two AGM batteries... quite heavy. An inconvenience: shlepping them out of the fuel storage area when you need to recharge them. I drove the boat from the Montague Municipal Marina across the lake to Moxie Marina... about 1/2 mile at 3/4 speed. There's a digital readout window on top of the motor. It was still at the original reading of 27.3 volts. Did nothing with these batteries all winter long... they stayed out in the cold storage building and didn't need a charge when I took the boat to the slip. Overall, the motor is relatively quiet (compared to a gas engine, it's a whisper). Conversation in the boat would be easy and pleasant. I hate yelling over a gas motor. And Torqeedo's a breeze to run. Even though it was my first time, I never looked back at the tiller once... controls: Forward & Reverse. What I like is that you can be going forward at a good clip and slip back into reverse without harming a "gear." So you have greater control for a rapid correction in tight quarters. The cables that come with the motor allow them to be set up to batteries 10 feet away. You connect the batteries to each other (in a series) and a short cable is included for that. We'll see how these heavy batteries in the stern affect the boat's sailing balance. I have 2 heavy-duty batteries up by the anchor compartment also, so maybe this is equivalent to sailing with a kid in the cockpit. The overall speed/power equivalency of the Cruise 2.0 model is a 6hp gas engine. I made some good headway yesterday in fierce, broadside winds. The power was there. By the way, there is a remote control available as an option. Another option that was still on the drawing board is a tiller extension, which would be nice. There are a series of holes underneath the tiller for a snap button so you can choose your length. Just for my reach, I drilled another hole to extend the reach of the tiller over the bimini when it's lying down. If I sit on the coaming when I'm coming into the docks, my reach is perfect while I operate the sail tiller. There's also a cable extension option if you have to go more than 10 feet to reach your batteries. At full throttle, which I almost never need, a 20-foot fishing boat can go for 2 hrs. at 5.3 knots per hour. At half throttle, this size boat would go for 16-1/2 hours at 2.6 knots... that's 42.9 nautical miles. Slow throttle speed and you'd get 165 nautical miles and 110 hrs. on one charge. I think that's tremendous performance. I'll probably only need to charge it once all summer. When I think of pulling cords to start those damn gas motors, I cringe. Blue murder! I would be so crippled by time I got moving away from the dock. My experience thus far? I LOVE this motor! Mark, be sure to look up www.torqeedo.com. It's a great website.