Off her lines?

[L124C]

Posted this in another forum, and now realize it was probably the wrong one. This Hunter 30 was retrofit with an electric motor. The owner told me he had a tough time finding space for 12 Batteries (I'll bet!). The boot stripe at the Stearn and top of the rudder are well out of the water (not a great photo, I know). Don't know if the new motor has anything to do with it, but it appears to me she is totally off her lines, and has to be adversely affected under sail. Yes, No, thoughts?

[scottyt]

ya thats bad, i bet it broaches and turns up in to the wind real easy now.

[SEMIJim]

Originally Posted by L124C

... it appears to me she is totally off her lines, and has to be adversely affected under sail.

One would think. As scottyt suggested: I imagine she's much more prone to heading up and broaching.

People do the strangest, and most unfortunate things, to boats

Jim

[WanderingStar]

It's the batteries. All that lead had to go somewhere. Move them aft or add ballast. Or decrease the number of batteries and sail more.

[L124C]

I don't know what the electric motor would weigh, but (off the top of my head) I think a decent deep cell weighs about 60 pounds. 10 at 60 pounds (assuming he already had two) is 600 pounds. I would think he could have fit several batteries where his fuel tank used to be. My Yanmar weighs 210 dry, then there is oil and fuel, of course. I assume the electric motor has a transmission, but don't know how it would compare. I'm sure if I was really that interested, I could search and find plenty of info here. Seems like a noble idea, but what a nightmare! The good news is, I didn't think a steaming sailboat made much noise until I saw this boat glide by! Very stealthy, but it sure doesn't look right!

[n0w0rries]

I saw an Islander 28 with an electric drive. No tranny. They didn't remove the fuel tank and put batteries there because there was no access to it--they would have had to cut the deck up to get it out.

[newpbs]

It seems to me that you could relocate weight on board to balance the boat again. The removal of the original engine would certainly change the balance of the boat and effect the sailing of the boat as well. It looks like the small electric motor that you have would only weigh a fraction of what the original motor and transmission weighed. If the batteries are forward move them aft.

Good Luck,

Paul

[L124C]

Originally Posted by n0w0rries

I saw an Islander 28 with an electric drive. No tranny. They didn't remove the fuel tank and put batteries there because there was no access to it--they would have had to cut the deck up to get it out.

Interesting. I would have been tempted to cut the tank out and place batteries there as the weight would have replicated the weight from the fuel the boat was designed to carry. Unless by "no access" you mean that there was no access to the compartment at all, in which case, it would be a terrible design IMO. Thats a lot of space to go unused in a small boat. Maybe they were not fully committed to the electric concept yet. I would have to be fully committed before I would make a radical move like that!

[bheintz]

Originally Posted by L124C

Posted this in another forum, and now realize it was probably the wrong one. This Hunter 30 was retrofit with an electric motor. The owner told me he had a tough time finding space for 12 Batteries (I'll bet!). The boot stripe at the Stern and top of the rudder are well out of the water (not a great photo, I know). Don't know if the new motor has anything to do with it, but it appears to me she is totally off her lines, and has to be adversely affected under sail. Yes, No, thoughts?

Are you concerned with the aesthetics of how the boat looks sitting at the dock? Rather than a static photo of the boat at the dock, you need to see how the boat performs under sail. Once the boat is up to hull speed, the stern section will be deeper in the water.

While underway inspect how the water streams off the stern. Usually boats have a tendency to squat when sailing even though they are on their lines at the dock.

A Hunter 30 is relatively small to the extent that weight placement will make a big difference. Moving all or some of the batteries aft would be noticeable but perhaps unnecessary. The same result could be attained by filling the lazaret with sails and other clutter. If your cruising with five people that could be 600-1000 lb sitting in the cockpit.

Rather than fussing over getting the trim just right at the dock, I'd take it out in a few different wind conditions to see if changes are really essential.

[Jeff_H]

We have had two Hunter 30's in our family. Both were sweet sailing boats but like any 30 footer, a bit sensitive to weight trim. Given my experience with these boats, being that far out of trim would really screw up the sailing ability of the boat in moderate to heavy air. It might also make it hard to track in light winds. Normally when change a boat over to electric drive, great care must be taken in where you place the batteries and in adding trim ballast to get the boat to sit on her lines.

Jeff