Whether electric or internal combustion, outboards are a simple solution with no complicated stern tubes to be led out of the hull below the waterline and, for engines under about 20hp, no holes in the transom have to be made.Ī fit-and-forget system with all the controls etc provided by the engine manufacturer, it is also a system that is almost infinitely variable with lots of choices of power supply for an owner. And being the new technology on the block it can’t match petrol outboards on price. What it cannot do is match the petrol boat on both parameters.
Or an electric boat can match the petrol on speed for a very short duration. They’re mainly fitted to power boats.įor a small, high performance motorboat, the excellent power to weight ratio of a well tuned outboard is hard to beat These forms of getting power into the water still use propellers but drive them through slightly different mechanisms. However there are other ways of putting that thrust into the water, especially when we consider vessels beyond cruising yachts, and these installations can be electrically powered too. Saildrives have bellows and seals that require regular checking and replacement and are principally made of aluminium that’s permanently under the waterline – requiring a degree of monitoring that a stainless steel propeller shaft with a bronze propeller on the end of it does not. Of these two, a conventional propshaft drive is the simpler and cheaper to maintain. But having talked about diesel inboard engines and their replacement, perhaps a few words on other types of installation wouldn’t go amiss.Ĭonventional power units for cruising yachts, and I use the word ‘power’ to encompass electric power as well, usually drive through a propeller shaft or a sail drive. The usual scheme of things is we choose a boat on a myriad of parameters, of which one is the boat propulsion system. Rarely do we get to choose how our boats are powered.
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