Photo: Nick ParsonNew Power for Old Classics
If you can hone in on what brings you joy on the water and trim the excess, you could find yourself a little closer to perfection with clean, quiet electric propulsion.
The electric boats you will read about below are providing memorable experiences exploring the coast, and bringing people closer together in beautiful places. Some are cruising far and wide with solar power. Some are making day trips to favorite swimming spots, wild islands and dockside ice cream shops. All of them are making headway quietly, at modest speeds, with no direct emissions and hardly a wake to disturb the seal on a nearby ledge or the heron fishing in the marsh grass.
So please get in touch and let’s have a conversation about electric propulsion. It’ll be fun to talk about the things you love the most on the water, and it might surprise you to discover that you can do all those things without filling a fuel tank ever again.
Ellery Brown
ellery@hylanandbrown.com
(207) 505-0296
Our Facilities
We received a Spark Grant from The Island Institute to help us install an off-grid shore power system on our pier in the Benjamin River.
The system includes an 800 W solar array, and a Victron LiFePO4 battery bank and inverter/charger in a weatherproof stainless steel box. The grant also helped us replace our 15 hp gas outboard with an ePropulsion Navy 6.0 electric outboard and 9 kWh of LiFePO4 batteries.
The electric skiff conversion and solar shore power went live in September, which happens to be the time of year our yard skiff sees the heaviest use. We are ferrying crew out to boats, downrigging, decommissioning, and pushing boats large and small onto trailers for haul out. We were very pleased to observe that the solar shorepower system kept up with our usage with plenty of power to spare.
In addition to charging our electric work skiff and our growing fleet of custom electric boats, having power on the dock will help us to employ shop tools on the pier for in-the-water repairs and more efficient commissioning.
