Heres the preliminary report on the "Dragon Drive" (named by my 15 year old son, who claimed young people are not getting into sailing because it's not marketed in an exciting enough manor)
In short, I could not be happier with the performance. It has far more power than I need or hoped for and uses far less power. heres the MPH/amp break down (measured on flat water and calm winds);
I installed 4 standard group 27 deep cycle marine batteries that claim 77 amp/hours at a 25 amp draw, that totals 308 amps.
I'm running a 12X10 two bladed prop and the boat accelerates and stops like right now! I can enter my slip at 2 knots and stop before the bow hits. I do get some tiller vibration and prop noise when I crank her way up and expect the prop is too big for the aperture. I'm going to cut it down to a 11X10.
I ended up using a golf cart throttle pot. It has a fairly strong return spring in case it gets hit accidentlly and a 1/4 turn on the knob will hold a power setting. one switch for on/off, one switch for fwd/rev, and a ammeter.
Last edited by Commander227; 05-08-2009 at 04:56 PM.
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