We have the technology
 

I had been thinking about adding a motor to one of my kayaks for a couple years now, I know some people hate the idea of a motorized kayak but whatever, I don't have money for a boat so my kayak is my yacht. Anyways I never liked the options for motors, one hand you have the torqueedo which in my opinion is noisy and expensive and you can only use their battery. Other option is a trolling motor which is way overpowered, heavy, bulky and inefficient.

Finally I think we may have another option, the T200 from blue robotics which is currently in there last day of a kick starter campaign. If they reach there next stretch goal they will make the T200 thruster which is a brushless 10lbs thrust ducted motor that is pretty efficient, weights about a pound, has a integrated speed controller that is aundrino compatible.
I'm put in my pledge for one so I can play around with it. My goal is to turn it into a efficient trolling motor style motor with a waterproof servo steering.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects...water-thruster

I know the delivery date for the thruster is a while out but is anyone else interested in something like this?

the real money comes in on the battery. You will pay for it via price or how backbreaking heavy it is.

Yep that's what it seems to come down to. But knowing what battery's cost I can't justify shelling out the cash for the torqueedo battery. The torqueedo battery cost $800 for a 29.6v 11ah battery. That is a fairly small capacity for that premium. Can build yourself quite a lite battery for that much

I don't thinks the T100 would help much .... You would need 6 of them to come close to the Torqueedo.

The thrust is pretty week:
t100 (Kickstarter)
Thrust (forward): 5.2 lbf

Torqueedo Ultralight 403
Thrust (forward) 33lbf

They have a T200 which is 10lbs of thrust. One should be sufficient if not two would be.
Plus 30lbs of thrust is not needed to get a kayak moving 4-5mph, as this website shows http://www.keelhauler.org/khcc/seakayak.htm to move a kayak roughly the size of a trident 15 it would only take 4.5lbs of thrust to move the kayak 4mph which is faster than most of us can sustain long distances on a paddel kayak anyways. By no means do I claim to be good at math but if my math serves me right average human sustained power output is around 300watts on a bike. Paddling is far less efficent, and the t200 max output is 260-300 watt which should just about match human output. Now the motors are vastly more efficient at lower power outputs so if you used two T200 thrusters assuming the power curve isabout the same as the graph for the T100, the t100 uses 40watts at 3lbs of thrust. The T200 should have double the output and if you use two T200 that would be around 80watts a motor with 6lbs thrust each so total of 160watts at 12lbs of thrust which should move your kayak and your buddy holding on behind you nicely with a max output of 20lbs thrust at 520-600watts.
So in theory it should work just fine with one T200 motor but I'll probably try with 2 just to keep the motors in there optimal efficiency range.

I missed the T200, 300watts on bicycle seems like a really high number. My son used to race road bikes and had a Powermeter that measured wattage, he was faster than most adults and his sustained wattage would be around 270 with a peak of about 400watts during a sprint. I find it hard to believe the average cyclist can put out 300 watts.

Below is ride a ride did last year tons of elevation so alot wattage was used, Back then, I was faster than the average rider .... fat ass now (long story).

http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o...co/Capture.png

I am not trying to say your theory is not true, I just think the wattage number is a little off. Having said that, the T200 sounds viable if you have a couple of them, cant wait to see what it looks. There are some days when I say, " Damn it would be nice to have a motor right now" :)

Like I said I wasn't saying math was perfect but your evidence a human puts out less watts than what my quick Google search showed only helps my theory that the t200 is capable of moving a kayak along nicely and using two of them to keep them in the optimal efficiency range is even better. By the way they still need to raise just over $5k to get the t200 streach goal to get them shipped out in November otherwise it may take a couple months longer. But either way this is a great alternative to a trolling motor =)

+1 It does sound good as an alternative!

actually its much cheaper than $800.00

@ southwest torqeedo:



320Wh Spare Battery for Travel 503


$549.00 $549.00



520Wh Spare Battery for Travel 1003


$679.00 $679.00

For the price of a torqeedo you could about buy new kayak, a short shaft 30lb thrust trolling motor, and a battery. Definitely not new or high tech but would work on about any kayak with out too much modification or the addition of a rugger. Mike

Hey mate,
Did you ever go for these T200 thrusters on your kayak? If so, how were the results? Did you manage to get it to work with the speeds you described? I'm thinking of doing the same, with an inflatable kayak, and could use your help / tips.

Thanks
JB

lets speed this up
 

My Pa is collecting dust . :eek:

29.6v x 11ah = 12v x 27.13ah??.. 27.13 isnt terrible

If its not on Strava, it didn't happen. Nice work!!

Guy with a little 2 stroke on an ocean Kayak

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Dnubsg3FRq0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

its needed if you have a pro angler :D my PA 12 gets about 5mph on the torqeedo

Haha those were the days, I don't get to ride as much lately. I really do miss those long rides.

Kayak trolling motors
 

http://www.islandhopperoutboards.com/. How about these? Up to 55lb thrust. I believe they are shortened minn Kota.

Here is my PA-12 setupAttachment 18791

Attachment 18792

Attachment 18793

I use a 55 Amp Hour Battery

I shortened the shaft on a trolling motor once...was like 42 lbs of thrust ..worked great till I was approached by those in power and told I would have to register my kayak..i took it off and sold it...just was glad to not have to pay a fine