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By chris, on June 20th, 2011
 Plug used for Sienna mould The Sienna will be an easily driven boat and so we don’t expect to need a lot of power to have her at 5 knots. My guess is that her performance would be similar to the Dash 750 and if we look at the power curve for that boat it shows the power needed for at 5 knots is 2000 watts (into the wind).
That means we can use a Cruise 2 and at full power of 2000 watts we can expect 5 to 5.5 knots. And in fact probably a bit more because the Torqeedo motors tend to run at slightly above their rating when given full power. For example my Cruise 4 at full power shows 5300 watts on some occasions, and so we could expect up to 2600 watts could be available from a Cruise 2. → Read more…
By chris, on May 29th, 2011
Here’s some pics of Turanor in Brisbane. → Read more…
By chris, on May 28th, 2011
 TÛRANOR - the planet solar expedition boat Have you checked out the around-the-world solar boat that’s just arrived in Brisbane? Its a kinda star-ship Enterprise looking boat totally covered with solar panels. I was hoping that our Sienna would be in the water to be able to welcome her into Brisbane—but there’s still a couple of weeks work to finish her off and get her launched. In the meantime I plan to drop by today to get to know the folks on Turanor. The name TÛRANOR is derived from the “Lord of the Rings” saga by J.R.R. Tolkien and translates as “the power of the sun” and “victory”. → Read more…
By chris, on May 23rd, 2011
 Phew! Made it to the boatshow with detail work still to do. Well, we made it to the boat show! The Sienna was not totally complete but was in pretty good shape and complete enough that visitors could get a good feel for her. I’m really pleased with how she looks and her lines are better than in the artists rendition. There is still a lot of detail work still to be done and over the next few weeks Derek will finish that while I do the electrical installation.
There was lots of interest and many people told us she was the loveliest boat in the show. After acres of white plastic boats coming across an oasis of rich timberwork was manna for footsore boatshow trekkers. The featured timber is Queensland Red Cedar which is very hard to come by these days. → Read more…
By chris, on May 14th, 2011
 Shrunk Cruise 2 I’m gonna have to kiss goodbye to warranty on the motor cos I took to it with a hacksaw. It doesn’t sound pretty but it has turned out alright, as you can see from the photo. Its more or less the same as a regular Cruise 2, only shorter. I shorted the stainless steel main tube by 190mm. The fairing tube an dthe cables also had to be shrunk by the same amount. → Read more…
By chris, on April 2nd, 2011
 Tim's fishing boat lying alongside Eden wharf The first rays of the sun were glinting on the fishing boats alongside the Eden wharf while I dawdled over breakfast at the cafe at the head of the jetty. I’d arrived early and was waiting for Tim Crane, a fisherman here at Eden who is wondering, like me, whether a Cruise 4 could drive his 8 tonne fishing boat at trolling speed.
I don’t know much about fishing, and the idea of trolling was connected with freshwater bass fisherman who use small electric motors for manouvring small fishing punts at low speed. And come to think of it, I know a few cruising yachties who occasionally troll for dinner by trailing a line when lazing along at 3 or 4 knots. But the notion that professional fisherman use trolling to make a living was not something I knew about. → Read more…
By chris, on March 26th, 2011
 The rough and ready Charlie Alnut and Rose Sayer The plan is to build a solar boat that I can rent out here at Crystal Bay to introduce people to electric boats. And I can’t resist getting an African Queen kinda boat, only with an electric motor instead of steam. (Mind you a steam one would be cool, but it would be pure indulgence huh). Do you remember the movie?—Charlie Allnut reluctantly agrees to take the insistent Rose Sayers on a suicidal mission down the river and they have some… but hey, that’s another story, and you’ll have to rent the movie for that. → Read more…
By chris, on March 10th, 2011
 Claude in Aggressor with twin Cruise 4's Torqeedo Starnberg— the two words of the Torqeedo logo. And if you’re like me you’ve never heard of Starnberg until Torqeedo came along. And here I am with Claude at Starnberg. It sure is cold here, coming from an Australian summer. There’s pockets of snow lying around, and just a few days ago there was still ice in the lake. → Read more…
By chris, on February 10th, 2011
 Lionel amidships and steering with the offset tiller I’ve been wanting to try out a Walker Bay dinghy—they claim to be easily rowed and that should augur well for use with a Travel 1003. You’ll see we also trial a extension/offset device for the tiller which we borrowed from David who you may remember from the Sea-eagle kayak installation. → Read more…
By chris, on February 6th, 2011
 Scott and his son in the Quintrex 3.7 on first trial A couple of weeks ago I took a Cruise 4 to Denjera Dam in the Nowra hinterland for some Bass fishermen to try it on their boats. Danjera is a water supply dam and its only permissable to use electric outboards (or row!).
This was arranged by an existing customer, Ed, who has a Base Travel on his punt and some of the other guys have become interested in checking out the other motors as well. → Read more…
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