Torqeedo wins DAME
AMSTERDAM — Winners of the seven categories of the 26th DAME Design Awards for innovative design were announced, including the winner of the overall 2016 DAME Design Award — electric marine engine manufacturer Torqeedo GmbH. The world’s largest marine equipment trade show, METS Trade, opened 15th November at RAI Amsterdam in the Netherlands to large crowds amid cool, rainy weather.
The show opened with a morning breakfast briefing that offered attendees an overview of what they can expect at this year’s show. Torqeedo took top honors for its Cruise FP range of electric sail drives. Torqeedo also was the winner in the Machinery, Propulsion, Mechanical and Electrical Systems and Fittings category.
The FP sail drive is available now as 2kw and 4 kw models and will soon be available as a 10 kw model. The 2kw and 4kw are based on the Cruise outboard series with the robust aluminium case. The pod drives include new features such as more powerful reverse thrust and additional power for manoeuvring.
Torqeedo pod drive
The pod drives are installed in a fixed position and generally suited to sailing boats and some special power boats. Folding propellers are available as an option and helps to minimise drag in a sailing boat installation. The folding propellers have proved to be a very powerful option showing very good thrust qualities. The pods include a fixed pod with a cable that leads to an internally mounted control box. As with all Torqeedo models the throttle display includes real time GPS speed and range calculations. When matched with Torqeedo lithium batteries this offers a lightweight, clean and compact solution for boat propulsion.
We have Cruise 2.0 FP and Cruise 4.0 FP models available for delivery now and these would suit boats up to 3 tonnes for 2.0 FP and up to 4 tonnes for 4.0 FP. The Cruise 2 FP requires a 24v power supply and matches well with a single Power 26-104 battery. The Cruise 4 FP requires 48 v and is well matched with a pair of Power 26-104 batteries.
In typical applications you could expect to propel the boat at 5 to 6 knots at full power and with a range of a little more than 1 hr at that speed. At low speeds of 3 to 4 knots the power requirements are much reduced and range extends to 6 to 9 hours.
The on board GPS will calculate remaining range in time or distance, as you prefer, and so you always have a good guide to show how much power remains. Because the power requirements drop dramatically with small decreases in speed, you can easily adjust speed to increase the range on days when you need to go further.
New pod drive
I’ve found that motor sailing is brilliant with electric drives and when sailing single handed I have found just a small application of power combined with sails on days of light winds gives a surprising extra speed and pointing ability. The quietness of electric drives means the ambience of sailing is not shattered as might happen when starting a diesel.
The new Cruise 10 FP is expected to be available early in the new year and that is when we hope to have stock available. If you have a project that might benefit from such a drive please keep in touch so that we can earmark one for you — there is already a demand for these.