Solar Recharge for the Whole Family

Last Sunday my family descended on Oundle to see what I’ve been up to for the last 10 years. I think they had a nice time! 

My journey into solar electric boats started in Australia with the solar electric Houseboat which actually was a Mothership https://mothershipmarine.com/innovation/house-boat/. This is where our name comes from.

We wanted it to be a base for a family to enjoy time on the water and have plenty of space to store lots of other craft. In a way this is what Shine was this weekend.

Where it all started

The Houseboat was in many ways so much more of an involved task than the narrowboats that we are building today. This is because we were starting from scratch. We did it with the assistance of the School of Renewable Energy and Photovoltaics at the University of New South Wales. During the whole design and build process we learned so much and much of what we learned was incorporated in the narrowboats we are building today.

On the day Shine our narrowboat started the day with a battery SOC of 92% and finished at 85% having travelled 8 miles and gone through 4 locks, a swimming race and a riverbank lunch. 

Having the facility to capture the sun’s energy underway means that our need for large battery banks are reduced.  As is having a very efficient motor and a clean hull.  Shine came out of the water to be blacked and have her bottom cleaned (always makes me smile this).  

Worry is good

Whilst I have a laid back, Australian, easygoing, ‘she’ll be right’ look about me I’m actually a massive worrier.  And because most of the things we do at Mothership Marine are innovative I have to be sure that we’re building good boats for our customers and to coin another Australianism, that won’t be a boomerang.

As a point of illustration our solar panels.  I designed these solar panels and have them specially built for me in Europe to our specification.  They are expensive, in fact, they are the most expensive semi flexible panels on the market and according to the statistics they are not the most efficient by a percentage point. However the panels go all the way to the edge of the handrail and where the panels are not situated we actually fit a fibreglass infill panel. Both infill panel and solar panels are fixed down using an expensive marine-grade adhesive.  Any joints between panels and the boat itself are covered by a cover strip.  Say goodbye to the roof of the boat.

Shine was built over six years ago when nobody was covering their roof with solar panels. Now it’s commonplace, however there have been failures for others.  Poor installation and cheap low quality panels might look good on the budget but long term it might not pay off.

We are innovators and we are worriers and so far that’s paid off.

Always improving

When we built Shine she had a 10kW belt drive motor. It was quiet but I thought it could be quieter.  Now Shine has a 15kW PMAC water-cooled motor with the highest torque rating of any comparable marine motor. 

What does high torque mean? Think of a Bentley climbing up a hill, purring away and then think of your Grandma’s Fiesta going up the same hill.  Sure they both get you there but the motor with the highest torque gets you there with a smile on your face.

There were lots of smiling faces on Sunday. Shine the Mothership effortlessly pulled along a very heavy wooden canoe carrying four full size adults and a spare tyre for the trailer.  There was a coracle (very handy for blacking on the water) and a couple of paddleboards.  In total there were sixteen of us.  It was a beautiful day, the River Nene looked splendid and lunch finished off by jelly and blancmange. Yes jelly and blancmange made for a perfect Sunday afternoon.

When we all turned up we were a little tired after a late night so our human batteries were about 60%. After a day in the sun on the river I can safely say we all left 100% charged.