Canoe-Catamaran with 3 electric motors

So cool, so calm, so quiet, just the sound of the water. What a nice setup. Mine is just one hull with 3.3 Mercury (noisy but quick). I have a stabilizer fin on either side at the sturn that works to keep it flat on the water especially when turning.

Can't exceed the currant draw on a trolling motor with batteries no matter how big or how many. My 40 pulls 39 amps . You can exceed the voltage. Trolling motors are just that, they are not speed motors. I have Minn Kota 40# on a 14 ft fiberglass boat, I put my buddies 50 on it and didn;t gain any noticeable speed (didn't measure it but felt about the same). The 40 and 50 have 4 inch pitches. (prop moves forward 4 inches for every turn of the prop) Increasing the pitch can cause over heating of the motor. Want more speed you need more pitch and diameter, hense a bigger motor

Motor On!
I'm putting together a Solar Only powered canoe = 780watts feeding a pair of 30 lb thrust trolling motors.

I just started a Yahoo Group for owners and those interested in the smaller electric powered canoes/kayaks/jon boats/pontoons and the like.

Check it out at:
 https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/LittleSolarBoats/info

Goes well

@stevenabb Hi Steven, Thanks for your comment. Yes, a sharper pitch would increase performance. You would have to be careful to not exceed the current rating of the motor.

@josephdupont Hi Joseph, The following reply was posted as a comment 3 months ago, instead of a reply to your question: Good question. To prolong the life of our batteries, we limit the draw to 180 amp hours (50% of total battery capacity). At 6.2 km/hr and drawing 40 amps, we can cruise for 4.5 hours and travel 28 km. At 4 km/hr, we draw 20 amps, allowing us to cruise for 9 hours and travel 36 km.

@blahloozer The speed increased by using 3 motors was insignificant. The increase of current draw from the batteries was very significant. This experiment with 3 motors demonstrated to us that a single motor is the most efficient. The multiple motors did allow us to maintain speed in chop and headwinds compared to a single motor.

Good question. To prolong the life of our batteries, we limit the draw to 180 amp hours (50% of total battery capacity). At 6.2 km/hr and drawing 40 amps, we can cruise for 4.5 hours and travel 28 km. At 4 km/hr, we draw 20 amps, allowing us to cruise for 9 hours and travel 36 km.

@dorinstanciu We use two Rolls Surrette S600 6 volt deep cycle batteries. They weigh 131 lbs each. Usually we use one 50 lb thrust motor with a top speed of 6.2 km / hr. We draw 40 amps at full speed and 20 amps at 4 km / hr. We use a maximum of 180 amp hours to prolong battery life. Two and three electric motors were just experiments. The small increase in performance for the power consumed made multiple motors impractical.

sorry... didn't see your previous answer below... do you use three batteries or a bank of batteries?

Pretty neat! What's the max speed? What's the thrust on those motors? What batteries do you use?

@ostrich54 Our top speed is just under 5 miles / hour (just over 7.5 km / hr) with the 3 electric motors (2 30 lb thrust and a 50 lb thrust).

how fast are you going?