R&C Electric Leopards

[gosstyla]

Tony, thanks for the prop update.

Your final selection is very interesting. In Dec, 2005 when selecting the props for Asanagi, Kevin said the eLeopard had 16 x 16s and expected the final props would be 20 x 14 or even 22 x 13. Based on that we went with 22 x 16s for Asanagi.

In early February during the last motor sea trials John said Asanagi was definitely over propped and expected 21 x 14 might be the correct size.

A few weeks ago I gave Chris White a tour of Asanagi, he was at Alwoplast checking the progress of his 57 ft. He said he thought Asanagi would still be way over propped with 21 x 14s. Based on your final selection I suspect he is right.

By the way how much does your eLeopard weigh - actual weight now in charter.

[jjtctaylor]

Gosstyla, have you returned to Valdivia and ready to test new OSSA Powerlite motors and props ? Your website has disappeared, so curious on progress to get the drives tuned and never heard that E-Leopard fixed their (1) defect motor either. GB never updates their website so not certain any progress is being made...... anywhere.

[gosstyla]

No, still in Newport Beach. Glacier Bay now says new motors will ship May 2nd so I've rescheduled my flight, for the 3rd time, to May 20th. Although the motors will get from CA to Santiago overnight it usually takes at least 2 or 3 weeks to get things through customs and trucked down to Valdivia.

Kevin says the motors' inefficiency has been cut in half - they went from 96% to 98% efficient. Also they increased the max rpm from 1100 to 1400. Don't know, but expect the increase in rpm will further reduce the appropriate prop size. Kevin, also said the overheating problem has been resolved. Glacier Bay's engineers will be going back down to test the new motors once they are installed.

Since the eLeopard only gets its motors up to about 50% power it probably doesn't experience the overheating - on Asanagi overheating started at around 65% power.

As you can see Tony has not responded to my question about his props.

I've been playing with the website not much new on it yet - just redesigned. I'll start the log again when I get back to Valdivia.

The website is now at:
http://www.gosstyla.com/Asanagi

[henryv]

We seem to have regular reports on the Lagoon 420 but we have not heard any news on how the Electric Leopard is working out. Hopefully Tony can give us an update.

[leehaefele]

I am the owner of an ex Moorings boat, a Leopard 38 cat. It has been separated from Moorings 2 years now. The disturbing thing that I have found is that there were about 10 impacts on the hull sides, probably from docks. Moorings painted each over with gelcoat and polished. 2 years later the defects are reappearing, for me to fix at my expense. They need to be ground out and properly filled at a cost of about $500 each. So, if you are considering being a Moorings boat owner, keep a close eye on your boat. If you buy an ex Moorings boat, WATCH OUT. There were a large number of other smaller maintenance mistakes, such as wrong hinges in the hatches that let in a lot of sea water.

[GordMay]

South Africa's Robertson & Caine (R&C Leopard catamarans) has signed a deal with Chinese company Flying Eagle to manufacture some of its catamarans in Fuyang City near Hang Zhou, China.
Goto: R&C expands manufacturing to China

International Boat Industry NEWS Home: International Boat Industry home - the trade magazine for global marine business

[Badgerman]

Can anyone explain to me the advantage of taking twin diesels out of a boat(redundancy).......replacing it with one big high voltage(dangerous) DC generator.....
Adding efficiency loses at each step of the way.......engine to generator to cables to electric motor...... Combine this with complex control circuitry in a hostile environment.

The ONLY advantage I can see is the elimination of transmissions.
WIth the 420 you take away a couple trannies and gain a bunch of batteries(which everybody knows are maintenance nightmares no matter ni-cad, Lith, lead acid or whatever). Then you have the whole battery disposal issue.
With this Leopard setup.....why bother???.....you have to fire up a diesel everytime you motor......just hook it direct to the prop with proven technology.......run just one if you want......then number2 is always there in a pinch.
I don't know what the motor technology looks like, but I know my plane start-gen pulls alot of amps......and they do go through the brushes.

And anything electronic around salt water is just a general pain in the arse.

[Mitch0402]

I read this thread with great enthusiasm and learned a great deal. It seems like diesel-electric should have taken off and become the mainstream of the charter cat business, with lower maintenance and higher reliability etc.. anyone know what happened to all this, now 7 years later?

[Sand crab]

Just about all of the Lagoon 420s have been converted to standard diesels. The hybrid tech didn't work. I wonder about the Leopard and Crowther though. Glacier Bay did stop the hybrid production. http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...0-a-49334.html

[Mitch0402]

Thanks for the reply. Would you happen to know why or what did not work? Was it a reliability issue?

[Sand crab]

Originally Posted by Mitch0402

Thanks for the reply. Would you happen to know why or what did not work? Was it a reliability issue?

The gist of it is that the L420 hybrid system sucked so bad that Lagoon was actually paying to swap the whole mess out with standard diesels. It's hard to find a L420 hybrid these days.

51 pages here on the L420. Other threads too. Good Luck
http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...fans-5250.html