Solar trekking
The Loon – a long distance inland boat
The Loon – the Mansura Trophy’s inland class winner – has been evolving for a while and looks as if it about to make the big step into a sleek production model.
Tamarack has already produced six pre-production Loons, and these boats have really proved themselves on long distance inland-waterway trekking. Three major waterways have been traversed so far; the Trent-Severn Waterway, the Rideau Canal and the Erie and Oswego Canals. At time of writing, a Florida canal trip is getting underway.
The Loon is the first electric boat of any type to travel a great portion of the New York Canals, getting from Oswego to Waterford, a distance of over 200miles. Tamarack explains that without the solar input, boaters are limited to much shorter journeys.
For example, there is a 27mile stretch between Canajoharie and Amsterdam along the Erie Canal, a rather remote stretch without any possibility of getting an “opportunity charge” en route – The Loon did it with half a charge left, a good safety buffer for isolated waterways.
This was achieved because the solar array has the double advantage of reducing the Peukert’s Effect while the boat is underway. It also acts like a second set of batteries to assist the boat, providing an electrical charge even while the boat is stationary.
While the Loons used on three different “solar treks” differed somewhat, they all possessed the same basic “DNA”. All share a 72Vt DC solar array input (6 X 12V each) and 120/240V AC shorepower mains-supplied energy – there’s no petrol or diesel or other internal combustion supplement.
Golf cart variety
There are eight, 6V deep-cycle, lead-acid batteries of the golf cart variety, with 10kW-hours total capacity, and a 48V DC Briggs and Stratton 3hp electric, remote steer outboard motor with a Kort nozzle. There’s also power circuit protection run in at 80A.
Having achieved a lot with the aluminium designs, the company has embarked on a mission to build a better Loon, more replicable and with enhancements over the previous versions. Tamarack is looking at a sleeker design and producing the boat through resin infusion, although its looking beyond fibreglass at bio-composites and bio-plastics instead of normal fibreglass, in order to decrease the boat’s total carbon footprint.
For example, bamboo slivers may take the place of the normal glass strands, as it yields a material with similar properties.
This production method should give a number of advantages over the existing method of taking flat sheets of aluminium and rolling, bending and welding the materials to form the hulls.
At present when the boat is moving there is a visible amount of drag appearing behind the hulls, a function of the limitations of the hull manufacturing process. So, improved hulls, which are designed for the given size and weight of the boat, will add to the Loon’s ability to go faster and further on battery charge.
This changeover will also open the Loon to the large markets available in areas where the water is salty or brackish.
Solar canopy
One of the important features of the projected design is the ability for the solar canopy to be lowered and raised while towing, storing and shipping the boat. The new design will also incorporate newer, non-glass (therefore safer and lighter) solar modules.
German manufacturer Torqeedo has agreed to work with Tamarack to showcase its 4.0kW Cruise 4.0R electric outboard motor - this new system will also be more powerful and will increase the cruising speed of the vessel.
“There is an enormous amount of interest in the Loon not only from individuals but also from the growing ecotourism and other commercial applications such as the eco-tourism industry,” says Tamarack. As environmental regulations change there are an increasing number of areas that are banning fossil-fuelled equipment, so the Loon is one step ahead of legislation and is looking at a bright green future.
All Loons produced to date have been of the double-hulled “pontoon style” of boat. Tamarack pulls no punches here. He comes right out and says that an ageing population really needs the dock-level loading and unloading style of platform, because there’s no need to step over a gunwale.
It’s also much easier to get around the large deck area compare to traditional launches, which can be quite restrictive, offering much less deck space to stretch out.
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