Diesel to Electric - Part 5. Owners verdic on converting a diesel narrowboat to electric.

Описание: ‪@mothership_marine‬ Owner and banjo player Steve take his narrowboat Miss Amelia and her namesake, his daughter, Millie out on the River Nene for the fisrt time. Steve is returning to his home mooring in Rugby.

En route he talks about the conversion process and renovations he made to the boat himself while the Mothership team carried out their tasks.

Jobs performed by Mothership were as follows
Take out old diesel motor
Prepare engine room for new motor
Install new High Torque PMAC Electric Motor
Install lithium batteries
Install Victron equipment
Install solar panels
Install Reflecs stove, calorifier and radiator
Survey hull
Repair hull and black
Reworked kitchen

Jobs performend by Steve
Renovate water tank
Paint topsides
Fit new solid wood floor
Repair window seals
Various other maintenance task

I left Steve later that day happy that he had things under control.

However a few day later the weather drastically changed and Steve had an unplanned stay in Wellingborough.

Here's the full story
The downs and ups of narrowboating life

The backstory - Steve, the banjo player, set off on his lovely boat Miss Amelia to his home mooring a little over a month ago, full of optimism. Then, the heavens opened and the normally very navigable River Nene turned into a torrent of brown angry water, very much of a soul searching downer. His passage was brought to an end in Wellingborough. He was forced to stay for a month. There were times when the Wellingborough embankment was seriously flooded we were in fear of Steve losing his boat and possibly his banjo. Fortunately the local community stepped in, hats off to Prestige Scaffolding   / prestigescaffold   who, free of charge, pitched in and saved Miss Amelia and another live-aboard narrowboat that was stuck close by. There were also 3 visits from the local fire brigade too. Each a heartwarming moment.
Another person of note was Andy Hall from the Environment Agency who over the last month got to know Steve well, the two were constantly in touch and last Friday Andy called Steve to say that the month long strong stream advice has been lifted and he could make his way up to Northampton. Thanks to Andy for looking after Steve over the last month.
In walks Chop. Chop has a very traditional narrowboat and is based at Blackthorn Lake Marina. He has a great knowledge of the river and agreed to accompany Steve up to Northampton.
Journeys like this need to be broken down into chunks. The goal is of course to get to the end but with the river flow seriously against them they had to play it by ear and think of their ‘get out’ points along the way. These were White Mills Marina and The Northampton Boat Club with the end destination at Northampton Marina in the centre of Northampton town.
A quick recap as to what Miss Amelia has in terms of equipment, a 30kWh lithium battery bank, 1.6kW tiltable solar panels, a 15kW water-cooled PMAC motor with 143Nm of torque. No generator.
Steve and Chop set off in the rain at about 9am on Saturday morning, the current was very strong against them and they were making 3km/hour overground using between 2 to 3kW of power. When the river gets narrower the flow gets faster and more power is needed. Around 10am they were overtaken by a diesel narrowboat who said that they probably wouldn’t wait for Miss Amelia at the next lock. Steve and Chop, as predicted, did that lock on their own, however with Steve’s confidence in the system growing, he pushed the throttle forward a little more and by the next lock Miss Amelia had caught up with the diesel boat.
For me, as a boat builder, and the electrical system designer, I’m very proud of what myself and the team have been able to put together. In a world full of naysayers it sometimes feels like we’re pushing against a strong current in our day to day working life. But on this occasion, and with brass knobs on, we say Up Yours, love Tim and the team.
Miss Amelia arrived at Northampton Marina mid-afternoon. She started her day with a battery state of charge of 98% and arrived with 52%. The motor temperature never got above 24 degrees centigrade and in fact Steve only had the water pump running intermittently.
Pictured here is Steve, the banjo player, and Miss Amelia in one of the final locks on the Northampton Flight just about to join the Grand Union canal. This is an Up. Congratulations to Steve.