The current prices for diesel and petrol are quite low. Most boaters are therefore hoping that petrol prices will also be low in the summer and that we will be able to refuel our boats cheaply. Even if hardly anyone wants to hear it now, prices are bound to rise again soon. We can't say how quickly or how much, but at some point the alternatives to the combustion engine will certainly be the subject of lively discussion again.
Fischer Panda has developed such an alternative: With the "electric driving" initiative, they have designed a system in which the boating world moves along quietly with electric motors.
Nothing new, some might say. But the unit on our test boat, the Broom 37, is an energy system (see also the drawing on the right) that not only controls powerful electric motors (2 x 30 kW), but also supplies the entire electrical system on board.
The "small power station" consists of AGM batteries (Hoppecke), which have a voltage of 288 V and a capacity of 140 Ah when connected together. An inverter (2 x 3.5 kW) supplies the 230 V appliances with power, and the DC box does the same for the 12/24 V system. If the capacity of the battery bank is running low, no problem, as two diesel generators (13 kW and 36 kW) supply the necessary power on demand in our test Broom. This system is called a diesel-electric drive - also known as a hybrid system - which is designed especially for boats with high performance.
YOU WILL FIND THE FULL TECHNICAL REPORT ON THE HYBRID DRIVE SYSTEM IN THE MARCH ISSUE OF BOOTE, WHICH WILL BE AVAILABLE IN STORES FROM 25 FEBRUARY.
