Electric Powered Barrelback

Electric Powered Barrelback

Posted by Gayle Brantuk on Nov 21st 2014

It's quite something when someone takes one of our designs and not only builds a beautiful boat, but a wonderfully innovative one as well.

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Steven Shovoly of Edison Marine has produced an amazing version of our 19' Barrelback design using twin Electric motors for power. Bob Fagliano and "The Core IV, Inc" installed all the power train systems. According to Bob, "a number of countries in Europe have banned oil and gasoline craft from their waterways beginning in January of 2015 to eliminate fuel and oil pollution plus carbon emissions in an effort to meet the Kyoto Accord guidelines."

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Twin WarP 9 Electric Motors

The photo above shows the motor compartment with the twin motors, twin controllers and the Lithium Battery Management systems.  Below is a photo of one of the six (6) Lithium cell modules that make up the boat's 190volt - 120Ah Lithium Master Battery pack. This is made up of the six (36.7volt 120Ah) modules all connected in series to provide 190 volts and 22.8Kwh Master Battery Pack.  This pack was installed to provide a great proof of concept display boat that Bob will be taking to a number of wooden boat shows in 2015 in the United States and Europe.

Electric Barrelback battery

One of 6 Lithium Cell Modules

As you can see from the photos, this is a stunning craft. Her christened name is "Edison" since she's powered using DC motors from Netgain Motors, honoring Thomas Edison, the father of DC power.

They chose twin " WarP™ 9" DC motors to allow for a flatter angle on the props than the original Chris Craft single gasoline motors.  Each motor is 180 hp for a total of 360 hp and 1000 foot pounds of instant torque. The twin props are amazing and provide a very flat acceleration for the boat unlike the Chris Craft that even with the 175 hp gasoline engine causes the bow to lift nearly 3 feet under acceleration. (The Glen-L Barrelback design with a gas motor, doesn't have this issue).  Edison can go from 0 mph to 42.5 mph in less that 30 seconds and the lift of the bow is less than 1 foot.

Barrelback boat plans

The Edison will last for over 8 hours pulling skiers and up to 24 hours just putting around or traveling at speeds of 20 Knots.

I'm sure many of your are thinking about the fact that one of the best things about this type of boat is the sound of the motor. And, being a baby-boomer myself, I get that. But, if your choice is only electric, this is a slick way to still get a beautiful mahogany runabout.

As Fagliano says, "She is a beautiful creation that blends the grandeur of Solid Mahogany plank Chris-Craft Barrel Back design with the technology of the future to produce a 450 horsepower silent runabout. " Well said...

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Electric mahogany runabout