Torqeedo's outboards with ratings up to an equivalent of 8 hp are designed without anti-ventilation plates. The foil-sectioned shafts on all but the smallest outboard aid in keeping surface air from getting to the prop.
all photographs by the author
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I have had Torqeedo Travel 1003 for several years. It has a strong battery and will push my Norseboat 17.5 for about 10 miles at 3.0 knots. As you say, it is not a good choice for extended multi-day trips where recharging may be difficult, but for a day trip or overnight it’s great.
Aside from the advantages you mention, there is no winterizing, spark plugs to foul, or fuel to spill. Best of all it starts with a twist of the throttle. I feel confident sending my kids or friends out without worrying about their ability to get a gas motor running.
The only drawback, as you point out, is the range, which I bet most of us never exceed anyway. The advantages are far more persuasive to me. If everyone was already using Torqeedos and the gas outboard was introduced as an alternative, I bet very few people would by one.
We have a 1003 that we use on our 28′ Stuart Knockabout which displaces 4,000 lbs. We have a removable side bracket made of very heavy stainless. We had 4-hp Yamaha 4-stroke on it for years and you you could go straight to full throttle. First time we tried that with the 1003, the incredible torque cracked the bracket! After we had it rewelded, we now accelerate slowly and never go to full throttle until the boat has some way on her. Full throttle is just shy of 5 knots and we usually run at 3 if the wind dies. Great motor! I only wish the tiller display was easier to read without glasses!
It should be noted that, unlike a gas motor, the Torqeedo must be removed when sailing. According to the manufacturer, it can not be freewheeled without damage to the motor. This is a pain, especially when one wants to go just a short distance before switching to sail. The motor must be taken off and stowed before sailing. I never worry about drag on my Caledonia, so I would rather leave the motor in the well, but it’s a no-go.
From the manual for the Travel 1003: “Do not leave the motor in the water when the boat is moved by other drives (e.g. while sailing, towing the boat) to prevent damage to the electronics.”
During my trials with the Travel 1003 I could hear the motor freewheeling if I turned throttle to the off position and the boat still had some way on. Those very brief periods of freewheeling didn’t have any evident effect on the electronics, but longer periods may well do damage.
Any outboard left in the water is going to create a significant amount of drag, so there is a good return on the investment of stowing it. The Travel requires some fiddling with the wiring to disconnect the tiller, battery, and motor, but then those three pieces can be removed and stowed separately, a much easier task than pulling a gas outboard out and stowing it.
A friend of mine sailed his Caledonia yawl with his gas outboard remaining in the well and had nothing to plug the well even if he chose remove the motor. On the one occasion I had to sail his boat (without him), I initially left the motor in place. At first I couldn’t understand why his CY was so much slower than mine, but I soon realized the motor must be creating some drag. When I removed it the boat picked up some speed but there was a lot of water sloshing up from the well. I stuffed a couple of PFDs in the well to keep the water out of the boat and to fill the gap it makes in the underwater surface of the hull. The boat then took off and felt as fast and as lively as my CY. I’d guess his boat had its speed cut by at least a quarter with the motor in place.
I’ve outfitted my CY with an insert to fill the well when it is not in use. The bottom of this little “box” lies fair with the hull and has a 1/4″-thick plexiglas window that comes in very hand when I’m sailing shallow water and need a clear view of the bottom.
Question: Can the Torqeedo tilt up out of water if mounted on a transom?
Yes, the Torqeedo Travel can be tilted up out of the water just like any small outboard motor, so you can raise it for sailing, rowing, or coming ashore without having to remove it from the transom.
Thanks for the well done article on the Torqeedo Travel 1003. I was sad to hear of the sudden “delivery” of your Torqeedo into 25′ of water! On our SolarSkiff(patent-pending), which exclusively uses the Torqeedo Travel 1003 as its motor, we have come up with a solution that prevents the problem you encountered. I drill a 1/4″ x 4″x 8″ sheet of King Starboard (a high-density polyethylene sheet available from boat outfitters) with 2 circular holes slightly bigger than the Torqeedo motor-mount screw pads, and attach this plate to the transom with stainless-steel screws, washers, and acorn nuts for a nice finish. Then I place my motor on the transom, screw the pads into the circles and against the transom so that the motor is locked in place and not going anywhere. Even if the screw pads become loose, the motor will stay locked in place by the 1/4″ depth of this added plate.
In the early development of the SolarSkiff, I had a trolling motor come loose from the smooth HDPE plate I was using for the transom. I did not lose the motor altogether, but the sight of the motor veering up sideways is scary enough. This little plate with a couple of circles drilled in it for the motor screw pads solves the problem in style. Of course, the same kind of plate could be built in wood to keep a wooden boat all wood.
As a Torqeedo dealer and user on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, let me offer a clarification about the Travel 1003’s horsepower. The motor has a power consumption of 1000 watts at top speed, which is equal only to about 1 1/3 hp. While this keeps power consumption low, it also keeps the motor under 2 hp, which is useful for boats like the SolarSkiff that are designed following the US Coast Guard standards for watercraft with engines under 2 hp. However, Torqeedo claims a propulsive force equivalent to that of a 3 to 4 hp gas engine: its electric motor is more efficient at converting its 1000 watt input power into propulsive output power, hence the 3-4 hp “equivalency.”
My wife and I had a chance to put this power claim to the test this summer. We crossed the Bay of St. Louis in a two-person SolarSkiff for a group picnic at some friends’ home across the Bay. Going over in the late morning, the winds were light. Coming back, however, the afternoon seabreeze predictably began to fill in and it wasn’t long before we were motoring back against 12-knot winds, gusting to 15, with whitecaps everywhere. The Torqeedo Travel 1003 had the power to keep us moving against the wind and waves with no problem: we can’t do that with a 55 lb-thrust trolling motor! While I can honestly say that 12-mph winds are about the top that I would plan to be out on the water in a small craft with a Torqeedo, it both had the power and the range we needed that day for the 6-1/2 mile round trip. I did take my Torqeedo battery charger in my dry bag, though, and plugged the battery in while we enjoyed lunch with our friends, just to make sure we had sufficient power for the return home.
The most I have run my battery down is to 20% of its maximum capacity, with the motor conveniently and automatically beeping reminder warnings when it hits 30%, 20%, and 10% capacity. With the new lithium-ion battery design, it fully recharged in only 5 hours. The 7-hour recharge with the new battery is for a recharge of a fully discharged battery, whether plug-in or solar.
A friend who uses his Torqeedo Travel 1003 to power his Ensign sailboat with its heavy keel in and out of the harbor feels that a 4 hp equivalency claim is fair, comparing how his boat goes now with the Torqeedo to its performance with his previous gas engine. He does pull the motor up out of the water when under sail to prevent drag as well as the kind of freewheeling damage mentioned in the article.
Bottom line: the Torqeedo has the power and range to support a fun day out on protected inland waterways, but requires both advance trip planning and monitoring the on-board display on the tiller to make sure you have power to spare when you get back to port.
You can see our one-person SolarSkiff running with the Torqeedo Travel 1003 on our web site, the SolarSkiff You Tube channel, or the SolarSkiff Facebook page.
Chris,
Congrats on the outstanding, detailed piece on the Torqeedo and the performance comparison to your Yamaha. I believe the current Torqeedo is a breakthrough product. I broke a long-time promise to myself never to sell my 5-hp 2-stroke Johnson. But, at long last, its 46-lb weight had become too much; its occasional hard-starting caused by water in that miserable fuel known as ethanol had become discouraging, as had the endless pulls on the starter cord.
There is little to add to your piece but the following may also be of help to those considering purchase of a Torqeedo. In your photo of the disassembled motor, there is a small orange peg shown beside the larger orange rod used to secure the battery to the motor. Although I have not found mention of it in the owner’s manual, the orange peg is meant to be inserted through a hole in the motor’s top portion into a hole in the leg. It prevents the head from rotating so the motor can’t be turned as accidentally happened to you when you least needed it. This would be of most use in an application where the boat’s rudder is there to steer with. It would not be practical on the transom of a rowboat where rotating the motor is needed for steering.
Oddly, I recall reading an owner review of the Torqeedo in which he complained that the mounting screws loosened up and his motor fell off. For whatever reason, this may be something owners should check before every outing to ensure things are really, really tight. It was good of you to note there are holes in the clamp handles by which they may be secured to the boat. The owner’s manual should mention this aspect. In my own application on the transom of an inflatable, I have one of those locking devices that slides over the clamping screw handles and effectively prevents them from loosening in any threatening manner. I can imagine your experience was quite unnerving.
As a motor for an inflatable or dinghy to get one from dock to mooring and back, the Torqeedo is perfect. I have found that full-throttle operation for about 25-30 minutes takes the battery down to about 62% but recharging at home has the battery back to full charge in rather little time. When I had the chance to use the Torqeedo 1003 longshaft as a sailboat auxiliary, I found that it easily moved a 3100-lb keel daysailer when the wind died. Putting it on the side bracket was a relative pleasure because, when broken down into its three main components, weight is not an issue. (I have tied a line from the battery to the battery mount rod so the latter can’t be lost overboard.) About 15-20 minutes running at part throttle brought us back to the mooring. Again, recharging was quickly done at home. The key for such an application, as the Stuart Knockabout owner noted, is the motor’s torque. I believe an electric motor develops peak torque at 0 rpm and that is key to getting a boat moving and then keeping it going steadily. But speed should not be a priority.
After one season, about the only improvements I can think of would be larger numbers on the readout display, a less abrupt response to initial throttle input—new owners should practice gingerly when first starting out if in a slip—and a somewhat greater tilt angle to get the skeg completely out of the water. The absence of need to winterize, let alone worry about storing or discarding fuel, are obvious plusses.
The 1003 is about twice the $900 price listed by West Marine for a Mercury 3.5 hp. If one has the right application need, I’d say the Torqeedo is well worth it.
Thanks for your comments, Stan. The small steering fixing pin is mentioned in the Travel 1003 manual on pages 9, 15, and 26 (do a search for “pin”), but there isn’t an illustration that shows it clearly. The pin gets put in place before the battery and once the battery is locked with the large locking pin, the small pin is secured.
I have an Able, a Selway Fisher design, in which I have a permanently installed 6-hp Tohatsu outboard. The engine is mounted on the centerline in way of the keel and I leave it down (in neutral) when sailing. Being in the draft of the keel the drag seems to be minimal. I would like to replace this with a powerpod of some sort, faired into the keel. I was considering a Torqueedo 1003 which I would use the power head and the controller. I did note that the Torqueedo manual says not to leave the unit freewheeling in the water when sailing as there would be damage to the electronics of the system. I am assuming that this is because, when free wheeling, the motor becomes a generator, sending an electrical charge back into the system.
If this is the case, would: A: diodes (to negate electrical feedback) solve this problem? B: A mechanical stop on the prop? C: A master switch to disconnect the power from the power head?
I think that there are many of us out here looking for a way to modify existing trolling motors to power our small craft. Spending $6,000.00 on an Elco pod is out of reach for most of us.
I belong to the TSCA here on Cape Cod and this is a topic of conversation quite frequently. Many freshwater reservoirs and lakes are off limits to gas engines, so this would open up sailing venues for a lot of us.
I’d love some feedback on this.