Ft. Lauderdale, FL – Chris Hood Update On Propulsion – Chris Stirling and I are flying home from the Electric and Hybrid Expo in Ft. Lauderdale. It was well worth the time as we found new products by Torqeedo.
Our relationship with Torqeedo goes back 6 years, to when the design for the Hood 32 was taking shape. I knew I wanted to offer auxiliary power and I knew it must be electric!
We designed the cockpit lockers around the footprint of a Torqeedo electric outboard. We then designed a simple, removable socket mount that was fabricated by our metal artist friend, Mike, at Fraser Custom Welding.
The idea was successful but soon customers asked for some way to equip the 32 with an inboard electric motor as they thought it a shame to hang a space age looking motor off the side of their pretty daysailers….we thought the same!
We chose Mastervolt as our inboard vendor,with 15 boats motoring along in near silence, to date! Unfortunately Mastervolt just notified us that they will no longer be in this line of work.
So back to the drawing board and thus the reason for our visit to the electric,hybrid expo. Within an hour we found the Mastervolt’s replacement purely by chance.
We were looking at the Torqeedo display figuring a way to modify an outboard drive leg when we saw a prototype pod from Torqeedo!
The first working unit will be going to our friends at Marshall Marine, we promptly placed an order for the next unit. Full production is expected in April/May of this year.
Torqeedo is committed to electric power for the marine industry. We expect the same innovation and customer support we already know them by, to continue.
We will keep you updated with info as we move along this new vendor path.
Sincerely,
Chris Hood
