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1928 Classic Yacht

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Prop Walk

Posted on May 10, 2022May 10, 2022 by admin

The outing the other day had me returning to my experiment for countering prop walk. A stern thruster would cost about 3k USD before install. So probably a 7k CDN bill. I do not need it this bad.

However; the idea is to mount an electric trolling motor to the swim grid and control it from the wheel house. (about $400 all in). This is not to be a proper stern ‘thruster’ – just a bit of help to counter the prop walk as I back out of the boat house and out of the marina (where I can find room to spin the boat).

I purchased a Newport trolling motor a few months ago with this in mind. The blue tooth version (remote control) was tempting but at a 30′ max range this seemed too ‘iffy’. So I opted for a standard unit. Pulled it out and took it apart last night.

Expected the control unit to be centered around some epoxied-in electronics. I was particularly keen to understand how it reverses the motor. Turns out it is some pretty slick (read; simple), mostly mechanical, control. The reverse/forward bit happens when a pair of contacts slide to a new position. Fully mechanical really. The speed is handled by two dedicated wires (yellow and white) that run into the motor housing (which I did not take apart). The adjustment is made by sliding their contact along a metal plate. Again; essentially mechanical.

I added a switch and a solenoid to experiment with it because at this point I thought I would be running some thin wire to the back to trigger one or two solenoids to control the motor.

solenoid control works as it should but turns out to NOT be the solution

This mechanical business was not going to work for me as I need to be able to adjust remotely – from about 35′ away. So I removed the entire control.

So the useful bit of the trolling motor is the motor and the pipe. The motor can be made to work by simply using the +/- wires and ignoring the white/yellow. The direction of spin can be done by a relay/solenoid made for this purpose – such as one used for controlling a winch or an actual thruster. I pursued the ones for a winch as they are cheap (< $100) and the ones for thrusters are expensive (> $500). I was also looking for at least 100amp capacity as the motor is 50amp.

Went online to find a solution. I found that I could get the solenoid with a wireless control. Importantly; the wireless was via radio frequency (FM I think) and not whatever Blue Tooth uses. So the range is much greater. So I ordered a kit. It will be interesting to see if there is any interference with the wireless by other devices in the area. I know that Warn makes a remote for their winches and they specifically state that the remote and the receiver are paired to only work with each other – nobody else stated this.

This project will resume in a week or two as I am now waiting for the kit. Decided to spend the rest of the evening sorting out 12v supplies so that I have a more robust 12v kit on the boat.

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