Motor Giveaway Winner

As part of celebrating our 120 year history in Marine Electric Propulsion, Elco is proud to announce the winner of the Elco Motor Giveaway, Steve Keblinsky. Steve and his Father are the owners of a business in Southwest Harbor, Maine, Downeast named Sailing Adventures. They have been taking summer vacationers out sailing on the coast of Maine since 1997. Below are some passages from Steve’s “winning entry”.

Steve K. “We take about 1500-1800 passengers a summer. One of the first impressions is motoring under diesel motor power out of the harbor while I introduce myself. Doing this at a normal speaking volume would be great!! Let alone being able to hear my passengers when they tell me their names or ask a question. The best benefit of an electric motor would be on the sunset sail when the wind dies off. I hate wrecking a serene moment to start the diesel to motor back to the dock. An electric motor would allow the “moment” to last the entire sail.”

Steve K. “The pride of our fleet is called “SURPRISE”. She is a 33 foot friendship sloop with an old tired universal 3 cyl 27 hp diesel. It was installed in 1971 and has been chugging along ever since. Last spring when the thaw came I noticed oil weeping out of her garboards. I told myself it was from some oil that was spilled in the bilge during an oil change. Upon further inspection I found that it was a rusted out oil pan. No big deal, or so I thought. Me and my dad pulled the motor and after a week or so of research, we finally found an oil pan that would fit the motor. It arrived, we tried to install, nope didn’t fit. The oil pick up needed to be moved to use this pan. Found one from a Kubota tractor dealer and put that in. In the mean time we spit shined the bilge of the original oil that fell out of the motor. Being a wood boat it was a messy task. Installed the motor and it ran great, for about a week until another oil leak developed and dropped another 4 quarts of oil into the bilge. I think you see where I am going with this. I am SICK AND TIRED of oil in my bilge.”

Steve K. I have been fascinated with the idea of electric propulsion ever since I met a guy with a small Anthony Dias cold molded sloop powered with a forklift motor and the batteries were the ballast. I never really thought the concept would be practical for any of my boats until I read the article in WOODENBOAT called “Repowering VAGABOND”. The ELCO Motor and related system put up some impressive stats for a 40 foot wooden launch. If it could work for that boat I think it it could work for that boat I think it could work for “SURPRISE”.

Elco will be following this repower and sharing the progress with you. Electric propulsion is silent, clean, powerful and very easy to operate – Stay tuned for more on this exciting project.