Boating - Dave's Midwestern Ohio Memories

Series of Guest Blogs by an out-of-state Fish Report reader originally from this area about fond memories of growing up in Midwestern Ohio during the 50’s & 60’s

Boating

Over the winter, we're having our pontoon boat converted to electrical power, and as regular blog readers know so well, current events tend to trigger past memories. My first power boat ride was at age 10 during a family reunion held in the summer of 1958 at Lake Loramie. My uncle Pat had a motor boat and he offered everyone a ride. Pat needed someone to help him launch the boat and get fellow reunion goers on and off, so I happily volunteered for that duty, which gave me the opportunity for multiple rides on the boat around the lake.

Back then and perhaps still today, the lake had many tree stumps preserved under the surface of the water from the early 1840’s when the Loramie Creek was dammed up to provide water for the nearby Miami-Erie canal under construction at the time. In preparation, the land had to be cleared on the lowlands adjacent to the shoreline of the creek, and the easiest way to do so was simply cutting down the trees but leaving in the hard-to-remove stumps. Canoes and flatboats prevalent back then would simply float right over them so no big deal.The recreation use of the lake came decades later in 1917 when the state park was created around the lake and powered outboards for boats were invented .

Motor boats with propellers protruding into the water meant any hidden stumps could damage a prop or even worse a motor. So Uncle Pat also had me look out for those nasty stumps, which meant a full afternoon of boat riding. But most of the rides entailed zipping around the designated speed zone in the deeper part of the lake where the original creek had flowed obviously devoid of any stumps. Needless to say, that was one of my favorite family reunions. By the way, my introductory blog written in July of 2015 was about my first family reunion. You won’t see me in the 1947 family photograph taken in front of the old St. Patrick’s school because I’m still in my pregnant mother’s womb waiting patiently to be born six months later!

The idea of converting my boat over to electric originated last summer when I had the opportunity to cruise around in an electric powered pontoon owned by a friend who had just built a home on a lake that doesn’t permit gasoline powered boats. It was impressive how quiet the cruise was, with just the slightest ripple of water rushing noise in the background allowing the passengers to easily hold a conversation. Years ago, I had ridden in an electric boat called a Duffy like pictured below and wasn’t impressed, because the electric motor was underpowered and the v-shaped hull was very susceptible to the wake from any nearby power boat, unlike my friend's new electric powered pontoon.

Also, as a retired automotive engineer, I was intrigued by the conversion to electric power for cars as documented in this previous blog on the topic. So doing the same for our pontoon was compelling. Beyond just the quietness benefit, the cost to fully charge an electric powered boat is only $1.25, while never having to deal with carrying gas cans down to the lake again. The range is 6 hours at cruising speed and while at full speed, 1 hour, but we seldom if ever use the pontoon under wide open conditions and definitely not for a full hour. Initially trading in my existing pontoon for a new electric boat was considered, but several problems surfaced; first, the cost of an electric boat is very high, the supply very limited, plus the trade in value of my pontoon relatively low. One other problem, I would need a new hoist as well since most of the available electric boats were about 6” wider than my current hoist that I had converted from a powerboat to a pontoon set-up back in 2018 when we traded in our 20’ bow-rider I/O boat for the narrowest pontoon available so it would fit on the converted hoist.

While searching for electric pontoon boats, I happened to talk to the sales person at the place where the hoist was originally purchased, a place called Decks and Docks. He indicated they had done successful conversions of existing pontoons to electric, which could be a better solution. He gave me the quote below for over $10,000 to convert the pontoon, which seemed high. But he explained that this cost does not factor in either the sale of the gas motor as well as the higher trade-in value down the road for an electric versus gas powered pontoon.

Before pulling the trigger, I went on-line to research electric motor reviews and discovered this video from the Facebook page of the Ray motor quoted for our pontoon. The noise level was way too high and the comments were negative, so my friend with the electric pontoon we rode in last summer provided the brand of motor on his boat, a German-made Torqeedo.

Turns out there are two types of electric boat motor designs, one with the motor integrated underwater directly driving the propeller and another design with the motor above the water having gears and a shaft driving the propeller. The typical whining of an electric motor as well as the gear noise is shielded when mounted underwater but very audible when above as was very evident in the video. The following sound data found on-line, albeit for a lower HP electric motor than mine, indicates a 15 decibel improvement with the direct drive, underwater design at wide open throttle. Not shown but at cruising speed, the noise level drops to a very quiet 30 dB. Note the very high noise level for a gas motor.

Another plus is a direct drive underwater motor is less expensive since no shafts or gears are required, which helped to cut some cost out of the quote. So we kicked off the conversion, which is currently underway scheduled for completion next month well in time for this summer’s boating season. After the pontoon was taken out of storage, the 5 year old Mercury 40 HP gas powered motor was listed on Facebook Marketplace and surprisingly received 2500 hits generating 26 inquires from interested buyers, which created the opportunity for a bidding war among 8 bidders resulting in a $5500 sale price, $1500 over ask! and just $1000 below a new motor. The high bidder was an architect from Columbus, Ohio. I was amazed and pleased at the response; however, there were a lot of disappointed people who sure wanted that motor.

We’re looking forward to a wonderful season cruising quietly around the lake this summer, no doubt creating some brand new memories.

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