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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Mar 2006
    Location
    Washington
    Posts
    215

    Solar powered raft motoring

    Spent 6 days crossing Lake Powell on a prototype solar rig from Jack's Plastic Welding last summer. This was part of a longer trip as 3 college friends and I paddled from Rocky Mountain NP in CO to Lake Mead.

    We made a short video of it, so check it out if you haven't ever seen a solar powered raft before.



    More videos from the long journey are on this vimeo: https://vimeo.com/rockiesproject

    Enjoy and please let me know what you think. Thanks!

    David

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Apr 2005
    Location
    A LSD Steakhouse somewhere in the Wasatch
    Posts
    13,234
    pretty cool viddy
    but
    I want to say publicly, for the record, that the idea of decommissioning Glen Canyon Dam and draining Lake Powell is outside the Circle of Reality."

    Bruce Babbitt, July 14, 2000
    don't let the "circle of reality" fuck with your
    "When the child was a child it waited patiently for the first snow and it still does"- Van "The Man" Morrison
    "I find I have already had my reward, in the doing of the thing" - Buzz Holmstrom
    "THIS IS WHAT WE DO"-AML -ski on in eternal peace
    "I have posted in here but haven't read it carefully with my trusty PoliAsshat antenna on."-DipshitDanno

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Dec 2006
    Location
    crown of the continent
    Posts
    13,947
    Cool. I was on the first electric motor powered Grand Canyon trip back in...2001? Had essentially a 25hp motor on a 22' snout rig. Boat did fine, but battery charging was a challenge, had to fire up a [pretty quiet] generator every couple evenings for a few hours. Brainstormed an idea of having an arm off the back of the boat while at camp, with a propeller hung off of it, into the river, spinning all night long generating power.

    good times...
    Something about the wrinkle in your forehead tells me there's a fit about to get thrown
    And I never hear a single word you say when you tell me not to have my fun
    It's the same old shit that I ain't gonna take off anyone.
    and I never had a shortage of people tryin' to warn me about the dangers I pose to myself.

    Patterson Hood of the DBT's

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Mar 2006
    Location
    Washington
    Posts
    215
    tye 1on-

    That is sweet, were you using gas or propane to power the generator? And did you motor all the rapids with it?

    skifishbum-

    That is definitely the line being sold. But I don't think they will stick to it forever. As we all know, water is scarce in the southwest and is basically invaluable to life down there. Currently ~6-8% of the Colorado's annual flow evaporates off of Powell each year. Powell doesn't serve any major population centers, and with both Powell and Mead consistently at 50%, Mead could likely hold all that water, thus approximately cutting in half the available surface area for evaporation.

    Will they drain Powell because a bunch of granola crunching hippies want to see Glen Canyon again? Nope, never. But they might do it if and when that unnecessary 8% water loss per year is the difference between economic growth and bunch people not being able to live in/move to the SW.

    Just my opinion, obviously this issue is so complex that it's impossible to make a perfect prediction.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Dec 2006
    Location
    crown of the continent
    Posts
    13,947
    Quote Originally Posted by kayaktheworld View Post
    tye 1on-

    That is sweet, were you using gas or propane to power the generator? And did you motor all the rapids with it?
    yep, ran 'em all. Not personally, had a bunch of owner/guides on the trip, Cam, Garrett and Les took turns at the tiller. I think it was a gas generator, it may have been diesel...
    Something about the wrinkle in your forehead tells me there's a fit about to get thrown
    And I never hear a single word you say when you tell me not to have my fun
    It's the same old shit that I ain't gonna take off anyone.
    and I never had a shortage of people tryin' to warn me about the dangers I pose to myself.

    Patterson Hood of the DBT's

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Mar 2006
    Location
    Washington
    Posts
    215
    Quote Originally Posted by Tye 1on View Post
    yep, ran 'em all. Not personally, had a bunch of owner/guides on the trip, Cam, Garrett and Les took turns at the tiller. I think it was a gas generator, it may have been diesel...
    Sounds awesome. Those must have been beefy batteries to hold that much charge.

    Electric motor is definitely the way to go.... it sucks to have to listen to/smell a 2-stroke outboard for multiple hours a day.

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Mar 2009
    Location
    Aspen, Colorado
    Posts
    2,645
    when I went down last, in 2002, most rigs were four stroke. Its hard to believe many boats are still running 2T motors.

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