Electric final drive

One advantage of a diesel electric is that the diesel can be placed anywhere that space is available and the actual drive motor is relatively small compared to the diesel. We owned a small sailing cat for a short time that used hydraulic motors to drive a prop in each hull. The diesel to drive the hydraulic pump was in a locker at the back of the boat. The hydraulic motors where maybe 12" by 12", very compact.

Well in all fairness you are from Ft Liquordale, you can't sail there unless you go outside and if it s windy the ocean is rough... spilled drinks aren't good

Come down to Miami and you ll see biscayne bay full of sails every weekend

We usually get on and off our mooring at Coconut grove Sailing club under sail only with the electric onboard on standby just in case as it s a bit tight.

Generators and air con are something you usually don't find on sailboats under 40 at least until recently it's a sailor thing. Just like you don't see water cans on the deck of a power boat

Yes, ideally you d want either a genset capable of reachrging an electric motor bank plus supply power to avoid camping aboard, or a Diesel engine with a good inverter system, or AC alternator, to double as a generator.

But most sailboat owners are happy with dim lights, tiny bitty fans and cans of water on deck

I m sailor, not a camper

There are boats that just sail when the wind is good and sit when it isn't. They can get by with a generous battery bank (hundreds of pounds not thousands) and some largish solar panels. Motoring is more convenient that sailing but if you are committed to sail then really motoring and thrusters are for maneuvering in crowded anchorages and marinas.

There are a number of people here that cruise the world with sails, electric motors and solar panels: http://www.cruisersforum.com/

I had a diesel electric tug. I liked the setup, but not affordable for private use.

Here is a video of a Diesel to electric sail conversion. He has about 15kw of power and a 200 Ah bank of 8 6v in series for 48 v.

If he drains the battery he can probably get an hour of propulsion. 20 minutes is more reasonable from a battery lifespan perspective, and if he has 300 watts of solar (functionally) dedicated to the propulsion he can do that 20 minutes of maneuvering under motor every sunny day.

An envelope. However, if you watch part 2 he talks about throttling back a knot or so to get 4 hours out of it.

Edit: To be more specific about that envelope. 200 amps at 48 volts is 9600 watts. A motor that is "virtually the same" as a 12 hp diesel is going to ab about 9 kw (since a kw is about 1.34 hp). Fudge in a bit of inefficiency from internal resistance of the batteries and fudge a bit in the other direction because high quality batteries should hold a bit more than their labeled charge and an hour seems fair to me. So 20 minutes of full throttle and you have 3 kwh of electricity to replace. 300 watts of solar performance for 10 hours in the day and you are back to charged.