For Severn Township resident Matt Philip, converting a 53-year-old boat from gas to electric is simply a summer project.
It started with a love for water activities that spans generations in his family.
Philip spent this past summer at home in Severn. There, the idea to introduce younger members of the family to water skiing arose — the same activity he and his brother, Adam, grew up doing, and the same activity their grandmother, Lucille Ellins, now 105, did until the age of 80.
Philip purchased a used boat that was long maintained for fishing purposes. The two-stroke, 25-horsepower (hp) motor it came with, although from 1976, is still turning over and broadly functional.
However, a gas engine of this standard will inevitably leak gas back into the lake.
“That’s just the nature of two-stroke engines,” said Philip.
Plus, something more appropriate for towing an adult water skier was needed.
“I might give it another try,” said Ellins.
The brothers wanted to improve the motor but also reduce their carbon footprint.
Both with engineering degrees, they decided to make a summer project of it and convert the 1970s boat to electric.
They calculated capacities, weights and costs, compared models and efficiency, and considered timelines.
Philip was hoping to have the boat on the water during the summer, but due to cheaper fees for purchasing parts shipped from China as opposed to the United States, the delivery time increased and so did the wait to water ski. It will now be ready for next summer.
A plate on the back of the boat designates its capacity as 55 hp, “which means you can put up to that amount on the boat before you’ll start to damage the back,” Philip explained.
“That was also how they rated the weight capacity in those days because the motors were a certain amount of weight for a certain amount of horsepower.”
Philip did his research and discovered the hull was registered in 1971. It also includes a small Alcan logo.
From what he learned in engineering school, Alcan was a Crown corporation because of Canada’s good-quality aluminum. It still makes aluminum foil today. This led Philip down a rabbit hole of history, leading to questions about the possible uses the boat may have once had.
“We can tell there are several layers of paint on it,” he said, noting it has peeling sections with a yellow colour but is powder blue at its base.
Characteristic features include forest green stripes, which would have been added after what looked like bumpers.
“They’re sort of the Parks Canada shade of green, which made me think it was some kind of service boat,” noted Philip.
It costs about $300 to obtain the history of the hull, which they have not committed to.
The boat is 14 feet long and designed for four people. The seating will be upgraded in the process of making the boat seaworthy.
Philip said by the time the batteries for the electric motors came in, he was pleasantly surprised by the weight. With four batteries being used to operate two 10.5-kilowatt engines, and each battery weighing 10 pounds less than expected, Philip is pleased to revisit calculations and perhaps increase passenger potential.
After deciding to make the change to electric, the brothers decided on two smaller engines as opposed to a large on in the centre. This decreased the amount of voltage that will be running through the system.
“Once we found which motors were available, we had long discussions about voltage and safety and the balance between those two,” said Philip.
They selected the largest model manufactured by the company they purchased from. That being said, the motor part is quite small.
“With the big electric outboards that are coming from big North American manufacturers, the motor unit is up above, and then there’s a drive system down the propeller like a traditional gas motor. With these, the entire motor unit is down below the water line,” explained Philip.
The section at the top of the unit is the control system. Philip compared it to the controller unit on an e-bike, which controls speed.
They don’t require four batteries to service the two motors, but they decided on four to get two hours of full-throttle run time for a total equivalency of 40 hp.
Philip said he and his brother originally thought to use one motor and four batteries to gain four hours of run time, but for the purpose of water skiing, and when calculating thrust and horsepower equivalency, 20 hp didn’t quite fit the demand.
Although the initial cost for an electric motor seems high, Philip compared the low initial and servicing costs of the gas motor and said there is more long-term gain from the electric option. He said these motors likely won’t need to be serviced.
For a family of water skiers who want to maintain the integrity of the lake they’ve used for generations, the summer project to convert the boat to electric felt right.
“Investing in something that’s going to last a while makes sense to us,” said Philip.
What does his soon-to-be-106-year-old grandmother say about this project?
“Well, I would do the same thing.”
