There isn’t much that appeals to me about setting out in a fishing vessel every morning, from the cold ocean air to the rattly old diesel engine from decades gone by, it all sounds kind of gross. One Scottish lobster man got tired of the big diesel bill he was racking up every month eating into his profits, so he set about restoring an old boat from 1978 and converting it to electric. Not only is the cost of “fuel” a fraction of what it was before, but it’s not polluting his trapping grounds with diesel smoke or noise. It’s a more peaceful, economical, and environmentally conscious way to run, I don’t know what else you could ask for.
“Previously, Hans was spending twenty pounds per day on diesel. And while that’s three times the cost he’s now spending, it doesn’t even begin to account for the reduction in maintenance and spare parts that Hans enjoys today.”
The rack of solar panels on top of the boat isn’t replenishing the battery quite as quickly as the little 40-horsepower electric motor uses it, but if the sun is beating down, it’s certainly helping. When the boat is moored for the night, it can be topped up with a regular plug, and Hans doesn’t have to pump stinky diesel ever again. The Lorna Jane has been operating for a season and a half without taking on a single drop of the stuff, and it’s been a boon for his business, and the local environment.
This project wasn’t entirely easy, despite the battery and motor conversion being relatively straightforward. The UK’s Maritime and Coastguard Agency didn’t have any regulations for safely converting a boat to electric, so Hans had to actually help them write the rulebook before he could get his own boat to pass and get legal registration. He reckons a reasonably talented mechanic could convert their boat in under three weeks and add a whole lot to their fishing operation’s bottom line.
This is a phenomenal idea, as a lot of these old fishing vessels are pumping a whole lot of nasty stuff into the air. For sure you wouldn’t want to breath in the stuff that a completely unrestricted 1970s diesel would spew out. Forget particulate filters and diesel exhaust fluid, it’s pure noxious gross.
The more of these kinds of boats that get swapped to electric, the better. Most of these small daily fishing operations will patrol a specific patch with a specific route there and back. While some operations go further out to sea than a lobster operator might, the technology exists to do all of it on electric. A 25-footer is going to average something like 2 miles per gallon of diesel, so the change to electric makes a ton of sense in my eyes. Here’s hoping more owner/operator fisherfolk follow in Hans’ footsteps and get their rigs swapped.