Back in the early 1980′s was involved in a mad project called Warrenjet. The Warrenjet Jet Outboard was originally conceived by Commander Warren, but it was Reading entrepreneur and businessman John Fryer who had the most commercial success with it, touring the UK chandlerers and boat hire outfits, with a stock of Warrenjets in the back of his Range Rover. You can see a clip of one of the few remaining functioning Warrenjet outboards, running here:

Two models were produced, a 3HP – Model 30 (originally 2.5HP) and a 5HP (model 50) the latter producing nearly 75lbs of thrust. As you can see from the clip, although the jet outboard was incredibly safe due to an enclosed impeller design, the Rockwell/JLO two stroke engine though very well made and reliable, was horrendously noisy and unlike modern outboard motors, the exhaust didn’t vent out under water. So the motor jet outboard never achieved the volume sales/production required for proper tooling up. In addition the Japanese were dumping marine engines into Europe at really low prices. Coupled with some pretty damning reviews in the boating press, namely Practical Boat Owner, that should have been the end of that however…

Amazingly Lee Dickens Limited, a Kettering based electronics business, decided to buy Warrenjet (obviously one of my fathers more leftfield idea’s). The outboard idea was still a dud, and its time had very clearly passed, however the plan was to produce a new kind of disc-electric outboard motor, much more powerful than the Minn Kota/Eska, type of fishing/trolling motors imported from the US. Indeed LD were developing, in conjunction with the engineering department of Swansea University, a high efficiency electric motor, in two frame sizes 2kw and 10kw. Not sure what happened to all that however they were not unlike these lovely Lynch Motors below in concept:

However the LD Disc Motor never happened (though prototype motors did find their way into various hybrid vehicles built by Dragonfly Research and by Hybrid Vehicles Limited). Even if they had gone into production, I’m not sure bolting them to a Warrenjet leg would have been the best use for them. Despite that, I took up the electric boat idea project, but instead started importing the established and expensively hand built “Accumot” electric outboards from Austria, which Admiral Gick had found on holiday.

These Austrian outboards were extremely well made, with submerged water cooled series motors. Indeed the speed/torque characteristic of series motors has advantages for boat propulsion. There were several models from 300 watt to 4kW (800 watt being the most popular). In the boats above, is a Bossom’s Nell (I think) launch/day boat called the Natalie. Glad to see that Bossom’s Boatyard who built it are still going strong, thirty years on. A very nice outfit to deal with. That craft was fitted with a Nautilus 800 watt unit. Accumots were developed for the large inland lakes of Austria and Switzerland where many motor powered craft were prohibited. The other thing I liked about the Accumots was the controller which was essentially a great big switch, which I thought was preferable to the the more complex electronic controllers being fitted into boats.

The “retro” launch was built by Phoenix Fleet of Potter Heigham. I know they replaced our 2kW Accumot with a conventional milk float series motor provided by Rupert Latham of Classic Boat Works. Phoenix were concerned the Accumot motor had too small a propeller (which ran at high speed, coupled directly to the motor) resulting in cavitation if the craft suddenly needed to “brake” (something of a necessity on the congested Norfolk Broads). The Accumot in the craft was built “inboard” in this craft in a similar way to Admiral Gick’s Patricia. In another project I supplied two Accumot units for Viscount St. Davids Silver Sail narrowboat

I also supplied Len Funnell’s Faircraft Loynes of Wroxham with an identical 2kW Accumot, however due to the poor hydrodynamics of the craft, an enormous Crompton Parkinson traction battery unit was required (which was fitted in the bows amazingly). I recall breathing a sigh of relief when the heavy battery pack was craned in and the boat didn’t sink! Len was quite enthusiastic at the time as quiet environmentally clean electric boats would have fitted in well the development of shiny new river front apartments springing up in Wroxham and around the Broads. Sadly the public were less than enthusiastic. This day boat was not a success commercially, as customers complained the craft lacked “guts” so eventually a more conventional Japanese diesel was fitted. The electric drive may have been sold or installed in another craft (not sure).

Are Accumot are still going or just don’t have a website? No idea, but I hope they are. However here is a short video of what appears to be an updated kind of Accumot, but manufactured in the States. Well actually its a Torqeedo Electric Outboard and looks just the job, and they have a dealer/agent in Lowestoft!

Although electrics would be ideal for boat propulsion (no steep hills to climb, or rapid acceleration which tended to be problematic for electric car development due to battery limitations) the fact is that Jap diesels were cheap, reliable and very low in cost to maintain as marine diesel didn’t incur the tax penalties of road diesel.

Eventually I abondoned the electric boat idea. Nice afternoons testing boats on various waterways, but no real money coming in. More of a hobby in the end I think. I remember getting a phone call from a particularly individual at the Norfolk IWA informing me how “we” were not a “particularly serious little company.” I can’t say I was overly bothered at the time. The world is full of nitpickers on the sidelines.

As for that damn Jet Outboard, I think it might be time for a revival, perhaps manufactured in China, using a strimmer motor/engine and making extensive use of modern light weight plastics, rather than clumsily sand cast aluminium. Oh no! What on earth am I thinking!? But please don’t ask me for any spares as I don’t have any! ;o)