• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

Took the new “river navigator” out for the first spin this week, and am definitely excited to get this boat to a few regional rivers.  At 13′ and 130 pounds, the gheenoe is pretty easy to load in the back of my standard wheel base chevy.  The fully electric torqeedo travel 1003 breaks down into 3 parts and weighs only 30 pounds in total.  For my test spin, I just took it to the Santa Rosa Sound on a pretty flat day and thoroughly enjoyed the outing.  While the motor is not fast, it beats the heck out of paddling, and will be sufficient to take me to the closest grass beds for some redfish and speckled trout.  After going east in the sound for 2.5 miles, I turned around with 68% battery left.  Maybe 1/2 the time was spent at full speed, so the battery life can be extended significantly by not opening the throttle fully.  The extra push wasn’t enough to plane the boat on the sound, but we will see what happens on a small river.  At 1/2 power, the range increases significantly.

While I’ve been talking about a gheenoe for years, the availability of the new torqeedo was the kicker.  The outfits primary purpose for me will be Florida river navigation, such as the Blackwater, Suwannee, Econfina, Apalachicola and even Atchafalaya when I get to Louisiana.  Should be able to navigate many miles upstream, then float back to the truck.  This can also be extended with the optional solar panel that will power the motor while charging.  Indefinite range?

On the way back, while contemplating my next trip to include this boat, I shifted position on my seat, and simultaneously hitting something lightly with the prop.  Poof!  Motor gone.  Apparently, I had not tightened the unit to the transom enough.  In an instant, it was gone.  Just over 3.5 miles of usage.  Gone.

These puppies are supposed to survive fully submerged underwater (including salt) for at least an hour, so there is time to find it.  My wife was nice enough to bring a mask and snorkel to me from the house, so I tied the gheenoe off to some old pilings close to where the torqeedo came off and started hunting.  The saltwater was only a few feet deep, but pretty murky for the Santa Rosa Sound.  After a two hour search that was beginning to seem like an eternity, there it was!  My brand new shiny silver and orange torqeedo.

By this time, some neighbors of mine were baiting crab traps around the pilings where the gheenoe was tied off.  Really wondering whether the claims to saltwater submersion would live up to the hype, I put the torqeedo back on the gheenoe (really tight this time), got in the boat, turned it on, turned the throttle, and off we went.  Sweet.   My neighbor asked “You just pulled that thing out of the water, right?”

Highly recommend this little combination:

http://gheenoe.net/thirteenft.html

http://www.torqeedo.com/us/hn/products/travel-503-1003.html

 

Tweet