I'm no electrician, but I thought I'd weigh in because I've used a 55 lbs thrust Minn Kota on my M17. I believe you might get your 5 miles out of one standard-sized deep-cycle, because 5 miles was more or less my range with the heavier 17'. I don't have a knotmeter, nor GPS (I mostly daysail, and I'm poor), so I can't tell you how fast the electric pushed me. I can give you the "nephew" index, though. I moved fast enough that my nephews enjoyed being dragged behind the boat under silent power. I'm obviously not talkin' planing inner-tubes here, but kids in lifejackets with ropes around their waists, enjoying the novelty and finding out, to their surprise, that the boat was moving faster than they could swim. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Rik Sandberg" <sanderico@earthlink.net> To: "MC" <southisland2@earthlink.net>; "For and about Montgomery Sailboats" <montgomery_boats@mailman.xmission.com> Sent: Saturday, April 17, 2004 9:14 AM Subject: more on electric drive on M17 MC, I have been thinking about an electric for our M-15. We will probably only be using her on lakes and most of them aren't all that big. I would think if I could get a range of five miles or so, out of it, that should be plenty. I might need two batteries to do this, but I don't have a problem with that as they (their weight) would reside pretty much in the middle of the boat. What was the thrust rating of the motor you were testing?? The motor I am looking at is rated, 55 lbs thrust. I have a 4 hp 2 stroke to use if I need better range or for a situation with current. But the silence of the electric is appealing for use on the lakes we would normally be sailing on. Rik On Fri, Apr 16 2004 07:02 pm, MC wrote: today I tried an new variable speed electric trolling motor on a M17, on still lake, with no air, one person. I got the gauge to reach almost two knots, its a hang over the side wand type. The meter said it was pulling 47 amps and at full open it lasted almost two hours. It was very sensitive to position of the helmsman. approximately 745 watts per one HP, that comes to only 0.86 HP, two knots seem too high for so small a motor. A ready to sail M17 I think weighs in at 2200 lbs plus one person.