POWER & PROPULSION
NEW-CONCEPT RIB RUNS ON BATTERIES, PETROL OR METHANOL A fascinating concept in marine methanol hybrid propulsion could redefine the way vessels, particularly small commercial high-speed craft, are powered, writes Jake Frith UK company and Seawork 2022 exhibitor Mathwall has a strong background in motor racing up to Formula 1 level, and is especially involved in historic racing engines, particularly Ford engines. Genesis A lot of racing engines run on methanol, which acts as a carrier for hydrogen, but from a marine decarbonisation standpoint it also has roughly double the energy density of pressurised liquid hydrogen, so it will allow boats to have an acceptable power-to-weight ratio and high-speed range that hydrogen boats struggle with and full electric boats are many decades away from providing. Mathwall Marine, and related consulting company PurpleSector, with their extensive methanol and hybrid experience, have found themselves in a good position to develop a hybrid marine propulsion system that can run on methanol, petrol, battery electric or a combination of these. The technology of both an internal combustion engine and a pure electric drive gives the benefit of both technologies to achieve power, lower CO2 emissions and range of use that could not be achieved by any of the technologies on their own. The venture is the brainchild of boat owner, Mathwall CEO and former Maclaren Chief Powertrain Engineer Mark Mathieson MBE. This combination of internal combustion and electric to get the best of both worlds is well trodden ground for Mathieson, as he led the development of the Maclaren P1 supercar’s epoch-defining and multi award-winning hybrid drivetrain, which in concept is not a million miles away from this one. Mathieson and the team’s racecar backgrounds also meant that, with some financial assistance from Innovate UK, and with the help of project partners, the prototype RIB shown here went from drawing board to high performing onwater test bed in just seven months. This test bed, called the CHAMP Project (Clean Hybrid Alternative Marine Powertrains) was funded by Innovate UK as part of the government’s Clean Marine Demonstration Competition. The project aims to demonstrate the potential performance that can be achieved with the introduction of hybrid technology in recreational, defence and small to medium-sized commercial vessels. Halfboard™ Fundamental to the success of the project so far has been a new, trademarked and patent-pending technology that Mathwall is calling the Halfboard, which gets its name from being halfway between an inboard and an outboard. The Halfboard places the weight of the drivetrain in a continued watertight, buoyant planing surface bolted onto the boat’s existing transom. It is another racecar technology, as drivetrains are often mounted in a similar way in the rear of racing cars for strength, lightness, rapid swapping out for faster development.
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The system means that existing boats can be repowered easily: it’s just a hoist and a number of bolts – not much more work than changing an outboard. In the case of RIBs, the tubes are extended further rearwards to accommodate and stabilise the unit. Of course, different RIBs have different deadrise angles at the transom and different transom angles, arrangements of planing rails etc., so to get a fair hull continuation on all hulls, some degree of custom fabrication work will be required. For the CHAMP project’s single boat prototype, Mathwall has partnered with Ballistic RIBS and Portsmouth’s Trafalgar Boat Club, and Mathieson believes that partnering with boatbuilders to ensure Halfboards exactly fit certain hulls could be one route to market. Another could be to provide less bespoke halfboard units that are slightly shallower than the transom and mounted a little higher, thus adding the further high-speed efficiency benefit of an aft planing step. As it is, the halfboard prototype with its LS3 engine (a V8 monster that most commonly lives under the bonnets of Chevrolet Corvettes) has been a great success. It’s a big engine and hence the longest possible halfboard that will ever likely be made. Production models will all, most
8 LS3 V8 runs on gasoline and methanol
8 RIBs require tube extension to accommodate Halfboard
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