farnja

No experience with direct drive. Mine uses the belt as a gear reduction then is coupled to the shaft with chain. There’s a little hum, but I think the shaft/coupling is noisier than the belt. I will say on several occasions I was feeling good about my sailing only to realize I’d bumped the throttle into forward and was getting a bonus knot. It’s plenty quiet.

Hi All - I'm a noob sailor and a noob forum member but have a year of experience of with my electric propulsion Catalina 30. It's a 10kw install and looks to be the exact same components Dylan is considering, though his are in a nicer package. Dylan, happy to answer any questions, though it seems you've got a lot figured out! I assume the Fisher 25 is a totally different beast, but here some numbers from my experience (+/- tides, wind, and 100 other variables): Original batteries:48v 160ah Sealed lead acid, 50% discharge, 1.25 Puekert exponent 3.5 knots, 16amps, 3.5 hours run

Yes, you can set whatever voltage, but I don't think it has multiple stages or some of the other conveniences of an actual charger. Probably would have worked fine though.

Yea, limited panel space and I thought it would be nice to have the main bank available for the house if necessary.

They make 48v mppt solar charger, which I'm using for the panels, but not a 48v --> 12v DC/DC charger - at least that I am aware of. I actually use a basic 30amp 48v->12v buck converter off of amazon (like $25) to step the voltage from the main bank down to 12v. That runs to some bus bars off of which the smart orion 12v-->12v charger runs (and some random usb charging ports). It ends up getting a constant 12.3 volts input from the buck converter and outputs the needed charging voltages with a little less amperage.

I’ve got an electric Catalina 30 with 10kw 48v thunderstruck system and 12v house. 400 watts of solar at 48v power the main bank (via 2 24v panels) then I step it down to 12 and run it through a Victron DC/DC charger (linked below - newest ones are full charge controllers) to keep the house topped up. Also have charger for the 48v bank via shore power or portable genny but only really used it to make sure it was working. No idea if it’s the best way, but I like having 12v available directly from the main bank and the ability to easily isolate. https://www.victronenergy.co