Old Nick is a serial electric hybrid narrowboat, launched in December 2020 and built by Ortomarine. The Tyler Wilson-hulled boat is 58’ 6” long with a semi-trad stern. It is reverse layout and is built of steel. The Canal and River Trust serial number is 527634.
An electric serial hybrid boat has an electric engine that directly drives the propellor and a separate, efficient diesel generator. The engine is powered by a bank of batteries which are charged either by solar power, the generator or shore power.
Technical Specification
Engine – VETUS E-Line 10KW
Batteries – 24 x LC2-800 Leoch Lead Carbons
Solar – 12 x 160W (1920W) semi flexible panels
Generator – Vetus GLX 6,5 SIC
Bow Thruster – Vetus Bow Pro 65 (brushless)
Heating – Eberspacher HS3 D4E
Inverter/Charger – Victron Quattro 48v/8000VA
Unusually for a canal boat, there is no gas on board. Our power bank allows us to cook with electricity and we have a Bosch induction hob and a Neff oven. These are complemented by an 800W Panasonic microwave. Old Nick also has Washer Dryer, a full size larder fridge and a small 12v freezer on board.
Old Nick is a two berth with an additional two berths provided by the convertible dinette.
Almost every aspect of the day to day running of the boat is controlled and monitored by Ortomarine’s Ortomate™ system. Featuring a powerful industrial PLC controller, simple to use colour touch-screen and sophisticated multi-network interfacing, Ortomate™ gives us complete control of “Old Nick” from all our mobile devices, whilst onboard or ashore.