This week’s selection is the Electric Thruster Fin for Paddle Board by Printables contributor Christian_114659.
Paddle boards are extremely popular these days. They are inflatable and can be easily transported without having to be mounted on a car top carrier. Some can even be put into a backpack for use on hikes.
Regardless of how you transport them, paddle boards still require the operator to do the paddling. Until now!
This design enables mounting of an electric motor on many paddle boards.
But how do you mount a motor on an inflatable boat? Won’t you puncture it?
No, you won’t, because this design takes advantage of a common feature on most paddle boards: slide-mounted skegs. A skeg is a fin that is mounted on the bottom of the paddle board for stability and tracking. Normally, paddle boards have a completely flat bottom, meaning that you’d tend to rotate the boat when paddling. The skeg keeps the boat pointed straight, mostly.
Because inflatable paddle boards are collapsible, most have a slide-mounted skeg. The inflatable part has a mount securely pasted on it. That’s what’s being used here: the design by Christian replaces the usual skeg with a modified design where the electric motor can be installed.
The motor that this design accommodates is the U92 Underwater Thruster, which comes in 12 or 24V versions. It also requires a battery, which is kept on the top of the paddle board during operation. You can see how it works in this video:
It’s not just a fin replacement, as there is more to the design. Christian explains:
“It prevents the entire fin from tipping forwards due to the propulsive force with a forward extension. This extension directs the resulting torque to the underside of the board. This prevents the fin slot from being overloaded.”
If you have a paddle board and are tired of doing the paddling, this might be an interesting project.
Via Printables
