IN SOME WAYS, while I considered myself an awful candidate to write an article that would express my reaction to an electric-boat bass-fishing experience, at the same time, I could be an ideal candidate.
That is, on the minus side, I knew nothing about bass fishing from boats powered by electric outboard motors. But on the plus side, I knew nothing about bass fishing from boats powered by electric outboard motors.
That means that I came to this topic without preconceived notions. Indeed, I really didn’t know what to expect when I drove east from Atlanta to a lovely 1,370-acre lake with the unlikely name of Hard Labor Creek Reservoir in Georgia recently, curious to see what the fuss was about. At the floating dock, I stepped onto a custom 17-foot Rock Proof Boats aluminum model designed by Brent Kauffman with electric power in mind. I noticed a “50” on the cowling of the Elco outboard engine, as if perhaps it was a model 50. On the other hand, nowhere did it say “50 horsepower.”
I came to understand that while it looked and performed more or less like a 50-hp gas outboard, that was in fact a “comparable” horsepower rating. Why it is a bit complicated, some dumbing-down research helped me understand some of the nuances of electric-outboard power ratings.
To be technically
