Mark writes: "Although it's hardly a trawler, I am building an electric boat in my backyard right now. It was a Santana 20 sailboat, a class racing boat which I bought from the Edison Sailing School in Ft. Myers. As a sailboat, it has an easy shape optimized for displacemant speeds, an 18' waterline, 8' beam, and a fixed draft of 4' with its 650 lb lead keel. Displacement is 1300 lbs empty. The plan is to use my new electric launch for touring around our local canals at happy hour, and to sneak up on wildlife at the nearby lollipop, a former sand mine. Efficiency is not the driving reason to make the boat electric, quiet is." - - - - Good luck on the boat. But you are right. It is hardly a new idea. Similar boats with virtually the same specifications and a relay controller were used at the Columbian Exposition more than a century ago. Good ideas never die. I personally do my electric boating in a Grumman canoe with a Minnkota trolling motor. As you say, it is dead quiet. Larry Z