Hive account@allowisticartist I appreciate your enthusiasm but I think your expectations for an electric powered drivetrain are a bit unrealistic. First, although batteries are getting cheaper they are still very expensive in comparison to conventional diesel propulsion. Second, mixing electronics with salt water makes things even more complicated and even more expensive. It isn't impossible but it ain't cheap either. You will also need to be an electrical engineer in order to maintain the boat. Even finding someone qualified to do maintenance on the boat is going to be difficult. Third, I'm not sure about the size of your boat but I'm guessing it isn't large if you plan to do the Great Loop. Therefore size and weight are going to be serious considerations. In order to hold the amount of juice necessary to power the drive train AND all the other systems of the boat, you are going to need to allocate some serious space to a battery bank. If you've ever lived on a sailboat, you'll know that space is always at a premium. For an example of weight, my current boat has a conventional drivetrain and I carry 10 gel batteries weighing in at over 50lbs each just to power my house systems. That's over 500lbs and a big chunk of real estate. Finally, your aspirations of charging you battery bank using wind, solar, and regeneration are totally unrealistic. You have to consider where you intend to use the boat. Most places along the Great Loop don't have consistent sun or wind. You also won't be doing a whole lot of sailing in the confined waters of the inland waterways and rivers.
So what is going to end up happening is that you are going to dump a TON of money into a unreliable and underpowered drivetrain. Then you will end up having to install a diesel generator and run it constantly in order to keep your massive battery bank charged. In the end, you'll just have an inefficient version of the thing you were trying to avoid in the first place. Sorry to burst your bubble, but I've been aboard true electrically powered sailing vessels and they are neither cheap nor easily configured. Hopefully in a few years electric drive trains will be the norm, but right now (even if you use second hand components) the technology just doesn't make sense economically or functionally.