Gladis is one of the first dispros that I restored back in 1994 . the owner that I initially resored it for was the late Doug Brown . Doug was responsible for inviting me to ride in Gladis to my first dispro regata before I owned one of my own . 25 years after leaving my shop she was back for an electric conversion . The conversion worked out very well and is a lot more user freindly than the orriginal St. Lawrence engine . Cruising range is largely dependent on speed . If not pushed too much beyond the hull speed of 5.5 mph the batteries will last 10 or 11 hours . Push it hard and the batteries will be drained in 2.5 hours . Part of the instalation included a built in automatic charger with the plug inside the gas cap . And a 12v USB charging port for the cell phone of course .
When these boats were new cars had manuals that explained how to gap the points and set your valve lash . Today the car manual tells you not to drink the washer fluid . Most people are no longer that good at mechanical things and dont even know what a valve is . The electric is as close to “plug and play”as you can get with a dispro
Below is a video of the maiden voyage , early spring 2021 during the height of the pandemic . The noise is from my 1923 twin dispro running as a chase boat
