[/quote]I had wondered the same thing, power boats with outboards have remote controls for throttle and frd/rev and your steering would be your own rudder, at least it was on our Pearson. The outboard didn't turn. They probably have controls by wire or bluetooth as well and there would be no need to reach down.
As a user of an a 10kw electric inboard, we did not go outboard for all of the reasons posted in this thread. You have be honest with yourself and know it does have limitations in range, but not in power. It has plenty of power.
I read yesterday that it would take a 600W solar system 2.5 days to charge a 245 ah 48 volt battery bank at a cost of about $1200 for this particular kit. I am pretty sure that this would be under the very best solar conditions. You also have to make sure you have enough solar to fully charge you bank. If you use any kind of lead acid battery under charging will be the death of them. Then you have to figure out where to put 40 SQ FT of panel, and then again you are taking away from the looks of the boat.
After two years the electric motor has worked well for us but we are sailors first. It is the trip, not the destination that is important to us.
I can see if someone had a sailboat, (cat would be ideal for the surface area) and covered it in solar panels, wind turbine and prop regen (regen this was waaaaay over rated on ours) They could be pretty independent travelers.