Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Re: [Electric Boats] Re: Repowering 40' 1975 20,000 lb sailboat

 

Dennis , I agree , the major factor is the skippers seamanship .
I went to a Coast Guard meeting last night , and yes , that is the biggest issue.
In that can be included battery choice and maintenance , and issues to do with petrol , either spilling it , and causing an explosion , or running out of it , invariably a big outboard , and not a local boat person.
No sailboats had that problem of late , the only problem being torn sails , or in one celebrated instance a few months ago , a replica boat was sailed from England without too much problem , only to be rolled over here , with major damage and injury.
I guess it wasn't named "The shipwreck coast" for nothing !.
All I'm asking is that people put safety first.
Regards Rob Johnson.

--- On Thu, 8/10/09, dennis wolfe <dwolfe@dropsheet.com> wrote:

From: dennis wolfe <dwolfe@dropsheet.com>
Subject: Re: [Electric Boats] Re: Repowering 40' 1975 20,000 lb sailboat
To: electricboats@yahoogroups.com
Received: Thursday, 8 October, 2009, 12:43 AM

All boats are sets of compromises chosen by the owner.  Of course a diesel with a full tank of fuel will take you much further and probably faster than even a state-of-the-art electric system.  What it won't do is give you a couple of hours of silent fumeless motoring or freedom from a good deal of maintenance.  It depends on what you value more.

The safety issue is a red herring in my opinion.  People made trips on big sailboats for hundreds of years with no engine at all.  There are still thousands of people with engineless daysailors safely enjoying their boats.   We have traded the cost and hassle of an engine for the ability to (sort of) keep to a schedule, weather be damned.  You hear this same arguement use to defend obscenely large engines in powerboats - "But honey, it's fast enough to out run bad weather and get you home safely". 

I'll bet there are a lot more problems coming from a sailor relying on an engine that suddenly doesn't work than there are E sailors running out of juice and blowing up onto a lee shore.  The E boat does not have the range or speed of an ICE but its performance is much more predictable if you just pay a bit af attention to the battery state of charge, easy to do with a $200 meter.

Far and away the most critical safety item can't be purchased - it's the skipper's seamanship skills.

Denny Wolfe

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