T-Pain Is On A Boat: Re: [Electric Boats] Re: Pure or mostly solar powered boat?

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Re: [Electric Boats] Re: Pure or mostly solar powered boat?

Larry:

Back in 2002 I took my 30 foot sailboat up the Hudson River and through the Erie and Oswego Canals and across Lake Ontario to Canada. The mast was stepped on deck for the trip through the Canals. I still had my Westerbeke diesel back then. Heavy thunderstorms would sometimes flush branches, twigs and even trees into the canals where the small debris would block the water intake for the engine. More than once I had to dive below to clear the blockages. That trip would be so much more pleasant under electric propulsion as there would be no need to dive under the boat to clear the intake and would be so much quieter too making it perfect for traveling through the canals.

Capt. Mike

http://biankablog.blogspot.com

--- On Sun, 4/4/10, gramplarry <pfister.l@verizon.net> wrote:

From: gramplarry <pfister.l@verizon.net>
Subject: [Electric Boats] Re: Pure or mostly solar powered boat?
To: electricboats@yahoogroups.com
Date: Sunday, April 4, 2010, 1:17 PM

I know that at first it does not seem to make sense to strip out a sailboat and remove the masts. However there are more than a few such boats along 520 miles of canals in NY. The masts are removed because of frequent low bridges. Large engines are not required because most of the canal along its length has a 5 to 10 kts speed limit with only a few sections above 20kt where there are open lakes. A power boat often has a large engines and can burn through a lot of gas, and has a poor live aboard layout. Many of the older sailboats have better layouts to live aboard and lower gas consumption. These sailboats have the masts taken down and are used for cruising the canal. It might make sense to try to electric power one of the canal boats.
Usually if someone wants to modify or design something there is a rereason sometimes not very obvious but a reason.

Larry

--- In electricboats@ yahoogroups. com, Thumper Smith <thumper.smith@ ...> wrote:
>
> Being a novice myself, I can't offer much. But, seems to make little sense
> to take a sailboat, with its heavy keel and ballast, and remove all its
> sailing equipment to make it a motor boat. Why drag that keel, intended to
> keep the sailboat from going over, through the water? Unless, however,
> you're talking about a catamaran - then you may have something.
>
> Thumper
>
> >
> >
>