Hybrid and EV... boats?

That is a rare thing of beauty! Don't have to worry about your neighbor's shade tree hampering PV production!

 

Biodiesel powered by animal fat? Bet PETA loves that.... :lol:

Save the world, but kill all the fury animals.

 

Solar and wind power have been used by cruisers for a long time. HaveBlue is a test project here in Ventura County that uses the renewable energy sources (wind and solar) to drive a hydrogen separation process in a Catalina 42. My sister lives near the guy doing this, but I have as of yet been unable to get to help crew the boat. Link is at http://www.haveblue.com/xv1/index.htm

But you have to remember that the main means of propulsion in a sailboat remains the wind. Because of the hull shape of a blue water, single hull sail boat, you cannot push them faster than the "theoretical hull speed" anyway, so you won't have that Catalina 42 going any faster than about 9 knots.

Large power boats are extremely thirsty, with mileage often expressed in gallons per mile, not miles per gallon.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(dipper @ Oct 9 2006, 11:35 PM) [snapback]330485[/snapback]</div>

Only the fat ones.

Theoretical hull speed is 1.34 * SQRT(LWL) where LWL is the length of the hull at the waterline. The LWL of the Catalina 42 is 36' so the theoretical hull speed is 8.04 kts or 9.25 mph. This applies to "displacement" hulls, not planning hulls (racing dinghys and performance racers) or multihulls. Those forms regularly exceed their theoretical hull speed. The Cat 42 could exceed its hull speed when sliding down the face of a large wave. Hull speed limitations don't apply in that scenario.

fshagan, sorry. I'm wired (I just got finished with a hockey game) and I'm bored.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(tripp @ Oct 10 2006, 10:25 PM) [snapback]331035[/snapback]</div>

I guessed at the 9 knots figure, so I'm not upset that I was off by 10 percent or so. My little boat only does about 4 knots, but we have clocked it at up to 5.5 by GPS (surfing, in a gust).

From an energy conservation standpoint, boats are the worst performers. I suppose a ferry holding several hundred MIGHT use less energy than a jet aircraft of the same capacity for short trips, but the laws of physics drag the boat down eventually as the time on the water increases. Water has just too much drag, and so far even hydroplanes are not able to reduce it as much as that wonderful invention, the wheel, does on dry land.

 

We have lots of solar powered boats over here in Europe.

Most are ferries transporting people over lakes, some are huge.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(dipper @ Oct 10 2006, 01:35 AM) [snapback]330485[/snapback]</div>

Well, I head Petrolent Green is... People!

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(fshagan @ Oct 12 2006, 12:23 AM) [snapback]331600[/snapback]</div>

What type of boat do you have? If it can plane then you can chuck the numbers I posted right out the window.

According to the FAA (I think, I googled this the other day) typical jet liners get about 48 mpg/seat. I looked this up when investigating the fly or drive argument. Assuming that the plane is about full it actually does better than many cars. If you drive yourself in something less than a prius you're better off flying. If 4 of you take a car across country then you'll do better than the plane. There are a lot of assumptions here, of course. This doesn't take into account WHERE the pollution is occuring. I don't know what effect that has on the problem. Small jets are horrible polluters because you can't distribute the pollution over many passengers.

I've seen quite a few cruisers for sale that featured solar panels. It just seems like a no brainer in that situation. Why burn diesel (that you really might need later) to make electricity when the sun can do it for you. I've heard of small wind generators as well as towable propellers (if you can exceed your hull speed anyways, why not, right?) but I haven't seen pics of these systems.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(fshagan @ Oct 12 2006, 02:23 AM) [snapback]331600[/snapback]</div>

Boats can be great performers from an energy standpoint. It all depends on speed and size. A large vessel operating at less than hull speed can move a huge amount of cargo for not much energy. It's only when you push them that things get inefficient. On the other hand, the value of time becomes an issue with slow moving ships.

Even smaller displacement hulls can be fairly efficient. Our 32' sailboat displaces 16,000 lb, and when motoring gets about 16 mpg. Compare that to a truck of similar size and it's not too bad. On the other hand, we are only going 5 to 6 kts.

Tom

 

I believe on of the larger catamaran companies (Lagoon ?) has introduced a version of a cat with electric motors. It has a larger set of batteries but that was offset by replacing the deisel motors with the electrics. It has a motor/generator set to keep the batteries recharged and also uses the props to generate electric under sail. Not so much a hybrid as an electric boat with a gas generator.