BoatBanter.com - View Single Post - 300 watts and only 1.5 knots ~ A Canada revolution

cavelamb himself[_4_]

wrote:

On Tue, 18 Sep 2007 12:50:44 -0500, cavelamb himself
wrote:

wrote:

On Tue, 18 Sep 2007 11:02:47 -0400, Wayne.B
wrote:

On Tue, 18 Sep 2007 06:37:54 -0700, Joe
wrote:

The prototype's creator, Jim Harrington, equipped the sailboat with a
300-watt Horizon fuel cell system with the hydrogen supplied by NRC in
Vancouver and the only by-products of the operating fuel cell being
heat and water.

300 watts is less than 1/2 hp. No wonder they didn't reach their goal
of 6.5 kts. They need at least 20x more power, and then there is the
hydrogen generation or storage problem to be solved.

I recall the Wright Brothers first flight wasn't quite ready for
commercial success, either. This is a start. Give it time to develop.

I disagree.

Fuel cell technology started with the Gemini space program amd developed
rapidly.

It is mature stuff - not emerging new tech.

Not for recreational boats, it's not. In my state, they have a couple
of schools that are now powered by fuel cells. Just a couple. They
consider it "experimental".

300 watts?
My daughter's stereo uses more power than that.

If this was truly a developed and mature technology, Your daughter's
stereo might be powered by it, along with your whole house.

It is not appropriate technology for those kind of applications.

No more so than a nuclear powered house.

Maybe (MAYBE!) the Liquid Hydrogen storage would be safer than a
reactor.

Maybe Not...