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#1
posted to rec.boats
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(non-political) comments on fuel economy and technology
Where Technology is Failing Boaters
Less than 30 years ago, a pleasure boat was considered well equipped with a rotary fathometer and a VHF radio. A few of the larger vessels had radar. Until the advent of the LORAN system, some mariners would employ radio direction finders to determine the relative bearing of broadcast towers and would then triangulate three of these positions to find their position on a paper chart. The average boater in the 1970's would have been hard pressed to believe that soon nearly all boats, as well as an increasing number of cars and trucks, would be equipped with a system that collected signals from dozens of satellites orbiting the earth to determine position. Fewer yet would have believed that basic access to the mega-billion dollar technology that makes the Global Positioning System possible would be available for prices of less than $200. Technology has completely and successfully revolutionized navigation for most boaters. One of the few short-term hazards to our recreational boating pastime is the volatile price of fossil fuel. We all clearly remember when in the aftermath of last year's Hurricane Katrina retail prices for gasoline and diesel shot up to well over $3 a gallon at roadside service stations and prices of $4 a gallon were not unheard of at area fuel docks. Corporate profit reports released within the last few months reveal that the majority of those punitive price increases went directly to the oil companies' net profit column. "Profit" isn't a dirty word, particularly in a free and competitive marketplace, but in reality the oil companies seem to collude far more than they compete. Now that the big oil producers and distributors have discovered that Americans will indeed pay well over $3-4/gallon for gas and diesel, pressure from Wall Street interests to sustain or increase the recent record profits may cause another "summer run-up" of fuel prices. As ever, the extremely wealthy are relatively insulated from the effects of price increases. A yachtsman spending $10,000 a month or more to finance, moor, maintain, and insure a high-dollar vessel is unlikely to alter his or her boating plans if the annual cost of fuel climbs by a few, or even several, thousand dollars. It's the family boaters of more ordinary means, sacrificing and budgeting to spend $750-2000 a month on the hobby, most likely to have plans altered or curtailed when the cost for fuel on a three-day weekend climbs just a few hundred dollars. I recently overheard someone remark, "If the middle classes can't afford to boat, that's just tough luck for them." Such a comment is very shortsighted. A steady or increasing volume of boaters sustains the pleasure boating infrastructure that even the most fortunate few depend upon. There seems to be no serious effort to build or design mass-market boats that are more fuel-efficient; and in fact the current state of the market indicates that the more HP stuffed into a hull the faster it will sell. When faced with a personal choice of cruising a few knots slower to improve fuel economy by perhaps 50% or opting for a larger engine that will cruise a few knots faster at the cost of perhaps 50% more fuel consumption, the most popular choice among new boat buyers has been the biggest available (usually least efficient) engine. This current group of high-performing but less than optimally fuel efficient boats will be the available used inventory within just a few years. Other industries, with larger markets and far more research and design money, are making some major technological advances. We've been doing some car shopping lately, and are intrigued with the new hybrid technology we have found on Toyota Highlanders. (The same system is available on a Lexus, and has been licensed to Ford for use in the Ford Escape and Mercury Mariner vehicles.) The hybrid drive technology improves fuel economy by about 60%, and reduces exhaust emissions to a fraction of those emitted by a conventional petroleum only system. The Toyota and the Lexus hybrid systems incorporate 3.3 liter V6 engines, and as a result of combined petrol and electric drives the hybrids not only outperform standard V6 models but deliver impressive "8-cylinder" speed and acceleration while consuming less fuel than many 4-cylinder competitors. Unfortunately, there aren't any boat building companies with the research and design budget of Toyota, and the comparatively tiny market for new boats vs. new automobiles would be unable to absorb the R&D costs for a radical overhaul of the manner in which we propel our boats. Radar and GPS were adapted to pleasure boats from military uses, and few of the current and pending technological advances in automotive propulsion will transfer easily to marine applications. Will technology radically improve the fuel efficiency of out boats without unduly sacrificing performance? Perhaps. While a technological solution seems unlikely at the present moment, the entire concept of GPS would have seemed like a fantasy to some boater turning a circular antenna to hone in on radio broadcast towers just a generation ago. In the meantime, we can keep our boats tuned up and maintained, select and install the correct propellers, haul off unused items to reduce excess weight, install fuel flow meters to seek the most efficient cruising speeds, keep the bottom clean, and pay some attention to currents when planning a cruise. Here in the Pacific NW, there is no good reason for fuel costs to keep a boater off the water. Regardless of where one moors or launches, there will be dozens of interesting parks, marinas, secluded anchorages, and charming waterfront villages only a short distance away. We can be thankful for our unique geography while we wait and hope for technology to help us make some dramatic improvements in fuel efficiency. |
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#3
posted to rec.boats
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(non-political) comments on fuel economy and technology
wrote in message oups.com... Where Technology is Failing Boaters Less than 30 years ago, a pleasure boat was considered well equipped with a rotary fathometer and a VHF radio. A few of the larger vessels had radar. Until the advent of the LORAN system, some mariners would employ radio direction finders to determine the relative bearing of broadcast towers and would then triangulate three of these positions to find their position on a paper chart. The average boater in the 1970's would have been hard pressed to believe that soon nearly all boats, as well as an increasing number of cars and trucks, would be equipped with a system that collected signals from dozens of satellites orbiting the earth to determine position. Fewer yet would have believed that basic access to the mega-billion dollar technology that makes the Global Positioning System possible would be available for prices of less than $200. Technology has completely and successfully revolutionized navigation for most boaters. One of the few short-term hazards to our recreational boating pastime is the volatile price of fossil fuel. We all clearly remember when in the aftermath of last year's Hurricane Katrina retail prices for gasoline and diesel shot up to well over $3 a gallon at roadside service stations and prices of $4 a gallon were not unheard of at area fuel docks. Corporate profit reports released within the last few months reveal that the majority of those punitive price increases went directly to the oil companies' net profit column. "Profit" isn't a dirty word, particularly in a free and competitive marketplace, but in reality the oil companies seem to collude far more than they compete. Now that the big oil producers and distributors have discovered that Americans will indeed pay well over $3-4/gallon for gas and diesel, pressure from Wall Street interests to sustain or increase the recent record profits may cause another "summer run-up" of fuel prices. As ever, the extremely wealthy are relatively insulated from the effects of price increases. A yachtsman spending $10,000 a month or more to finance, moor, maintain, and insure a high-dollar vessel is unlikely to alter his or her boating plans if the annual cost of fuel climbs by a few, or even several, thousand dollars. It's the family boaters of more ordinary means, sacrificing and budgeting to spend $750-2000 a month on the hobby, most likely to have plans altered or curtailed when the cost for fuel on a three-day weekend climbs just a few hundred dollars. I recently overheard someone remark, "If the middle classes can't afford to boat, that's just tough luck for them." Such a comment is very shortsighted. A steady or increasing volume of boaters sustains the pleasure boating infrastructure that even the most fortunate few depend upon. There seems to be no serious effort to build or design mass-market boats that are more fuel-efficient; and in fact the current state of the market indicates that the more HP stuffed into a hull the faster it will sell. When faced with a personal choice of cruising a few knots slower to improve fuel economy by perhaps 50% or opting for a larger engine that will cruise a few knots faster at the cost of perhaps 50% more fuel consumption, the most popular choice among new boat buyers has been the biggest available (usually least efficient) engine. This current group of high-performing but less than optimally fuel efficient boats will be the available used inventory within just a few years. Other industries, with larger markets and far more research and design money, are making some major technological advances. We've been doing some car shopping lately, and are intrigued with the new hybrid technology we have found on Toyota Highlanders. (The same system is available on a Lexus, and has been licensed to Ford for use in the Ford Escape and Mercury Mariner vehicles.) The hybrid drive technology improves fuel economy by about 60%, and reduces exhaust emissions to a fraction of those emitted by a conventional petroleum only system. The Toyota and the Lexus hybrid systems incorporate 3.3 liter V6 engines, and as a result of combined petrol and electric drives the hybrids not only outperform standard V6 models but deliver impressive "8-cylinder" speed and acceleration while consuming less fuel than many 4-cylinder competitors. Unfortunately, there aren't any boat building companies with the research and design budget of Toyota, and the comparatively tiny market for new boats vs. new automobiles would be unable to absorb the R&D costs for a radical overhaul of the manner in which we propel our boats. Radar and GPS were adapted to pleasure boats from military uses, and few of the current and pending technological advances in automotive propulsion will transfer easily to marine applications. Will technology radically improve the fuel efficiency of out boats without unduly sacrificing performance? Perhaps. While a technological solution seems unlikely at the present moment, the entire concept of GPS would have seemed like a fantasy to some boater turning a circular antenna to hone in on radio broadcast towers just a generation ago. In the meantime, we can keep our boats tuned up and maintained, select and install the correct propellers, haul off unused items to reduce excess weight, install fuel flow meters to seek the most efficient cruising speeds, keep the bottom clean, and pay some attention to currents when planning a cruise. Here in the Pacific NW, there is no good reason for fuel costs to keep a boater off the water. Regardless of where one moors or launches, there will be dozens of interesting parks, marinas, secluded anchorages, and charming waterfront villages only a short distance away. We can be thankful for our unique geography while we wait and hope for technology to help us make some dramatic improvements in fuel efficiency. We used to use portable radios with the bar antenna to locate the direction of the radio towers at San francisco. As to Hybrid's, do not work in boats, as no coasting and braking for regenerative power. We have looked at hybrids to replace wife's car maybe next year. Overall the cost per mile is a little higher than conventional vehicles. Milage is not that much more than some of the same size cars, but you are looking at $3500-5000 at 100,000 miles for a new battery. |
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#4
posted to rec.boats
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(non-political) comments on fuel economy and technology
Calif Bill wrote: wrote in message oups.com... Where Technology is Failing Boaters Less than 30 years ago, a pleasure boat was considered well equipped with a rotary fathometer and a VHF radio. A few of the larger vessels had radar. Until the advent of the LORAN system, some mariners would employ radio direction finders to determine the relative bearing of broadcast towers and would then triangulate three of these positions to find their position on a paper chart. The average boater in the 1970's would have been hard pressed to believe that soon nearly all boats, as well as an increasing number of cars and trucks, would be equipped with a system that collected signals from dozens of satellites orbiting the earth to determine position. Fewer yet would have believed that basic access to the mega-billion dollar technology that makes the Global Positioning System possible would be available for prices of less than $200. Technology has completely and successfully revolutionized navigation for most boaters. One of the few short-term hazards to our recreational boating pastime is the volatile price of fossil fuel. We all clearly remember when in the aftermath of last year's Hurricane Katrina retail prices for gasoline and diesel shot up to well over $3 a gallon at roadside service stations and prices of $4 a gallon were not unheard of at area fuel docks. Corporate profit reports released within the last few months reveal that the majority of those punitive price increases went directly to the oil companies' net profit column. "Profit" isn't a dirty word, particularly in a free and competitive marketplace, but in reality the oil companies seem to collude far more than they compete. Now that the big oil producers and distributors have discovered that Americans will indeed pay well over $3-4/gallon for gas and diesel, pressure from Wall Street interests to sustain or increase the recent record profits may cause another "summer run-up" of fuel prices. As ever, the extremely wealthy are relatively insulated from the effects of price increases. A yachtsman spending $10,000 a month or more to finance, moor, maintain, and insure a high-dollar vessel is unlikely to alter his or her boating plans if the annual cost of fuel climbs by a few, or even several, thousand dollars. It's the family boaters of more ordinary means, sacrificing and budgeting to spend $750-2000 a month on the hobby, most likely to have plans altered or curtailed when the cost for fuel on a three-day weekend climbs just a few hundred dollars. I recently overheard someone remark, "If the middle classes can't afford to boat, that's just tough luck for them." Such a comment is very shortsighted. A steady or increasing volume of boaters sustains the pleasure boating infrastructure that even the most fortunate few depend upon. There seems to be no serious effort to build or design mass-market boats that are more fuel-efficient; and in fact the current state of the market indicates that the more HP stuffed into a hull the faster it will sell. When faced with a personal choice of cruising a few knots slower to improve fuel economy by perhaps 50% or opting for a larger engine that will cruise a few knots faster at the cost of perhaps 50% more fuel consumption, the most popular choice among new boat buyers has been the biggest available (usually least efficient) engine. This current group of high-performing but less than optimally fuel efficient boats will be the available used inventory within just a few years. Other industries, with larger markets and far more research and design money, are making some major technological advances. We've been doing some car shopping lately, and are intrigued with the new hybrid technology we have found on Toyota Highlanders. (The same system is available on a Lexus, and has been licensed to Ford for use in the Ford Escape and Mercury Mariner vehicles.) The hybrid drive technology improves fuel economy by about 60%, and reduces exhaust emissions to a fraction of those emitted by a conventional petroleum only system. The Toyota and the Lexus hybrid systems incorporate 3.3 liter V6 engines, and as a result of combined petrol and electric drives the hybrids not only outperform standard V6 models but deliver impressive "8-cylinder" speed and acceleration while consuming less fuel than many 4-cylinder competitors. Unfortunately, there aren't any boat building companies with the research and design budget of Toyota, and the comparatively tiny market for new boats vs. new automobiles would be unable to absorb the R&D costs for a radical overhaul of the manner in which we propel our boats. Radar and GPS were adapted to pleasure boats from military uses, and few of the current and pending technological advances in automotive propulsion will transfer easily to marine applications. Will technology radically improve the fuel efficiency of out boats without unduly sacrificing performance? Perhaps. While a technological solution seems unlikely at the present moment, the entire concept of GPS would have seemed like a fantasy to some boater turning a circular antenna to hone in on radio broadcast towers just a generation ago. In the meantime, we can keep our boats tuned up and maintained, select and install the correct propellers, haul off unused items to reduce excess weight, install fuel flow meters to seek the most efficient cruising speeds, keep the bottom clean, and pay some attention to currents when planning a cruise. Here in the Pacific NW, there is no good reason for fuel costs to keep a boater off the water. Regardless of where one moors or launches, there will be dozens of interesting parks, marinas, secluded anchorages, and charming waterfront villages only a short distance away. We can be thankful for our unique geography while we wait and hope for technology to help us make some dramatic improvements in fuel efficiency. We used to use portable radios with the bar antenna to locate the direction of the radio towers at San francisco. As to Hybrid's, do not work in boats, as no coasting and braking for regenerative power. We have looked at hybrids to replace wife's car maybe next year. Overall the cost per mile is a little higher than conventional vehicles. Milage is not that much more than some of the same size cars, but you are looking at $3500-5000 at 100,000 miles for a new battery. Warning: Do not look at the Lexus Hybrid. Especially do not drive one. The Toyota, which is a very nice car, compares to a Lexus like a Chevy compares to a Cadillac so the Lexus will spoil the Toyota and you will get to write a check for about $10,000 more. Talk about acceleration, wow. I thought hybrids would be sluggish, and the drive trains on the Highlander and the Lexus combine the electric motors and the gas engine to respond very quickly from a standing start or when merging into freeway traffic.(Actually, the four cylinder Ford and Mercury hybrids were fairly sluggish). Your observation that the hybrid only gets several more MPG than a straight petrol V6 is pretty accurate, but IMO it makes more sense to compare the mpg of the hybrid to that of the V8 models (based on similar performance) and in that case the hybrid stacks up very well. Still not sure what we'll do, but right now the Lexus is the front runner and would probably be in the wife's parking spot aleady if it didn't take a bit of mental adjustment to write a check north of 50 big'uns for a darned car. We'd go the hybrid before we'd go with a standard V6, but only partially due to being "green" or trying to save the planet- I just love the way the rig accelerates and runs. It would be cheaper to just buy a V6 and accept the reduced gas mileage- but the V6 is too underpowered compared to the hybrid. And that's the difference between the automotive industry and the boating industry. Toyota will sell more new product in any one month, probably, than the combined sales of the entire boating industry for an entire year. The hybrid technology seen in the Toyota, Lexus, Ford, and Mercury vehicles obviously won't work on a boat, but it is an example of how thinking outside the box takes us closer to solutions to difficult problems. Too bad there isn't the same kind of R&D money avaialable to boat builders- because if there were somebody would devise a way to improve fuel economy without entirely foregoing speed. |
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#5
posted to rec.boats
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(non-political) comments on fuel economy and technology
wrote in message oups.com... Calif Bill wrote: wrote in message oups.com... Where Technology is Failing Boaters Less than 30 years ago, a pleasure boat was considered well equipped with a rotary fathometer and a VHF radio. A few of the larger vessels had radar. Until the advent of the LORAN system, some mariners would employ radio direction finders to determine the relative bearing of broadcast towers and would then triangulate three of these positions to find their position on a paper chart. The average boater in the 1970's would have been hard pressed to believe that soon nearly all boats, as well as an increasing number of cars and trucks, would be equipped with a system that collected signals from dozens of satellites orbiting the earth to determine position. Fewer yet would have believed that basic access to the mega-billion dollar technology that makes the Global Positioning System possible would be available for prices of less than $200. Technology has completely and successfully revolutionized navigation for most boaters. One of the few short-term hazards to our recreational boating pastime is the volatile price of fossil fuel. We all clearly remember when in the aftermath of last year's Hurricane Katrina retail prices for gasoline and diesel shot up to well over $3 a gallon at roadside service stations and prices of $4 a gallon were not unheard of at area fuel docks. Corporate profit reports released within the last few months reveal that the majority of those punitive price increases went directly to the oil companies' net profit column. "Profit" isn't a dirty word, particularly in a free and competitive marketplace, but in reality the oil companies seem to collude far more than they compete. Now that the big oil producers and distributors have discovered that Americans will indeed pay well over $3-4/gallon for gas and diesel, pressure from Wall Street interests to sustain or increase the recent record profits may cause another "summer run-up" of fuel prices. As ever, the extremely wealthy are relatively insulated from the effects of price increases. A yachtsman spending $10,000 a month or more to finance, moor, maintain, and insure a high-dollar vessel is unlikely to alter his or her boating plans if the annual cost of fuel climbs by a few, or even several, thousand dollars. It's the family boaters of more ordinary means, sacrificing and budgeting to spend $750-2000 a month on the hobby, most likely to have plans altered or curtailed when the cost for fuel on a three-day weekend climbs just a few hundred dollars. I recently overheard someone remark, "If the middle classes can't afford to boat, that's just tough luck for them." Such a comment is very shortsighted. A steady or increasing volume of boaters sustains the pleasure boating infrastructure that even the most fortunate few depend upon. There seems to be no serious effort to build or design mass-market boats that are more fuel-efficient; and in fact the current state of the market indicates that the more HP stuffed into a hull the faster it will sell. When faced with a personal choice of cruising a few knots slower to improve fuel economy by perhaps 50% or opting for a larger engine that will cruise a few knots faster at the cost of perhaps 50% more fuel consumption, the most popular choice among new boat buyers has been the biggest available (usually least efficient) engine. This current group of high-performing but less than optimally fuel efficient boats will be the available used inventory within just a few years. Other industries, with larger markets and far more research and design money, are making some major technological advances. We've been doing some car shopping lately, and are intrigued with the new hybrid technology we have found on Toyota Highlanders. (The same system is available on a Lexus, and has been licensed to Ford for use in the Ford Escape and Mercury Mariner vehicles.) The hybrid drive technology improves fuel economy by about 60%, and reduces exhaust emissions to a fraction of those emitted by a conventional petroleum only system. The Toyota and the Lexus hybrid systems incorporate 3.3 liter V6 engines, and as a result of combined petrol and electric drives the hybrids not only outperform standard V6 models but deliver impressive "8-cylinder" speed and acceleration while consuming less fuel than many 4-cylinder competitors. Unfortunately, there aren't any boat building companies with the research and design budget of Toyota, and the comparatively tiny market for new boats vs. new automobiles would be unable to absorb the R&D costs for a radical overhaul of the manner in which we propel our boats. Radar and GPS were adapted to pleasure boats from military uses, and few of the current and pending technological advances in automotive propulsion will transfer easily to marine applications. Will technology radically improve the fuel efficiency of out boats without unduly sacrificing performance? Perhaps. While a technological solution seems unlikely at the present moment, the entire concept of GPS would have seemed like a fantasy to some boater turning a circular antenna to hone in on radio broadcast towers just a generation ago. In the meantime, we can keep our boats tuned up and maintained, select and install the correct propellers, haul off unused items to reduce excess weight, install fuel flow meters to seek the most efficient cruising speeds, keep the bottom clean, and pay some attention to currents when planning a cruise. Here in the Pacific NW, there is no good reason for fuel costs to keep a boater off the water. Regardless of where one moors or launches, there will be dozens of interesting parks, marinas, secluded anchorages, and charming waterfront villages only a short distance away. We can be thankful for our unique geography while we wait and hope for technology to help us make some dramatic improvements in fuel efficiency. We used to use portable radios with the bar antenna to locate the direction of the radio towers at San francisco. As to Hybrid's, do not work in boats, as no coasting and braking for regenerative power. We have looked at hybrids to replace wife's car maybe next year. Overall the cost per mile is a little higher than conventional vehicles. Milage is not that much more than some of the same size cars, but you are looking at $3500-5000 at 100,000 miles for a new battery. Warning: Do not look at the Lexus Hybrid. Especially do not drive one. The Toyota, which is a very nice car, compares to a Lexus like a Chevy compares to a Cadillac so the Lexus will spoil the Toyota and you will get to write a check for about $10,000 more. Talk about acceleration, wow. I thought hybrids would be sluggish, and the drive trains on the Highlander and the Lexus combine the electric motors and the gas engine to respond very quickly from a standing start or when merging into freeway traffic.(Actually, the four cylinder Ford and Mercury hybrids were fairly sluggish). Your observation that the hybrid only gets several more MPG than a straight petrol V6 is pretty accurate, but IMO it makes more sense to compare the mpg of the hybrid to that of the V8 models (based on similar performance) and in that case the hybrid stacks up very well. Still not sure what we'll do, but right now the Lexus is the front runner and would probably be in the wife's parking spot aleady if it didn't take a bit of mental adjustment to write a check north of 50 big'uns for a darned car. We'd go the hybrid before we'd go with a standard V6, but only partially due to being "green" or trying to save the planet- I just love the way the rig accelerates and runs. It would be cheaper to just buy a V6 and accept the reduced gas mileage- but the V6 is too underpowered compared to the hybrid. And that's the difference between the automotive industry and the boating industry. Toyota will sell more new product in any one month, probably, than the combined sales of the entire boating industry for an entire year. The hybrid technology seen in the Toyota, Lexus, Ford, and Mercury vehicles obviously won't work on a boat, but it is an example of how thinking outside the box takes us closer to solutions to difficult problems. Too bad there isn't the same kind of R&D money avaialable to boat builders- because if there were somebody would devise a way to improve fuel economy without entirely foregoing speed. True, but the hybrids rate poor on long distance highway driving. They just do not regenerate enough energy. |
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#6
posted to rec.boats
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(non-political) comments on fuel economy and technology
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#7
posted to rec.boats
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(non-political) comments on fuel economy and technology
"Calif Bill" wrote in message ink.net... True, but the hybrids rate poor on long distance highway driving. They just do not regenerate enough energy. How do the hybrids fair in cold weather? Assume you park it outside overnight without being "plugged in" in subfreezing temps. Do the batteries lose capacity and affect drivability until they warm up again? RCE |
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#8
posted to rec.boats
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(non-political) comments on fuel economy and technology
wrote in message
oups.com... Where Technology is Failing Boaters .... There seems to be no serious effort to build or design mass-market boats that are more fuel-efficient; and in fact the current state of the market indicates that the more HP stuffed into a hull the faster it will sell. .... The technology to produce the ultimete fuel efficiency for boats already exists: sails. /Lars J |
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#9
posted to rec.boats
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(non-political) comments on fuel economy and technology
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#10
posted to rec.boats
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(non-political) comments on fuel economy and technology
Harry Krause wrote:
Shortwave Sportfishing wrote: On Tue, 31 Jan 2006 23:33:53 -0500, wrote: On 31 Jan 2006 10:48:48 -0800, wrote: In the meantime, we can keep our boats tuned up and maintained, select and install the correct propellers, haul off unused items to reduce excess weight, install fuel flow meters to seek the most efficient cruising speeds, keep the bottom clean, and pay some attention to currents when planning a cruise. The biggest thing I have done to save fuel is to SLOW DOWN. My new motor was 10HP smaller than my old one, EFI 4 stroke vs 90's technology 2 stroke. I seldom ever get over 3400 RPM and I spend most of my time around 1100 (legally "slow" speed) I usually average about 1 GPH over my normal daily cruise. I simply found interesting things to do that did not require a lot of speed. cruise is a good option for any boat to increase mileage. on my boats, wot open throttle is only efficient on the carbed 25 johnson on the princecraft. The gauge I watch closest is the fuel-flow meter. I surely know what GPH means in terms of my wallet. Harry, Have you figured out what your next ideal boat would have to allow you sufficient speed at the lowest possible gas consumption? Since we don't have any hybrid engines, on a boat gas consumption seems directly correlated to size and weight. My guess is you will see more fisherman using the smallest boat that will do the job. -- Reggie ************************************************** ************* That's my story and I am sticking to it. ************************************************** ************* |
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