On Tue, 28 Aug 2007 14:34:52 -0400, "Eisboch" wrote:

I also
recently saw a mangled mess of props, bent shafts and a hole almost 2 feet
long in a boat that got out of the channel in Wood's Hole and ran up on the
rocks.

Woods Hole can be one scary place when the current is ripping through
there. I have done a fair amount of boating over the years and still
regard it as one of the most dangerous places on the east coast.

Wayne.B wrote:
On Tue, 28 Aug 2007 14:34:52 -0400, "Eisboch" wrote:

I also
recently saw a mangled mess of props, bent shafts and a hole almost 2 feet
long in a boat that got out of the channel in Wood's Hole and ran up on the
rocks.

Woods Hole can be one scary place when the current is ripping through
there. I have done a fair amount of boating over the years and still
regard it as one of the most dangerous places on the east coast.

I watched a cruising trawler pushed onto the underwater sandbars of St.
Augustine inlet one fine summer day about 12 years ago. There was a
strong southerly wind, breaking surf in the inlet and an incoming tide.
The boat was hard aground, but I don't believe it suffered any serious
damage. Two power cruisers pulled it loose, and it putted along on its way.

That was the first and only time I ever saw a powerboat run aground
there. The channel itself is deep and well-marked, and the sandbars are
obvious. Typically, sailboats have a difficult time there because of the
winds, tides, and lack of engine power. We'd see several sailboats a
year bang onto the sandbars at that location from our vantage point on
the south side, adjacent to the stone jetty.

This inlet is the one around the corner from Salt Run in St. Augustine.

The year we moved, a shrimp trawler ran aground just outside the inlet,
heading south. It sank and became a dangerous derelict. The boat went
down about 50 yards offshore of the beginning of the nude beach.

It's one thing to ding the bottom or even a reef with a standard
inboard...you might get get away unscathed, or you might damage a prop
blade or, well, sure, worse things can happen. But the kinds of repair
bills "Zeus" will enable...whoooo-hoooooo.

And yet two years into deployment and there are no reported failures of the
IPS systems.

So much for luddites like you Harry.

Better efficiency, better manueverability and better engine room layout.
Sounds like a great idea.

On straight inboard boats, I prefer...

Prefer for what? Certainly not actual OWNERSHIP or operation. No, instead
it's just fodder for you to shoot your mouth off like some sort of hillbilly
on a porch.

I think hanging large appendages out of the bottom of a plastic pleasure
boat is inherently risky

The bigger risk in plastic pleasure boats, as you so ignorantly put it,
isn't below the waterline. The operators are the bigger risk, regardless of
the propulsion system.

On Aug 28, 12:01?pm, HK wrote:
Eisboch wrote:
"HK" wrote in message
...

You're just sliding down that hill again, Chuck. Your goal, stated or
otherwise, is to promote anything and all things that might sell boats.
I have no ongoing business interests in the boating world. I think hanging
large appendages out of the bottom of a plastic pleasure boat is
inherently risky and certainly riskier than the typical inboard prop shaft
and rudder combo. A steel commercial vessel with watertight compartments
and bulkheads, well, that's different, eh?

Harry, you seem to be taking the position that the only safe type of engine
on a small pleasure boat is an outboard (probably run like I used to as a
kid ... with the latch disengaged so if you hit bottom or something, the
engine just pivoted up).

Nothing wrong with an outboard, if fact I'd prefer it to an I/O, but both
are not practical for some boats. I've seen a SeaRay with conventional twin
screws and rudders have the entire strut on one side ripped out of the hull
when it's prop picked up and wrapped a submerged 2" hawser. I also
recently saw a mangled mess of props, bent shafts and a hole almost 2 feet
long in a boat that got out of the channel in Wood's Hole and ran up on the
rocks.

Eisboch

No, that is not my position. Though on a *small* power pleasure boat
like mine, I don't believe inboards make much sense.

On straight inboard boats, I prefer the shafts and drives be at least
partially protected by a significant keel ahead of those appendages.
There are plenty of inboards with such bottom protection. But even bare
struts, shafts and props present less of an inviting target and probably
don't hang down as low as these new variations on I/O drives that come
through the bottom of the hull. Plus they are very complex, just the
sort of thing you need when "cruising" to faraway ports.

You have a point on the complexity issue. Otherwise you are
enunciating through your fedora, especially when it comes to
protection.

The entire keel and the foreward sections of the hull protrude
substantially deeper than the Zeus drives on the 41 GB. Visualize a
semi displacement hull, instead of a planing hull, and you may be able
to appreciate why the Zeus drives are not unduly exposed. The total
surface exposure is much less than with traditional exposed shafts and
struts, and a serious wack may be substantially less likely to sink
the boat.

"HK" wrote in message
...
Chuck Gould wrote:
On Aug 28, 3:25?am, HK wrote:
Chuck Gould wrote:
Grand Banks Yachts today announced plans to release an
extraordinary new addition
The two-stateroom 41EU will be the first Grand Banks to utilize the
Zeus Propulsion System from
Cummins MerCruiser Diesel, a revolutionary new propulsion system
launched in 2006.
Wow...reposting of an entire commercial PR release. Is this that idiotic
forward facing prop system?

Relax, Harry.

This doesn't concern you- it's something that people who actually use
a boat or may be buying an inboard boat in the future might find
interesting.

No, it has nothing to do with the Volvo IPS system. (Which is far from
idiotic). Zeus drives face aft. They incorporate counter rotating
props, and each of the two pods can be vectored independently.


That's the plastic boat I want, the one with two huge chunks of metal full
of gears and complicated machinery hanging down from the bottom, where you
can't see any part of it. Now, on a steel-hulled displacement boat built
to commercial standards, and where divers and competent maintenance is
available at shipyards, and where money is no real object, well, maybe.

It's one thing to ding the bottom or even a reef with a standard
inboard...you might get get away unscathed, or you might damage a prop
blade or, well, sure, worse things can happen. But the kinds of repair
bills "Zeus" will enable...whoooo-hoooooo.

For someone not smart enough to reduce tire pressure to prevent an empty
trailer from bouncing you sure knows alot about enginimeering.

On Tue, 28 Aug 2007 17:50:40 -0400, HK wrote:

I watched a cruising trawler pushed onto the underwater sandbars of St.
Augustine inlet one fine summer day about 12 years ago. There was a
strong southerly wind, breaking surf in the inlet and an incoming tide.
The boat was hard aground, but I don't believe it suffered any serious
damage. Two power cruisers pulled it loose, and it putted along on its way.

Inlets can be nasty, no question.

Woods Hole has got many different dimensions to it however: Ferrocious
currents, confusing buoy layout, nasty rocks right in the middle of a
channel fork, small boats fishing in the middle of the maelstrom,
split second decisions to be made, large commercial traffic to be
dodged, etc. It's not a good place to be in poor visibility but there
is also a fair amount of fog in the area.

The shipyards around there, particularly in New Bedford/Fairhaven,
make a good living patching up the ensuing wrecks. No one is immune
it seems. Last time we were in New Bedford there was a 120 ft mega
yacht side by side with a 40 something steel hulled sail boat. Both
had a big gash in the side.

"Rom" wrote in message news:OO4Bi.81$ih.1@trnddc01...

For someone not smart enough to reduce tire pressure to prevent an empty
trailer from bouncing *you sure knows alot* about enginimeering.


I hope he knows more than you about the Queen's English.

Don White wrote:
"Rom" wrote in message news:OO4Bi.81$ih.1@trnddc01...
For someone not smart enough to reduce tire pressure to prevent an empty
trailer from bouncing *you sure knows alot* about enginimeering.


I hope he knows more than you about the Queen's English.



He also doesn't know that before I left the trailer dealer's, he lowered
the air pressure on all four times from 50 psi to 30 psi. It wasn't the
tire pressure, it was the crappy state of the Interstate highway between
I-64 in Norfolk and where the the long and much newer connected to I-95
began. I-95 is also in terrible condition between Springfield and
Richmond, Virginia, but I wasn't on I-95 for long...just long enough to
pick up the connector to 301, a much older road that is properly
maintained.

But, as ROM has shown here, he's just another rec.boats dickwad.