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Old 04-18-2013, 12:30 PM   #101
deckofficer
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City: Northern California
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Quote:
Originally Posted by manyboats View Post
Craig,
Great! You'll get all you need to know on BoatDesign. After we get back from Canada I'll read the thread.

rjtrane,
If you want to fantasize about boats and cars just around the corner fine .. BUT they will only be in very small numbers and then small numbers and after many years almost certainly we will be all electric. But we have a great deal of oil left and we're discovering more all the time. And until people get smart about what Al Gore warned us about we will be powering boats and cars w oil.

Gas and diesel is way too cheap and the bottom line is cost until people realize the planet may really be in danger. So boats will get smaller and hulls will become even more efficient than sailboats and better and more efficient engines will come to pass so HUGE increases in the cost and availability of dino fuels will need to come to pass before electric boats and cars become commonplace. The immediate future is in more efficient hulls and engines ... mostly hulls.
Eric,

You nailed it. Yes, fossil fuel is still relatively cheap and we do have new discoveries, but can the planet tolerate the by products of continued fuel burn at the current rates?

I have just invited Larry Graf via email to join this thread. He, like Reuben, has built 1000's of efficient hulled catamaran power boats, and his latest offering with his new company Aspen Power Catamarans sets a new benchmark in hull efficiency. I did my thesis at CMA on minimum wetted surface hulls, and back in those days we only had fast ferries using these hull forms. Larry's hull (a proa design) is so efficient that at idle from a small 2.0 L diesel manages 3 kt with a 0.2 gph fuel burn. Even at WOT at 19 kt, fuel burn is 8.8 gph.
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USCG Unlimited Tonnage Open Ocean (CMA)
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