At the Seattle Boat Show a year or so ago, I spent about an hour talking to the guy from Greenline and I ended up not so impressed. When I read the materials, I think some of it is just pure T BS. I spent almost three years looking at hybrid designs with the thought of a custom build. I spent a lot of time with Siemens' engineers on a system and a lot of time with Bill Crealock before his death on the design issues. Greenline claims running costs 10X less than a diesel boat, without explaining that they really mean while running in electric mode only. The only problem with that is that their battery bank is 12KWh, and the electric motor eats a minimum of 7KWh. So, about 90 minutes or so running on battery power alone. And that is with absolutely no power load from the house side of the equation. They also claim that the "hybrid system" is completely maintenance free. The sales guy finally admitted to me that there was no substantial fuel savings running on the diesel. We all own boats, we all know there is nothing on a boat that is maintenance free! It was nice boat but I just did not see the advantages of the system or the cost premium for it. I have always thought it was just an attempt to capitalize on the "eco" thing.
