"DSK" wrote in message

To some extent, yes. However when the horsepower available is far in
excess of anything the prop & the hull are going to keep up with, then
what is the purpose?

You're preaching to the choir on this point. But to make conversation, some
folks just seem to thrive on power, despite the skewed relationship between
power vs. hull design vs. displacement, etc. I demo'd a Nordic Tug 37 this
past summer and was impressed by how fast the thing could actually go when
planing. But it threw a monstrous wake, was noisy, and would probably get
to a typical destination only about half an hour faster than if at hull
speed. The premium, however, was fuel cost: about 6 times that of 8kts.
for roughly twice the speed. Not a good trade, IMO.

Yep. So? Lots of people like to brag about how much horsepower they have.

True. When I had my Sea Ray 330 Express Cruiser, I admit to telling folks
that it had 680 hp on tap. Time has mellowed my needs, however. My 24 hp
Universal diesel in the sailboat seems ample for a boat of this size. Of
course I'd rather be sailing when cruising, but that is highly infrequent on
Lake Michigan.

Ah well, when you mentioned trawlers and how expnsive their fuel bill must
be, I thought it was kinda the point.

No. Katy mentioned how expensive they are. I disputed her comment to some
degree, then threw in my $40 per annum fuel costs as an aside.

Not that difficult.

Nope. It will be in the 40'-44' range, which should easily do 7kts. under
power, and somewhat better under sail in the right conditions. We've looked
at a Cheoy Lee Pedrick 41, a Passport (Perry) 40, and a Baltic Doug Peterson
42, any of which would fit the bill.

There are a lot of better boats available *much* cheaper IMHO.

The quality of the Sagas is excellent, and they are very fast for boats with
such an accomodating cruising interior. That said, they are all too new.
Ten years from now they'll be reaching my pocketbook, but for now we're
looking at boats from the early Nineties or late Eighties.

To power the warp drive?

Warp drive. LOL. No, to power the flux capacitor, which requires ten
gigawatts to be able to jump to . . .

Max