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Calif Bill
 
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Default (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.