On Wed, 08 Jul 2009 10:05:13 -0400, wrote:

I wouldn't be so quick to make that call, Wayne. Those advantages
might be big ones for a displacement hulled boat, especially if you
supplement the diesel with PV and wind generation charging a battery
bank.

We need somewhere between 150 and 200 horsepower to run at about hull
speed. That's a *lot* of kilowatts, PV or otherwise. I don't
believe there have been any successful implementations of
diesel-electric on mid-sized full displacement yachts. Nordhavn was
supposedly going to offer it as an option on their passage makers but
dropped the project because of costs.

http://lists.samurai.com/pipermail/passagemaking-under-power/2008-February/004081.html

or

http://tinyurl.com/nd39po

Incidently that's the same John Marshall that used to be the head of
North Sails and also managed a few America's Cup campaigns. He's a
trawler owner now, currently cruising Glacier Bay, Alaska.