In article om,
Joe wrote:
On Aug 1, 7:36 am, "Roger Long" wrote:
I've gone around the diesel electric question on a few research vessels
where it is a good solution.

/snip/

I love diesel electric but it would not have crossed my mind to try it in a
60 foot sailboat. If having a DE sailboat is a goal in itself because you
like to tinker and want to be a pioneer, cool. If you just want to sail and
cruise, I would forget it. You can use that space, weight, money, and
research effort much more usefully.

Fair call Roger . Only time I've seen it pulled off are for very big
anchor handling vessels and Mississippi river pushboats. With that

DE propulsion seems to be getting moderately popular in new big
catarmarans: the new Lagoon 420 uses a DE drive system, as do boats from
Africat and Broadblue (the last-named uses the Ossa powerLite drive, based
around the bady diesel from the Smart Car).

In a monohull you're more limited in the ability to keep the generator at
upper deck level, but in a 60' boat it ought to be do-able.

A quick google on "diesel electric catamaran" turned up some poterntially
helpful links. The Ossa system is described at:

http://www.ossapowerlite.com/

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