On Feb 1, 12:43*pm, wrote:
On Wed, 01 Feb 2012 13:25:59 -0500, Wayne.B









wrote:
Is There a Natural Gas Powered Boat In Our Future?

If someone had asked me that question a year ago, I would have said:
"Nonsense, can't possibly happen." * Now I'm a little less sure of
that.

Some interesting things have been going on. * The supply of natural
gas in the US and Canada has dramatically increased as a result of
improved drilling and exploration technology. *We now have more
natural gas than we can readily use or transport, and as a result, at
least in the short term, *prices for natural gas have decreased. *As
an example, the historic price multiple between a barrel of oil and a
thousand cubic feet of natural gas has been approximately 10 to 1.
It is now at 40 to 1, a huge reduction. *This has resulted in a number
of efforts *to leverage natural gas as a transportation fuel, i.e.,
trucks, trains, ships, taxi fleets, busses, etc.

Obviously a lot of new infrastructure needs to be built to provide for
compression, transportation and end user filling stations. *A lot of
work has already been done in the area of diesel to natural gas
conversion engines. *Once a few more of these pieces come together,
natural gas as a transportation fuel will become much more common than
it is now.

In the meanwhile there are some interesting investment opportunities.

http://seekingalpha.com/article/326572-2-energy-markets-and-their-imp....

In the interest of full disclosure, I own some of the stocks mentioned
in that article.

I suppose it might be possible for big boats but I am not sure how it
works on small outboard boats. (you need a huge tank). In that regard
propane is better, higher energy density.

I did do a little research into propane and decided the change to an
EFI outboard might be minimal tho. It might not be more than a
software tweak and a gas regulator where the VST is now.

I have some T Boone stock myself. *

it is possible for big boats,.

When in Kauai' we'd be watching for the little cove at the Marriot
resort, and there was a large North Atlantic (Norwegian?) cruise ship
that would come in to port, and on the aft side's of the ship it was
proudly painted that the ships turbines ran on natural gas.