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(non-political) comments on fuel economy and technology
"Calif Bill" wrote in message ink.net... 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. It's even worse than that. It's 100k or three years whichever comes first. For the driver who just goes to church and the market (My grandparents when they were alive) who drive about 7k miles a year, the battery makes the car a horrible investment. |
#2
posted to rec.boats
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(non-political) comments on fuel economy and technology
Jeff Rigby wrote:
It's even worse than that. It's 100k or three years whichever comes first. For the driver who just goes to church and the market (My grandparents when they were alive) who drive about 7k miles a year, the battery makes the car a horrible investment. There are 2 Honda Insight owners in my small office. Both are 2000 models on original batteries without problems. -rick- |
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