Get home power
Why not twin engines, single screw? You can run a single engine at
optimum output most of the time and when the going gets tough to
weather you can bring both engines on line. You can trade engines to
keep them equally timed and you have full redundancy. If your fuel
system design is good you have a very reliable set-up. A single screw
and rudder, properly designed is less susceptible to entanglement and
optimally efficient. If you were really nervous you could carry a
spare shaft and prop.
Our large ocean-going civil submarines are diesel electric with
single shafts. In the 16 years we've been building them, we've never
had an owner with a serious problem.
---=====
L. Bruce Jones U.S. SUBMARINES, INC.
CEO POSEIDON UNDERSEA RESORTS LLC
U.S. SUBMARINE STRUCTURES LLC TRITON SUBMARINES LLC
Tel: 208/687-9057 Fax: 208/441-7478
E-mail: bruce@ussubmarines.com http://ussubs.com
http://tritonsubs.com http://poseidonresorts.com
http://ussubstructures.com
Design and construction of the world's best submarines and submersibles
Developing the world's first sea floor resorts & residences
---=====
My get home power is a sail. We have a Diesel Duck 462 with a 33' mast on top
of the pilothouse. George Buehler, the designer calls it a get home rig and a
stabilizer. Bill Kimley, the builder calls it continental sailing. He says you
might not reach the continent you were headed for but you will reach a
continent.
Because of the flybridge I have the mast mounted aft of the center of the boat
which is not the best location. Hull number two has his mounted forward on the
pilothouse roof and he tried it without the engine and said it did quite well
under sail. The only time I tried ours was coming across Manila Bay with a 15
knot wind on our port beam. We put up both sails and trimmed them as best I
could. When I pulled the engine out of gear the boat turned right into the
wind no matter how far I turned it to starboard. This, I assumed was because
of the mast too far aft.
Next time I get a chance I will try it with just the foresail and see how it
does. What I have tried is using the foresail as an assist with the wind on or
aft of the beam and it works well adding three or four tenth of a knot to the
speed or I can back off the throttle maintaining our 6.5 knot cruising speed
and save fuel.
My feeling is if I maintain the engine well, keep my fuel clean, and keep a
good set of spares onboard I will never have to find out. If I do I can assure
you that the sails will get me somewhere eventually.
Randal
Hotmail: Free, trusted and rich email service.
http://clk.atdmt.com/GBL/go/171222984/direct/01/
----- Original Message ----
From: Randal Johnson
To:
Passagemaking Under Power List
Sent: Wednesday, September 16, 2009
1:54:23 AM
Subject: Re: [PUP] Get home power
My get home power is
a sail.
I too have conventional sails as a "get someplace" alternative. Is
that the
perfect solution? Not by a longshot. Right now, I am exploring the
possibility
of a para-wing kite as a more controllable system. My neighbor
is an avid kite
boarder and I am learning the nuances of kiting.
All this
discussion about get home power and single versus twins, re-confirms in
my
mind that there is no perfect solution. I've heard some pretty good reasons
why a particular approach is best, and some pretty good reasons why that
approach is not best. The individual cruiser has to make the decision as to
what fits his comfort level best and go with it.
Patrick
Willard 40PH
ALOHA
La Paz, MX
Agreed... no magic answer on get-home power, but like most things
regarding boats, most of us have strong biases.
But that's part of the fun of discussing such things. If we all
agreed, we'd be a pretty dull bunch, and all our boats would be
vanilla flavored and "perfect".
In the end, get-home power is just another of the many compromises
that individual boat owners must choose, with solutions ranging from
those who are comfortable with no auxiliary propulsion at all up to
those who insist on having two identical copies of everything. All the
answers are the "right" one, depending on the owner, their mechanical
skills and how they use their boat.
The key is to lay out the arguments and rationales in groups like PUP
so people can make those choices from a position of knowledge and
awareness of their own strengths and weaknesses, as opposed to
listening to some salesman's pitch or reading some magazine
advertisement or advertiser-sponsored article.
If you really want to have a good discussion, lets talk about the
objectivity of articles in boat magazines these days. I'll launch
another thread in that regard.
John Marshall
On Sep 16, 2009, at 6:11 AM, Patrick wrote:
----- Original Message ----
From: Randal Johnson
To:
Passagemaking Under Power List
Sent: Wednesday, September 16, 2009
1:54:23 AM
Subject: Re: [PUP] Get home power
My get home power is
a sail.
I too have conventional sails as a "get someplace" alternative. Is
that the
perfect solution? Not by a longshot. Right now, I am exploring the
possibility
of a para-wing kite as a more controllable system. My neighbor
is an avid kite
boarder and I am learning the nuances of kiting.
All this
discussion about get home power and single versus twins, re-confirms
in
my
mind that there is no perfect solution. I've heard some pretty good
reasons
why a particular approach is best, and some pretty good reasons why
that
approach is not best. The individual cruiser has to make the
decision as to
what fits his comfort level best and go with it.
Patrick
Willard 40PH
ALOHA
La Paz, MX
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