In other words, if your entering the Galveston ship channell 20 miles offshore
and your engine craps out with a 20 knot north wind your gonna end up in
Mexico, or Cuba.

Patrick Gerety said: "...But the same thing will happen with a wing engine
that gets you through the water at 3 knots in perfect conditions.  You ain't
going to power into 20 knots of wind with a wing engine...."

Patrick:

I don't know that I can explain why, but the wing engines do a better job
than you might think.

We only had to rely on our wing engine one time. We were in the Bay of Lyon
(Spain), on our Nordhavn 62, approx. 150 miles from shore when our main
engine quit. There was an endless string of squalls, with sustained winds in
the 20s, and gusts to 35 knots. Our wing engine only moved the boat around
3.5 knots, but it seemed to be a rock solid 3.5 knots. The wind and waves
didn't seem to make a difference. I'd guess the seas as force 4 or 5. I
remember being impressed that that the boat could maintain a steady speed. I
can't speak for how the wing engine would fair in higher seas, but suspect
it would do just fine (and, be much better than the alternative).

-Ken W

I'm with you Ken, a wing may not be fast but even a big boat doesn't require
a lot of horsepower to make progress.

Any boat that is able to run at less than 2 gallons per hour fuel
consumption is only using less than 30 horsepower.  Most wing engines on
even medium size trawlers are in that range of power.

John Harris
World Odd @ Sea

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