www.iFourWinns.com

Anyone getting involved in this technology for your boat?

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Alexj



1995 Four Winns Horizon 190
OMC 5.0 RL

No involvement for me, but this is an interesting wakeboard boat useing the technology. We will have to see how it develops.

http://23e.epicboats.com/

Lots of talk and ideas about the technology here as well.

http://www.boatdesign.net/forums/hybrid/

Steyr Motors has a great start on the technology with diesel/electric power.

http://www.steyr-motors.com/products/products.htm

It's good to see so much interest in this concept in the industry.

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One of 4 Previous (Sold) Boats:
2000 Four Winns 268 Vista

Current Boat: 2004 Chaparral 235 ssi cuddy

If you think about just how much hydrocarbon fuel is required to move the boat normally, how is introducing electrics going to make that any better? There's no chance of using solely battery power as there's no way to store even a fraction of the required total power required.

More often than not the use of electric motors in boat propulsion is based on layout. Being able to separate the engines from the propellers can help with weight and space distribution. Neither of which is all that important or helpful in a recreational vessel.

Unless they come up with some ultra-efficient means of burning hydrocarbon fuel it's not going to be practical. If they managed to capture the heat normally wasted then maybe. BMW did some prototyping of a heat recovery system that would recycle exhaust heat back into a drive motor on the engine. But that introduced a lot of extra plumbing and weight. A boating application might be able to offset the size and weight issues somewhat, but then you're still faced with efficiency issues. And before anyone says hydrogen, it's exceptionally difficult to store as it leaks very rapidly through the tiniest of holes (like even through thin-wall tanks and hoses). It's very, very hard to beat the amount of energy that can be extracted from hydrocarbon fuels.

I'm all for the idea of ways to eliminate burned emissions from vehicles. But short of becoming a ragbagger poking along at 6 knots it ain't happening any time soon for recreational boating.

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-Bill Kearney, 2005 348 Vista