A look into the future

IT’S MY GUESS that powerboats and auxiliary sailing yachts will be powered by electric motors within 50 years. Some are at the moment, of course, but what I mean is that diesel and gasoline engines will cease to be the primary motive force for small boats. And what a pleasure that will be, when you think how quiet, reliable, and maintenance-free electric motors are.

Right now, our major problems have to do with batteries and the way we charge them. Batteries will have to become cheaper, lighter, and more efficient. Solar panels, to charge them, will have to become smaller, lighter, more flexible and more productive to put energy into those batteries. And I believe they will.

History tells us that we should believe the unlikely, if not the impossible. For example, according to the eminent engineer Benjamin H. Latrobe, there was no way that a steam engine could be used to propel boats. In a paper delivered to the American Philosophical Society in 1803, he listed the reasons why:

1. The weight of the engine and the fuel.
2. The large space it occupies.
3. The tendency of its action to rack the vessel and render it leaky.
4. The expense of maintenance.
5. The irregularity of its motion, and the motion of the water in the boiler and the cistern, and of the fuel-vessel in rough water.
6. The difficulty arising from the liability of the paddles to break, if light, and from the weight if made strong.

Well, Latrobe might have been eminent, but he was also spectacularly wrong. He lacked foresight and he lacked faith.

I don’t have good foresight, but I have lots of faith, which is why I say diesel and gasoline are on the way out. It will take a while, certainly, but the writing is on the wall and the electric motor is coming to the bilge.

Today’s Thought
The best scientist is open to experience and begins with romance — the idea that anything is possible.
— Ray Bradbury

Boaters’ Rules of Thumb, #197
The best wire for a moveable staysail stay, or baby stay, is 7 x 7 stainless steel. It’s more flexible and less likely to work harden than the 1 x 19 rigging wire.

My Mistake
From a reader called Steve:

Here are two of the many tips I gathered from observing expert boaters launch their trailerables:

1. Many of the experts seem to agree that the popular “quick brake to jettison the vessel from its trailer” technique is most effectively executed when their under 6-year-old children are standing hands-free on the coaming.

2. Apparently the most efficient way of preparing for the launch is to wait to take care of all the details such as deploying mooring lines and fenders until it is your turn to launch. I guess this is more prudent than doing all that during the 50 minutes you are waiting in line for your turn, as it gives you more opportunity get drunk and belligerent.

Tailpiece
“You look lonely.”
“Yeah, my wife’s gone to the West Indies.”
“Jamaica?”
“No, it was her own idea.”

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