Is It Cheaper To Motor Or Sail

I saw a new looking hyd windlass on Craigs last fall for $500....

Hydraulic related parts would be about $1100.

Not 1/4 of $50k or whatever he ends up spending.

And hand winching up hundreds of feet of chain really sucks..especially if you can't get a hold and have to do it 6 times in a row-but then again maybe that's what he has those sturdy girls around for.

Yeah I know just teasin

 

I can get a pretty darn good electric winch for about 250 and Im sure it can be rigged to hoist a chain

I'll probably avoid hydrolics myself although Im sure its nice I just cant afford a complex mechanical system

simple diesel engine
minimal electrical system
minimal mechanical

I consider the must haves to be
heat
electricity
a toilet
a shower
washing machine
a dry place to sleep
my one extravagance in the whole thing is the satellite tracking system
had one on a camper trailer a while back and it was a god send
I'm hooked on that thing
you could do everything from call BF Egypt from BF Egypt to stream a movie while driving down the road
and that was ten years ago
my bet is they even give blow jobs these days

 

Hyd is expensive , IF new , but there are tons of used gear.

While we expect boats to have electric , so adding another desirement is easy ,

Hydraulic should also be looked at as a system , not as a single item.

Living at a marina or moored to a mushroom hyd. does not add much,
but for a boat that cruises or spends much time underway the SYSTEM approach makes loads of sense.

The best part of hyd is with an overload , no white smoke leaks out and no parts have to be replaced!

FF

 

I cant really speak to what works best sailing hyd system or electric winch system, but motoring about the only use I can see in it is as an anchor winch and that is just one item. Seems like installing all that gear rather than one electric line and winch for a few bones is a more economical and lighter option, weight = fuel.

I was thinking of a pneumatic system for water pressure and waste pumping, I suspect someone somewhere also makes a pneumatic winch or motor that can be made into a winch. might not be strong enough though as I dont feel like carying a three stage compressor or anything like that, just the basic old school ( pretty sure this thing was built in about 1948 or 9 ) 200 psi one I have in the back yard

the pneumatic system would likely be heavier than electric but you are right about the issue of things burning out and starting fires

 

I do not recall having heard of a WENCH fire on a boat???

 

thats cause your married

 

Can somebody tell me what is a WENCH fire?

I try to think a little more about the cost between both.
More I think more I see it is almost impossible to have ONE answer.
they are related of the design, life style, occupation, necessity, willingness, sailor hability.
I understand West wanting all the comfort, he told us he make a fortune, so why bother with being stingy. I understand that and make sence.
But what ever you go around the wind is free. It is a free energy. How you capt this free energy, this is the real question.
Like Maltese Falcon with 60 million dollars, or the youg Swedish couple with $200.
I think the question is far to vaste to answer.
Boston I let you figure out the answer. I think the thread is from you?
Daniel

 

A new washer/dryer combo using 10 gals. a load is about $1000,a small price to pay for not wasting hours walking,taking taxis to find a laundry.
And then maybe waiting in line for hours to wash your clothes in other people's grime.
I have better things to do with my time.

Hydraulics-once again,try hauling up 400' of rode a few times in a row,by hand.
Then when it gets snagged,cut the rode and break out more and a spare anchor and kiss $400 goodbye.
Then,when your back gives out-enjoy your holiday laying in bed.
I have better things to do with my time.

Or,move the boat around and crank up the hydraulics and maybe break free,thus saving $$$.



But,once again,to reiterate-B wants to go where there are horrid currents,massive tides,unreliable/non-existent winds.

 

dskira - - Use your imagination... I deliberately mis-spelled winch... but the 'wench fire', one could be a really "hot babe" naked?

Back on topic - winches - I am going for 24v DC ones for Anchor and a main general purpose one - if Bob lets me as I have recently been feeling lots of pain in my right shoulder and do not relish the idea of winding the sheet winch handle vigorously whilst single handed sailing... and a powered anchor winch is not questioned by any sane mariner... Just make sure ALL cables are tinned and marine quality and oversize for safety, as winch cables demand lots of electrons to make them work...

 

that is precisely where I intend to go
not only that but I intend on anchoring there
hell
I might even try my hand at wintering there or at least holing up in a cabin while the boat rests on the hook

Im sure you have an excelant point that hyd is the best system for a winch
however
forgive me while I come to that conclusion myself
should it turn out advantageously to install 1~2 K of hardware in order to preserve 5~6 bones worth of cable and anchor then so be it
but I was really hoping a couple hundred dollars of electric winch might do the trick

thing is you are absolutely right

long ago I had a friend who lived aboard up in Ketchikan and he always complained about loosing anchor gear

Im sure there is an issue with tides currents and parking along the inside passage
but
any area has its own special considerations

its a small price to pay for living in one of the most beautiful areas of the world and being a yachty
something my old friend Robby always wished he had done himself

cheers to all
B

 

Well if cash is tight and it gets you going and up the coast,by all means pony up the $300 for a good used electric winch.

Most of the areas have been logged 100 years ago,with a healthy second growth forest and without stumps and vestiges of trails you'd never know.
But they dumped their old cables,stumps,and equipment in the bays.
Many are so fouled so that anchoring without losing your gear is a miracle.
I've lost track of how much $ I've lost in gear.

I've never overwintered,but have taken winter trips-just wonderful.

 

I wonder how they would react to someone putting the occasional random mooring in at some of my more favorite small bays so that I could avoid the whole anchoring thing when in these areas

 

Anyone that looses anchoring gear needs to install a floating ball and a trip line on the anchor.

IF the cable gets parted , the ball is still there to get the anchor and the rest of the gear back aboard.

FF

 

Great theory,but what about when the trip line gets fouled as well?

B.
You'll find yourself tying off to trees in the tighter areas anyways,so you don't end up on the rocks when the tide goes out.

 

anyone use sharpie designs up there or is it all displacement and v bottoms
I would think a sharpie could take an accidental grounding a bit better than some of the others

B