Gas power for sail

[yokebutt]

Diesel-electric and gasoline-electric is nothing new, locomotives and submarines being good cases in point. Running the propulsion, thrusters, winches, radars, canting keels, big-screen TV:s, blenders, the wifes vibrator, and the like off of one central power source does make a lot of sense.

The latest and greatest in this area (as far as I know) are the external combustion Stirling-electric units used in some submarines.

Yoke.

P.S. See kockums.se for info on Stirling engines.

[presuming ed]

Originally Posted by Vega

What is a Diesel-electric propulsion and a distributed power system? why are they such a big deal?

There are articles about distributed power in both this month's Yachting Monthly and Yachting World. Basically, instead of running individual power cables to each device from the control panel, you have a power bus which you tap off from for each device. Each device is controlled by a digital switch at the point of connection between it and the bus. Control of the switches is remote from their physical location - from the control panel as before. Google EmpirBus