FPB64 or Fleming 58 or Buehler Ellemaid?

Dashews boat carries 13,000 litres of fuel...thats 13 cubic meters of interior volume lost. The boat is a motorized fuel tank.

If this is OK with the client then fine.

As far as a conventional single screw motorsailor being more expensive to operate ? I dont know, I have no experience with motoryachts.

 

And why buy new when deals like this are available......

http://www.boats.com/boat-details/Diesel-Duck-55LRC-George-Buehler-Design/22666621

A six year old boat with 64 hours on the main and 48 on the genny. It's been listed for a while, probably get it for well less than half of current price. Buying new boats you might take 30% depreciation in the first year, and 50% in 5 years.....That's a huge amount of hard-earned cruising money. For (guessing a bit) $300k you can buy a Hatteras LRC58. Huge interior, cheap to rebuild little jimmys, efficient traveler, and lots of money in the bank or wherever......

 

The Ocean Packet 54 has a clean simple look I like.

 

Sure...nice looking boat, but it looks like a single screw.

Good for coastal cruising but not for crossing oceans.

 

Whats single screw goto do with crossing oceans?

 

With a single screw , if you Experience Engine , shaft, prop problems your trip is all over. If its a true motorsailer , then you could sail home with little worry and no EPIRB exercises..

 

Most ocean going work boats are single screw. They also get protected by the keel and are not exposed like the twins. What if you have bad fuel, Buehler's method of "get home rig" sail is the most fail safe method. With all the endless money Steve Dashew dumps into his boats, he uses this approach and claims he can get 100 mile per day with a small simple sail (compared to boat). Almost any engine powered cruising boat can have a sail rigged to get home. Other factors are much more important than the single/twin screw controversy.

 

I think you can find much a better motorsailer than the Buehler boat. Ive crossed the Atlantic on motor sailers, under sail the whole way.

One hundred miles per day is what gran Prix race boats make in light wind. Plenty of light wind in the ocean.


That Mondays Southern transatlantic forecast. Gibraltar to the Caribbean, a very typical passage for a cruising boat.
. Looks like broad reaching in 10 knots of wind . The Buehler boat would move like a jellyfish in light wind.

You better pray its single engine works.

 

The Buehler boats are not intended to be motor sailors. They do have a sail to act as a stabiliser and if the drive train fails, the sails allow you to slowly get somewhere safely.

If you go back through the archives of this blog, their engine failed in the Pacific Ocean, and they slowly sailed back to some island, and then had to wait months for the right spare parts! http://bluetreasure2.wordpress.com/

 

I don't plan any ocean crossings and have but one experience in that- I'm happy in my area. But an old family friend spends his time around the remote areas of the world in his motorsailor.

Asked him a couple years ago how many power boats he sees-he said in the main ports-a few but not too often.
In the outer islands and more out of the way places it's very rare to see one.

That's all I have to go on.

 

As already mentioned, there are 10's of thousands of single-engined commercial vessels operating on the oceans of the world. It comes down more to maintenance than the number of power plants. In fact, I would venture to suggest that it is often sailboats that have the least reliable propulsion systems. If ever there's a problem with the sails, then it is the engine that is called upon to come to the rescure. But because many sailors regard their engines with disdain..."filthy, noisy thing... I never use it"... then when they need it most it fails. And moreover, very few sailboats carry sufficient fuel to allow them to mtoro any sensible distance anyway....

 

The sailboats Ive crossed oceans with can get about 500 miles under power . Sailboats might very well have the least desirable engine rooms and machinery installations .

This is why they make motor sailers.

In the end , no matter what type of boat, a customer is better off buying the best speced. boat from the best shipyard . Single screw ocean going motroboats are not appealing

What bothers me about motorboats is the huge interior volume taken by tanks of fuel and machinery. No space left over for fun and since the only possible reason someone would be foolish enough to spend money on a boat is to have fun , I prefer motor sailers.

 

I do not agree here our passagemakerlite is only 3,5 m wide but we have a lot more space than on our sailing yacht we had before of 4,4 m wide. That is mainly due to the straight lines of a motorboat compared to the rounded lines of a sailing yacht.

 

Nice looking boat. Im sure that it slips thru the water easily and in style .


For long range work I see that it has no generator ? It will be difficult to stay on station for any length of time.

A similar size , single screw motorsailer, could easily carry a generator for whatever gear like AC, watermaker , galley, boiler, battery charging , washing machine that makes cruising fun.

 

There is plenty space for a generator. However I am a supporter of the KISS principle. Sailed all those years without generator, solar panels and wind generator are sufficient for the coldies in the fridge and the reading light at night but not sufficient for the cappucino machine, ice cube machine, airco and jacuzzi. Which I personally do not need to have fun but that is my personal choice.