Moderate Speed... Any Weather

We call them Caravans on the water.

 

Charlie,
Now that's cool! The image in my mind's eye was not as...well...War of the Worlds like!! If sponsons had shock absorbers and moved vertically, you could have a water car slide smoothly over one footers. Maybe an aqua SUV would make a smooth ride over two footers....but big seas are for displacement hulls.

 

Hello I have been following this thread a while, as the Idea of your Ideal boat has now grown in size eg 35 LOA that can handle force 5/6, or cat B it sounds more like a work boat hull with the bare basics is required, here she is in both mono hull and cat formats they will within reason make any size you want, watch the videos this will do more than you require. http://www.safehavenmarine.com

 

Lotsa money...obviously marketed to the military.

http://www.hydrolance.net/page5.htm

 

The strange thing is "no" it is not a navy based boat!! You want? Go buy, This may answer your question though boats are not cheap over here in UK to put it polietly we pay through the our bottoms to have anything worth having! those hulls are freely available,they are available to anyone at any stage of build. you want a hull you can have one as is, or finish it yourself,you want a finished boat you can have one, they will do anything within reason inside.
I have now been looking at boats for about 3 or 4 years or longer most likley trying to nail down my ultimate design, its a trade off all round there is no such thing as THE right boat!!!! I am waiting and watching the growth of the nordhavn on their site hull has just come out of the plug http://www.nordhavn.com 75' long range sport fisher as that is my want,with massive range to sport fish around the world, BUT! I already want to make it a desiel electric, "a la" a 72 on their own site, seem's right and makes sense they have a 72 ocean crosser built and running (English owner) anybody got any stats on that boat yet? range? fuel savingings etc? big claims, seems logical at this stage with the fuel cost looking to go through the roof next 20 years, plus the involvement of big european players motor wise, Siemens, is not that small and has been producing electric drive motors a few years, all be it, for buses here in uk, which have been running for a few years, and still work hope this answered your e-mail enquiry. Regards Glyn

 

Glyn,
I've been thinking about diesel/electric lately. For speed, I want to put a single, 800hp CAT in the 46' sportfish I'm building. But flanking on each side I want to consider a generator to run a couple of the biggest electric sail drives I can find. (sail drive so the can be pulled out of the water when running)

I'm not sure how it will work...but maybe we should start a new thread to see what the geniuses think?!

Tony


p.s. I don't understand Nordhavens! All the fisherman up in the North Atlantic prefer a very wide platform so it sits right in big seas. For example, the guy building this boat for me fished out of Chesapeake Bay for 25 years and swears by this design:

http://www.boatdesign.net/gallery/showgallery.php/ppuser/22690/cat/500

 

A word of caution in today's business world. Yes, I am a cynic, but well founded after 47 years in film production. Take care how you accept any device solely on it's application by a government agency. Be it military or civic buses. Those entities are famous for failures that just keep running on when you just keep pouring tax money at them. "Friends" get the contracts irrespective of quality.

Today a person has to be more sophisticated and have trustworthy contacts. The word of the fisherman stands taller than any evidence of a bus going down the street and talking with the maintenance supervisor for the city bus system.

As for diesel/electric drives one should study up on the current efficiency tables offered by manufacturers. D/E trains evolved as such out of need. And did such at a time when diesel was $.05 a gallon and gasoline at $.11 a gallon.

Check out where modern trains get their power source. It is more cost practical now to "electrify the line" than it was decades ago.

In time the "green" thing will shut down the pollution of the multi engine freight trains of today. But the new diesel designs will be here soon.

Pound for pound and size to size I prefer a hydraulic drive using a diesel pump system. At one time hydraulic motors had a 18% loss factor. Today, the better drives have reduced this to just 8%. They are more linear as how the torque is immediate based upon psi. But yes, hydraulics tend to emmit noise. The cost factor is about 5:1 cheaper for hydraulic drives Vs. electric.



Ray

And I just do not feel at ease with the amount of amps and volts your project will require. Just me. This is not a land bound locomotive. Too much wet air around a boat.

 

excellent

Ray,
All very good points. For displacement cruising, trolling for gamefish, etc., the thought of a hydraulic motor has crossed my mind. With all that torque, it seems the key would be to have some kind of gear that could drive the main shaft.
I'm going to start a new thread to get this conversation rolling...faster.