Fish

Cause I wouldn't be able to get to work, which I need to do to pay for the boat.

Bollocks Kevin, that was not a personal attack.You posed a pointed question to elicited a response, you got a response. If it wasn't the response you were wanting, that doesn't make it a personal attack. My view on climate change, other than the contents of my post above, is that it is a sham proffered by misgoynistic male scientists to create and feed a nice little industry.

Dear Lord, No! Not another wrist slittingly tedious diatribe of pseudo facts, rants and one eyed opinions - NO! Not another aimlessly futile climate change debate. At the very least get this out of marine talk. Move it down to below the stink pot section in the class forums so I don't have to offend my eyes with this dribble every time I log in. Island Time, could I propose you amend the user conditions to have an outright ban on the discussion of climate change? It will be good for total traffic, trust me.

Oh yes, I was just highlighting Kevin's ability to find axes to grind,But now you mention it, my Nanna did "help" my Grandad write 14 books of a technical and scientific nature. After my Grandad died, she said stuff it, and published the last book under her own name. It was on the same topic and nature as the preceding 14 books.

I guess it is nice to live in a developed part of the country where there such modern amenities like cell phone coverage and all.Use it or loose it, dang, can't read smoke signals any more. No idea how to play banjo either

No, because only men scientists said so and not women scientists, making sea level rise a sexists and misgoynistic ideology perpetuated by grumpy white guys trying to keep the women scientists in the kitchen and out of the lab.

I wouldn't want to give the impression I'm a closet greenie or anything, it was a purely cost based economic decision. I wasn't actually after a hybrid went I started looking, but am very pleased with it now. My 1.6 l commuter was about to die due to old age (and a rather clunky gearbox). I needed the least cost replacement to flog up and down the motorway for getting to work. I always thought my 1.6 l commuter was as modest and frugal on fuel consumption as I could get. Typically about 12c/km petrol cost or 7l/100 km. The hybrid is now doing consistently less than 5 l / 100 km, costing cir

KM I covered that point earlier in the thread, referring to Slocum et al. The general consensus to that was "why go through out everything that has been invented in the last century", but yes, I do agree with you. The OP did clarify by re-stating the question - "Are there any viable alternatives to an Internal Combustion Engine" PS, Don't go telling anyone I actually agree with you, I have a reputation to protect.

Hay nagy592, what context are you thinking in? i.e. Pacific Islands cruising, coastal cruising, live aboard, weekend trips etc. To answer your original question, yes there are yachts that are fully electric. The Barbary tourist yacht on Lake Taupo is, and has been for a long time. I think the key thing for their application is that they do a defined trip so only need a certain known range, and can recharge every night in the marina. It works very well and they make a big deal of having silent, exhaust fume free propulsion on windless days. The most interesting point is that they use ve

Happy Teeth.

I'm going to make a prediction now, that a minimum of three sharks (or any other large marine animal such as sun fish) will be caught on the new dali foils this year. Just looking at a pick of Edmond de Rothchild, those foils are ridiculous. Given the speeds those boats are achieving, it is absolutely beyond me how you could design one of those to survive an impact with an unidentified floating object. http://www.vendeeglobe.org/en/news/15603/unfinished-business

I can understand the concept of throwing everything off the boat that was invented in the last century can be seen as a great leap backwards. To answer the original question, I think a hybrid drive is the only way to go. It gives 80% of the benefit of straight electric drive, but still gives the 100% reliability of getting you home (the safety / emergency factor). The actual electric part of the hybrid drive is very space efficient, looks like a fly wheel housing and about 100mm thick, attaches to the fly wheel / gearbox area of the engine. You then have complete flexibility as to the

Another aspect of the psychology of turning on an engine. When I did my Yacht Master ticket in the UK, there was a requirement to simulate an engine failure and then get the boat onto a safe mooring or berth. That required a real change in mind set, and necessitated the need to know how to sail a boat onto a berth. The instructors favourite spot for "simulating" this was Cowes Roads. Two out of three of us passed this test, the third guy froze and basically shat his pants as the engine went silent and he looked up to see the Ilse of White ferry coming in. I can't recall last time I sai

Ah, I was responding to the thread title of "Zero Emmission Sailing", which sounds like a misnomer to me.If the question is "is there a better alternative to the IC engine", then that is a discussion around technology. Interesting thinking and mindsets though, no one has kicked up about rowing a yacht. The focus being the need for motive power from a rotating shaft / power plant, rather than "how else can I propel a boat without wind". And subject of marinas, I don't park in a marina, Black Panther doesn't, and I was thinking more in the context of long term cruisers (think remote Paci

This topic always fascinates me for people's focus and reliance on modern technology. People have been sailing around the world, "cruising", with zero emissions for centuries. Slocum did it first, and countless others since. Many accounts of people sailing from England or Europe to NZ in small engineless yachts. A yachts primary motive power is from wind, which is fairly renewable I understand. In times of no wind, the only requirement is for a good anchor and plenty of rope. Further, if not burning any fossil fuel at all is your thing and your not keen on the anchoring option, the

Yes, I would say 'average' is fairly average. The 'rating guide' indicated 5-10% life left. To give you some context around size, my heavy runner is 14.5 m luff by 8.1 m foot, on an I of 12.1 m and a J of 4.8 m. It is a nice heavy runner for mid to high 20's with the odd low 30's, but only fully crewed. Its a big sail to be handling solo. This would have been mint in the Coastal on Friday. Have gotten away with this in those wind ranges two up, but when things go wrong the loads are right up there for recovering.

I would say 1.5 oz or heavier, for a "heavy runner". The size question is a little like "how long is a piece of string". Smaller than your big light one, but the question is possibly more around how fast do you want to go, how easy do you want it to be able to handle, and what wind range do you want to fly it in. Obviously the smaller area gives lighter loads / easier to handle, but will go slower. There is one on Sailbrokers that maybe in the right ball park, http://www.sailbrokers.co.nz/spinnakers.php Check out SP 9, its approx 13.4 m luff and 7 m foot, 2.2 0z starcut (i.e. not a s

Last years sponsor, Sail IQ, does he make sails and how do you ge hold of him? Every time I try googling the business I end up with last years race website.

Fair call.We recently chewed through a phenolic one very quickly (read, a cheap one, which happened to be recommended by a big name marine supplier) but we also had major alignment issues, which are now fixed. There are a large number of variables. I expect with a good set up they could last a very long time, as you say Wheels.

To answer the OP, technically yes they are an item that needs replacing periodically, but not that often if they are good ones, and there is good alignment on the shaft. 1 year for a bad one, 5 plus for a good one. Depending on the size, a budget cost would be circa $200 for a mid sized shaft, and depending on your mechanical appetude, 1 hr to of shagging around for a straight forward change out, up to as long as you can imagine a tricky job taking on a boat for a tricky one.

You don't necessarily have to remove the shaft. We changed ours between tides not long ago, shaft in place, obviously. Made up a fairly simple tool. It fits a 1 1/4 by 1 3/4 bearing. This assumes the bearing is on a shaft strut. Some are in the keelson, I think H 28's are like that? and other long keel boats, in which case changing the cutless bearing is a bit of a palava (and def needs the shaft out).

Have you tried turning it off and tuning it back on? Or perhaps you shouldn't try getting your internet via an old set of bunnie ears on top of the computer. Loving the tracking, much better than waiting for scheds.

Whats your logic on going for the hanked headsails Booboo? We ditched our furler years ago for hanked headsails, as its cluster proof for short handed sailing, but very slow to change gears. Double grooved headfoil makes changing gears much faster, but is somewhat limited in practicality when short handed.

The summary of this story is that Sail Melbourne, and then ISAF (now World Sailing, our governing body) absolutely shafted a 16 year old girl who was competing in a regatta. She had trained for it and had her entry formally accepted. She was not offered any natural justice, and was not given a fair go. She requested a protest be lodge against her, so they could address the issues in a proper manager. She was just shafted mid-regatta. Shafted to the point of being verbally abused by club officials, race officers and other competitors, and then instructed to remove her boat from the Club

The owner managed to get some from the distributor in Whangarei in the end. I don't have all the details but he did say the courier cost $12 at it's "a hazardous good". He initially emailed a contact he googled for Max Wax, but it turned out to be the international distributor and not the local one. If you want the contact details let me know and I'll get them off the owner. As a note, we put the Max Wax on the shaft, and the owner has been running around spraying either corrosion X or Max Wax on just about anything he can find on board now....