Engine lost compression in two cylinders on my 5.7 GL Volvo Penta. ~ 300 HP, leaky exhaust riser. Took the opportunity to look into an electric option that can bring a 4,700 lb boat on plane, comparable power that is in production and available.
- Evoy hurricane inboard, 600 kW: NOK 1.497.000
- Battery pack: medium range, 252 kWh: NOK 1.476.000
In US dollars, that's $360,000 and I'd have to ship it from Norway. Closest second option was about half that price using BMW i3 batteries, at half power. Meanwhile, a new marine engine was $10,000 by comparison, or to repair exhaust and rebuild to last another 17 years, $5,000.
Boating is a luxury and I can't excuse it in environmental terms, same as I can't excuse electing not to walk 2 hours to my local starbucks for a consistent grande pike I enjoy in favor of brewing my own. But marine electric is currently nowhere near being a practical solution, and you cannot hydrofoil in all boating conditions, especially in choppy waters, or where there are seasonal floating obstructions.
Boats do have notoriously small efficiencies (1-4 mpg) in both displacement and planing modes, but consider that for an automobile to have its 25 mpg average we pour approximately 124,000 gallons of crude oil per mile every 5-10 years for a two lane asphalt road, a coarse byproduct of refined petroleum.
My whole point here is not to equivocate in any terms, but that it's easy to overlook externalized costs. Moving an object anywhere is a difficult problem.
- Evoy hurricane inboard, 600 kW: NOK 1.497.000
- Battery pack: medium range, 252 kWh: NOK 1.476.000
In US dollars, that's $360,000 and I'd have to ship it from Norway. Closest second option was about half that price using BMW i3 batteries, at half power. Meanwhile, a new marine engine was $10,000 by comparison, or to repair exhaust and rebuild to last another 17 years, $5,000.
Boating is a luxury and I can't excuse it in environmental terms, same as I can't excuse electing not to walk 2 hours to my local starbucks for a consistent grande pike I enjoy in favor of brewing my own. But marine electric is currently nowhere near being a practical solution, and you cannot hydrofoil in all boating conditions, especially in choppy waters, or where there are seasonal floating obstructions.
Boats do have notoriously small efficiencies (1-4 mpg) in both displacement and planing modes, but consider that for an automobile to have its 25 mpg average we pour approximately 124,000 gallons of crude oil per mile every 5-10 years for a two lane asphalt road, a coarse byproduct of refined petroleum.
My whole point here is not to equivocate in any terms, but that it's easy to overlook externalized costs. Moving an object anywhere is a difficult problem.