Well, my Cape Dory 27 had an 8 hp Yanmar and my Calunbia 8.7 (about 29 ft) had a 12 hp Volvo. Excess hp in a sail boat can help in a head wind but mostly wastes fuel. One runaway cause not mentioned might be leaking LP gas near the engine box.
-----Original Message----- From: Mercedes [mailto:mercedes-boun...@okiebenz.com] On Behalf Of Peter Frederick Sent: Monday, July 22, 2013 10:21 PM To: Mercedes Discussion List Subject: Re: [MBZ] Diesel Running Wild It is very very difficult to push a sailboat past hull speed, typically 6 knots or so unless you are willing to apply huge amounts of horsepower. The hull had a terrific amount of drag at higher speeds, unlike power boats where the hull essentially comes out of the water and the boat "flies" on the propellor and rudders (a trick used reliably by the Germans in WWII with the E-Boats). That means a 40 or 60 horsepower engine is all you need, and it doesn't get much better than a MB four cylinder diesel. Fuel consumption is low, around a gallon an hour under full throttle, much less at lower speeds. Some friends of my aunt's had a two masted wooden schooner that they sailed the East Coast in -- took forever to get into New York one time as the top speed of the boat was 7.1 knots and the tide was running 7.0 knots against them in the channel. They basically stood still for four hours. Peter _______________________________________ http://www.okiebenz.com To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com _______________________________________ http://www.okiebenz.com To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com
