While scuba diving last weekend, on a typical charter boat, powered by diesel, it occurred to me that the diving and fishing charter boat industry should be spectacular for Biodiesel conversion potential.
Typically, even on the newest charter boats, whenever the boat goes from idle, to 5 or more mph, during the initial acceleration, there is a huge concentration of diesel exhaust which gets pulled into the rear passenger area of these boats---an experience nauseating to many, and for the rest, annoying. If these boats were powered by biodiesel, my guess is that the passengers would smell something more like french fries, and the worst that would happen to them would be a desire to eat more junk food :-) Dive and fishing charter boats tend to cluster at certain marinas, making distribution to them quite easy ( should reduce cost of distribution through clustering). The drastic change in passenger comfort would be an enormous sales tool to pull people away from charter operations still running normal diesel. This is warm weather business ( say in the large market for this found in South Florida) , so cold weather operation would not apply. The engines in these boats are extremely expensive, so high lubricity would be a big plus. Most captains and crew could do any refitting themselves, as most have become diesel mechanics in order to save maintenancew expense, and for the ability to deal with problems while out on the water. If the cost of diesel fuel were replaced by a significantly lower cost biodeisel, it would have a radical effect on profitability of the charter trips ( fuel is a very big part of each day's expense). I have a considerable network of dive operators I am close friends with, since I created the South Florida Dive Journal back in 1994, which had a huge impact on placing South Florida Scuba diving on the world and US maps for being a top diving destination. I keep the magazine www.sfdj.com online , but have done little to add content or articles to it for several years now--even so, it still gets hundreds of thousands of hits per month, and is still used by many divers----I could easily do a big story on a new development in charter boats with a huge effect on divers---and this would have a big effect on captains deciding to convert. Does anyone have any information about biodiesel use and effects in 35 to 60 foot boats, operating exclusinvely in 50 degree F or warmer weather? Thanks, Dan Volker _______________________________________________ Biofuel mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://wwia.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/biofuel Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Biofuel archives at Infoarchive.net (searchable): http://infoarchive.net/sgroup/biofuel/
