Michael, sadly, just might have a valid point, an excellent write up on the new RockBox over at L-36, and a book I'm really looking forward to...
A designer of boats I know and respect recently pointed out that electric propulsion does not make any sense. Her reasoning runs along the lines of "I tried it and it did not work like I thought it should so it simply does not work"...
On the other hand, I know a number of people using electric propulsion who have systems that work just fine and are very happy campers.
Something of a conundrum that!
As it happens, this is not really about electric motors on boats but about how expectations or how you embrace something tends to affect the outcome... Electric propulsion just happens to be a good example.
The thing is, ideas that are a little outside the box require a little outside-the-box-thought-process to actually work. From where I sit, this seems like a foregone conclusion but every day I see examples that tell me my thinking is way off base.
Electric propulsion is sorta/kinda different than internal combustion based propulsion systems and as a result you sorta/kinda have to approach it a little differently. If you approach it the same as internal combustion you're in for some serious disappointment because it's different... In a sorta/kinda way.
Different, apparently, is difficult for a lot of people to deal with. Most folk like the same old same because the it's the same and they don't have to do anything hard like modify their thought process, change how they do things, or swim upstream against popular opinion.
I mention this as something to keep in mind as it might come in handy in the not too far distant future.
You might want to look around you and see just how some folks are being successful outside the box... That cruiser who seems happy sailing on a miniscule budget you can't even imagine living on, or that guy about to build a proa, the couple on a junk rigged schooner, and yes, those folks who seem to be able to manage on a boat without an internal combustion engine. They might actually be on to something!
David Bowie certainly said it better than I ever could...
"Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes Turn and face the strange..."Listening to David Bowie as it happens
So it goes...
