{"id":60285,"date":"2023-05-19T13:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-05-19T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.yachtingmagazine.com\/?p=60285"},"modified":"2023-05-19T12:27:18","modified_gmt":"2023-05-19T16:27:18","slug":"tell-tales-slow-down","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.yachtingmagazine.com\/yachts\/tell-tales-slow-down\/","title":{"rendered":"Slowing Down with the Right Boat"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\"Steve <\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n
\n “The fastest boat I\u2019ve owned was a flats skiff. While it could make 55 knots downwind, it had a \u201cgovernor,\u201d my wife.”<\/span>\n Steve Haefele<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\t <\/figcaption>\n <\/section>\n\t\t\n\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s been electricity in the air as prognosticators of the marine industry anticipate the more environmentally savvy generations\u2019 embrace of boating. Some builders have touched the wire with hybrids, while others put their fingers in the socket, building electric outboards, drives and boats. The technology seems ready for prime time, but are we?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The state of the waterway in my home state of Florida suggests we\u2019ve got some work to do. Boaters charge down the waterway with no apparent concern for fuel burn. They\u2019re either oblivious to speed limits or are simply ignoring them. Water cops are overwhelmed just trying to keep them from running into day markers\u2014and one another.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s the hurry? Beats me, and I\u2019m a boomer. Going fast on fossil fuel is overrated, and, these days, it burns Benjamins more efficiently than hydrogen. Fast, of course, is a relative term. The fastest boat I\u2019ve owned was a flats skiff. While it could make 55 knots downwind, it had a \u201cgovernor,\u201d my wife. She\u2019d holler at me if I went much past 20 knots.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And 18 knots was the sweet spot for our 37-foot convertible. I traversed the Gulf Stream and wandered the Bahamas for two decades, rarely having to adjust the throttles. Folks with big center-consoles could make the crossing in a fraction of the time, but they were usually beaten, bruised and still drying off by the time we were having a Kalik and a conch salad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Is it possible we could put our idle time in idle and noodle this reality?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I recall, back in the 1990s, a brainy boomer peddling a concept at a conclave I attended that promoted thinking out of the box. We were instructed to form groups, dream up five ideas and rank them for potential efficacy. We then had to pick the worst idea and pitch it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read More from Jay Coyle:<\/strong> Tell Tales<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I shall now follow that same formula. I\u2019m thinking cats. No, not Caterpillars; despite my past ranting about multihulls, I\u2019m talking about a catamaran. And forget what I\u2019ve said about plumb stems, for this boat would have two. They are purposeful on a cat, as they optimize volume for a given length. While I\u2019ve always encouraged right-tech instead of high-tech construction, this boat would need the latter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There would be no flex-fuel workarounds or complicated hybrids; that\u2019s just adding weight and stuff to fix. The bilge would have more stowage than a wasted lithium mine. Mixing electricity and water never ends well, so this boat would be wired like a floating GFI outlet. Going down sea, the wheels would provide regenerative braking. At anchor, they\u2019d generate current from the slightest current.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Best of all, my design would be fitted with a fail-safe propulsion device that\u2019s proved reliable for centuries: a sail. Better yet, a solar wing to keep the juice flowing. Such a boat is possible, if we were willing to slow down. But nowadays, that would be thinking out of the box.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Are boaters ready to embrace a new way of boating?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":60286,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"BS_author_type":"BS_author_is_guest","BS_guest_author_name":"Jay Coyle","BS_guest_author_url":"","hydra_display_date":"","hydra_display_updated":false,"_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":"163","_yoast_wpseo_metadesc":"Today's waters are mired with boaters looking to reach the highest speeds in the quickest time, but perhaps it's time to adopt a new boating culture.","_yoast_wpseo_title":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","arc_story_id":"","arc_website_url":"","custom_permalink":"","arc_subtype":"","arc_exclude_from_feeds":false,"sponsored":false,"sponsored_label":"Sponsored Content","sponsored_display_label":false,"sponsored_image":false,"post_right_rail":true,"post_right_rail_ad_1":true,"post_right_rail_ad_2":true,"post_right_rail_ad_3":false,"post_right_rail_ad_4":false,"post_right_rail_recirc":true,"fixed_anchor_ad":true,"post_top_ad":true,"post_off_ramp":true,"post_taboola":false,"labels":true,"apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_is_hidden":false,"apple_news_is_paid":false,"apple_news_is_preview":false,"apple_news_is_sponsored":false,"apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":"\"\"","apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"footnotes":"","sponsored_url":"","social_share":true,"ad_targeting":"","ad_settings_ads_on_this_page":true,"ad_settings_automatic_ad_injection_into_the_content":true},"categories":[163],"tags":[2096,569,164],"class_list":["post-60285","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-yachts","tag-march-2023","tag-tell-tales","tag-yachts"],"acf":[],"apple_news_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60285","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60285"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60285\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60286"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}