Evanston: a question about auxiliary power
Evanston: a question about auxiliary power
Being able only to speculate about the future GANNET for another couple of weeks, I do, and one of the subjects I speculate about is auxiliary power.
Anyone who has paid attention to my voyages knows that my attitude about auxiliary power is that it is auxiliary. Very. Necessary only for the last hundred yards. Neither EGREGIOUS nor CHIDIOCK TICHBORNE had engines. CHIDIOCK TICHBORNE had oars. And RESURGAM was without a working engine from the Panama Canal to Australia in my 1990 crossing of the Pacific Ocean.
I have never had a boat that doesn’t sail well and never will. Some of you will recall that my total fuel consumption on my fifth circumnavigation was slightly less than twenty U.S. gallons, which works out to 600 MPG.
I sailed the 16,000 pound EGREGIOUS in and out of her slip in Harbor Island Marina in the year I owned her before leaving for Cape Horn; but that was only possible because I had the third slip in from the outer end of the finger. The fourth would have done as well; but there was not enough room to tack between fingers and with any slip further in, sailing in and out would usually have been impossible.
Unfortunately marinas and harbors are now set up with the assumption that all boats have engines. Many marinas, including several in New Zealand, do not permit boats to sail inside their breakwaters.
How do some people who have made a fetish of being without engines manage then? Well, they get tows. I expect people would tow me if I asked, but that’s not my nature.
Which brings us to GANNET.
With GANNET come many things I have not had for decades or ever: insurance--required by the marina. Full coverage, hull and liability: $141 a year. I haven’t had hull coverage on a boat since 1973. A marina slip: pricey at about $2000 May to October. I haven’t had a marina slip since leaving Boston in 2001. A trailer. Never. And a 2 horsepower Mercury outboard motor. I haven’t owned an outboard since 1969 and am trying to find an alternative.
I am aware of a German built electric outboard, Torqeedo, which is quiet, light, and exorbitantly expensive. Interestingly the EU has banned gasoline and diesel engines on many European lakes.
So I think of oars and come to my question: have any of you experience, or know someone who has, using oars to row--two oars--or scull--one oar off the stern--boats the size of a Moore 24, which has a designated displacement of 2050 pounds?
If so, I’d appreciate hearing from you. An email address is here.
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Between periods of rain, I rode my bicycle along the lake front to Northwestern and back. You can see from the view of the ten mile distant Chicago skyline what kind of a day is was.
Monday, April 25, 2011