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FUEL EFFICIENCY PROJECTIONS
AND COMPARISONS
The motor catamaran: Spirit of the Bahamas will be 82ft. (25m.) long, 20 ft. (6m.) wide and will be powered by a pair of 100 h.p. (75 k.w.) / 4 stroke / gasoline outboard motors. Naturally the general layout and the choice of engines will reflect the major design requirement of crossing oceans - safely and at a relatively high speed. Similar vessels, based on the same design concepts, but not faced with this requirement, could be configured and powered appropriately for a wide variety of pleasure and commercial applications.
A 3000 mile open ocean passage, in a motor vessel this small (without the aid of refuelling vessels), demands a level of fuel efficiency which, at this time, we are unable to achieve at the higher speeds, and with the higher horsepower engines, that might be chosen for other, less demanding, applications.
This being said, We have every reason to believe (based on the performance of her most recent predecessors and small models) that Spirit of The Bahamas will exceed an average speed for the entire voyage of 15 knots (17m.p.h.) and an average gas mileage of 3 nautical miles (3.5 statute miles) per gallon.
A substantial improvement in"gas"mileage could be achieved by using diesel engines, but we feel that, seeing as gasoline powered outboards are chosen for the the vast majority of small boat applications today (primarily because of lower capital costs), we too should follow suit - for the purpose of our demonstration.
Clearly, compared to the "average family car", the above numbers are nothing to write home about. A comparison to the "average family boat" (or other similar vessels) however, paints an entirely different picture. Let us specify a 30ft (9m.) boat powered by a pair of 250 h.p. (187 k.w.) outboards - very popular specifications for many boats (both pleasure and commercial ) today
Let us assume such a boat were capaple of completing the voyage - at the same speed of 15 knots - or, for that matter, at whatever speed the captain might care to choose. Let us further suppose that a chain of refuelling vessels, spaced at 500 nautical mile intervals, throughout the open ocean route was in place - and that such a voyage was, therefore, theoretically possible.
Even under the above conditions, a gas mileage figure of 1.5 m.p.g. ( less than 1/2 of the gas mileage that the 82 ft (25 m.) Spirit of The Bahamas is projected to achieve) is ,almost certainly, the best that could be expected. We would like to think that such a disparity in gas mileage represents a decent start in our quest to demonstrate the possibilities in regard to fuel efficiency.
If we were to adopt the current trend today, and use length as a common denominator (i.e compare Spirit of The Bahamas with the usual 82 ft. gasoline powered motor boat today), the disparity in gas mileage would be very significant. Using conservative estimates, Spirit of The Bahamas would better the gas mileage of such a vessel by a factor of roughly 1000 %
To be fair, Spirit of the Bahamas should really be compared to the usual 60 footer in view of the similar amounts of usable volume. Even allowing that such a 60 footer were diesel powered, the increase in "gas" mileage shown by Spirit of The Bahamas would be in the
500 % range.
When one considers the enormous importance that is usually attached to increases of one or two percent in fuel efficiency, when applied to the "family car", it would seem that the level of increase in fuel efficiency, which Spirit of the Bahamas will likely demonstrate, might be deserving of a little attention in enviromental and conservation circles.
CAUTION - DEEP END
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2007
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