[OFB Cafe] Checkin' out the Café

[Fred Smith]

On Fri, Jul 11, 2008 at 12:46 AM, Chris Olson <chris.olson at live.com> wrote:
>
>
> From: Fred Smith
> Sent: Wednesday, July 09, 2008 10:01 PM
> To: An Open Discussion Forum on Just About Everything,Especially for Techies.
> Subject: Re: [OFB Cafe] Checkin' out the Café
>
>
>> The 90 hp engine on my boat is 17 years old;  it still starts
>> the first time, every time, even after spending a winter in the back
>> yard, and will still lift the 1700 lb boat straight out of the water
>> and hit 60 mph in under 5 seconds
>
> That's a pretty healthy Evvie 88 Special.  I got all the Mercury testing info from the salesman at Crystal-Pierz Marine when I bought my new outboard and looking thru it I see Mercury Marine tested their 90 hp EFI four-stroke on a Boston Whaler 170 Montauk and their top speed was 42.8 mph @ 5,900 rpm.  0-30 acceleration time was 9.2 seconds.  Time-to-plane from dead in the water was 5.8 seconds.  Best fuel economy was at 3,500 rpm - 3.2 gph @ 22.3 mph.


Well, I can't say I've tested it that precisely, since I don't have a
speedometer or GPS, but I'm pretty sure my top speed is just about 60
mph, based on the time it takes me to travel certain distances.
Could be that my boat (the 1977 model) is lighter than the newer
models, or that it planes better because it's essentially a flat
bottom boat whereas the new ones are modified deep v's.  I'm heading
out this weekend with it, so I'll see what I can do to time
time-to-plane and time to top speed.

>
> I never got into sailboats too much, but don't most sailboats in the 30+ foot class have a little onboard diesel genset for electrical power, and usually a little one or two cylinder diesel engine for propulsion when docking, etc.?


Yeah, most have around a 30 to 50 hp diesel (usually yanmar or atomic
4) that recharges the house batteries and gives you a kick when
there's no wind. I plan on keeping the house batteries charged with a
solar panel and a small wind generator, and getting a mooring I can
sail to, to reduce the amount of time spent with the engine running.