Passagemaker Magazine

cost-effectively. The net benefit simply isn’t worth the risk and expense.

It’s challenging enough for boat owners to get conventional propulsion and electrical systems installed, serviced and repaired without increasing their complexity by an order of magnitude. My fear is boat owners will be left holding the proverbial bag, and it will be an expensive one.

Instead, we are asked to believe that these incredibly complex, computer-controlled charging systems, which are intertwined with the most sacred and vital system aboard your boat, propulsion, are worth having for the sake of more onboard energy, quiet running at low speed, and no smoke. I’m doubtful.

Electronically controlled diesels, which are extremely efficient and reliable, are pretty quiet when properly insulated and virtually smoke-free. High-output, reliable and proven charging systems exist, and these can already power air-conditioning systems overnight on battery power, and when that’s not enough power, we have compact, efficient, reliable, relatively inexpensive (when compared to hybrid systems) generators that can fill the gap, most of which have large dealer networks and a ready supply of parts, while veritably sipping fuel.

I’m hard pressed to see how or why an industry that already struggles with support of technically complex, as well as some not so complex systems, should add to the technical and financial burden of boat owners with hybrid on board energy production and storage. —Steve D’Antonio HavE a LI T TLE FaI TH, CaLdEr rEsponds I suspect that there is little disagreement between steve and myself on the technology or the issues associated with it. In particular, we both see the need for hybrid systems to be cost-effective and reliable, and for the marine industry to be able to develop the ability to support and service these systems. our differences are largely related to these aspects.

Electrical systems problems are the number one problem on boats that have anything more than a rudimentary electrical system. Ever since electricity has been put on boats, the boating industry has struggled to keep these systems running in a troublefree manner and has significantly failed to do so. steve looks at this record and kind of throws his hands up in horror at the thought of the additional complexity of hybrid systems and their associated management issues.

I look at the way modern technology has taken our cars, for
example, which used to require major attention and maintenance
at regular intervals but now can pretty much be guaranteed
to run at least 100,000 miles before any significant attention
is required. This has been done with an enormous escalation
of complexity, but with this complexity hidden from the user
and working reliably in the background. I believe over time,
Maybe this is because I wear rose-colored glasses! We shall
have to wait and see! —Nigel Calder

and d’an TonIo GETs THE Las T Word although I respect his position and expertise, nigel is correct; we do take a substantially different approach.

nigel may be an eternal technical optimist because he operates in a rarified world of manufacturer’s facilities, labs and his own test vessel. I, on the other hand, work from the trenches; I guide boat owners and buyers (and builders) on a daily basis, on many occasions I serve as their confidant and sea counselor, listening to and assisting them in resolving their vessel’s woes, and as a result I take a more pragmatic view.

The automobile analogy is one I hear often and it’s a stretch at best, by the time Toyota made the 10,000th prius, they pretty much had it perfected. The marine industry is fortunate to be able to make five boats that are exactly the same, much less hundreds or thousands.

Complex systems can be done right and they are done right by a handful of boatbuilders and equipment manufacturers. In virtually every case those ‘done right’ systems are the result of exhaustive engineering, thorough real-world testing and exemplary support from those manufacturers, today, tomorrow and five or ten years from now.

Will hybrid propulsion and power generation system manufacturers be around to service, repair and provide parts for these systems today and five or ten years from now? some early adopters have already discovered the answer to this question, and so have I, having supervised the removal of one of these hybrid system aboard a 70-foot motor yacht because it was dreadfully unreliable and ridiculously complicated.