When you think of a motorboat, you think of a big plume of black smoke coming out of the transom. Dominique Montesinos explains to us how he will transform this idea and why he believes that it will leave less traces than many sailboats. Demonstration :
Do not exceed the hull speed!
So, now, if you don't mind, let's consider motor sailing.
But then, what about the ecological considerations that many lovers of beautiful hulls brandish as a pass to heaven?
Well, at the risk of shocking you again, I'd like to share with you the idea that we don't pollute more, and maybe even less, than our "sailing" counterparts, provided we travel at a speed lower than the boat's hull speed (i.e., less than 9 knots in the case of the Lady).
A boat pushing water forward creates a wave on each side. This wave deepens and lengthens as the speed increases. When this wave reaches the back of the boat, the energy needed to go even faster increases by an enormous amount. This speed is called hull speed.
Comfort on board = big polluter!
Don't get angry too quickly, the explanations follow.
The key element of my demonstration lies in the production of the energy necessary for the comfort of daily life on board.
Obviously, certain choices had to be made as a result.
The space available on the roof of our catamaran has been entirely devoted to the installation of a comfortably sized solar park, which allows us to do without a generator. It is not nothing.
A lot of people who use the bike propulsion system use a generator for several hours a day to produce their comfort energy, when it's not their propulsion engine that idles..
It is not possible to adopt a large array of solar panels on a sailboat because a large part of the space is occupied by the fittings, and the rest is often shaded by the various spars, mast and boom in particular.
No gasoline on board the Lady either, as the dinghy's engine is electric.
Of course, if we happen to sail in areas where the sun is usually shy, it could be wise to install two wind turbines.
This is not the case for us at the moment.
Consume when you produce
A few words about the storage of this "easy" energy.
There is no need to install a huge battery park, on the contrary.
All you have to do is take care, on a daily basis, to consume energy when it is present, i.e. in the middle of the day.
Obviously, if we decide to run the water maker and the washing machine at night, it won't work very well. But by making the big consumers work between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m., we can supply, on board the Lady, the same equipment as in a house of equivalent size and standing.
For example, there is nothing to prevent us from having the water maker, which produces 60 liters of water per hour, the washing machine, the electric coffee maker if we receive a friend who likes espresso coffee, and the electric kettle to make tea, because his wife does not like coffee.
And to get around?
Concerning the propulsion, a judicious choice of propellers The Econokit system, combined with the addition of Econokit on each of the engines, were the key elements in transforming a "power cat" into a respectable trawler capable of crossing the oceans in complete serenity. It is a commercially available system, which can be installed without much difficulty and allows to improve the efficiency of a thermal engine ( find the subject on the Econokit here ).
In the next episode, the author explains how he chose his motor catamaran.
