[Alberg30] REPLACING MY VOLVO 10HP

Gordon LACO mainstay at csolve.net
Tue May 27 07:46:51 PDT 2003


on 5/27/03 9:29 AM, J Bergquist at j at ship.saic.com wrote:

> Yves,
> 
> How much gas do you estimate you will need to carry in order to motor
> 1000 miles?
> 
> That is a LONG way to motor. I figure if you make 5 knots, that's more
> than 8 straight days of motoring. At the end of that, I personally would
> probably be insane. I hate to motor. It stinks, literally. My boat does
> not enjoy it either. She much prefers sailing.
> 
> If I were you, I would be more focused on figuring out how to sail
> instead of motoring. Forget about motoring any appreciable distance. I
> think that if you do a cost-benefit analysis you'll find that the weight
> and space of an engine, its fuel, tools to work on it, and its spares
> can be much more effectively allocated to storage of provisions and
> water on a transocean passage. Plus, you'll rid yourself of the engine
> and fuel smell. I'd get an outboard and use it for getting into and out
> of harbors. Heck, you don't even NEED to have that, if you're good at
> handling your boat and confident in your abilities. Evaluate your
> electrical needs and get a hydro turbine generator or a wind generator,
> or a solar panel, or all 3 if you need them (though I suspect you don't).
> 
> If you want to motor long distances, you should get a motorboat which
> was designed to do that, like a trawler. They have large fuel tanks and
> plenty of storage space. Alberg 30's are small. They were designed for
> sailing. The motor is only an auxiliary to facilitate getting into and
> out of slips quickly, easily, and shorthanded, and for motoring short
> distances when there's no wind (like 20-50 miles). The boat simply was
> not meant to motor distances on the order of 10^3 miles.
> 
> Good luck with planning your voyage.
> 
> J Bergquist
> Calliope #287
> +---------------------------------------------------------------+
> |                This Old Boat by Don Casey                     |
> | http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0071579931/alberg30-20 |
> +---------------------------------------------------------------+
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Hi there - 

I agree... my feeling is that you would be better advised to concentrate on
optimizing your boats' ability to cope under sail.  My experience is that no
engine you put into her could match the effectiveness and power your rig can
develope in bad weather; conversely in calms, well they don't last forever.
You may want to run the engine periodically to keep your batteries up.  And
of course it is usefull in harbours, but I can't imagine you would miss it
much at sea.

I have never taken my Alberg to sea but have a fair bit of experience
sailing other people's boats in my younger days.  For example, on a passage
from Martinique to New York via Bermuda in a Dufour 31 (Volvo MD2c engine)
we only used a few gallons of fuel and were only becalmed for one day.

The engine was the only cause grief - keeping it running was a pain as none
of us knew anything about filter changing, line bleeding etc.  We cracked a
cylinder head coming into New York due to water flooding a cylinder after a
blow on the Bermuda-New York leg.  We found Volvo very helpful - a local car
dealer went out of his way to get us going.  Come to think of it, it was the
US Memorial Day weekend that we arrived there - twenty years ago!!!  Yikes I
must be an adult.

Gord Laco
#426 Surprise

 +---------------------------------------------------------------+
 |                This Old Boat by Don Casey                     |
 | http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0071579931/alberg30-20 |
 +---------------------------------------------------------------+

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