Sep 03 2008
Green Ships
After getting my head handed to me on a yahoogroup for daring to ask about greening my galley and possibly replacing my propane cooking appliances with electrical, I was amused to see this article on gCaptain, “Solar Powered Ships“.
Granted, this is commercial, not private, shipping we’re talking about, and the economies of scale are utterly different. But I can’t help but think that even for the big baddies of the shipping lanes, any move to the green is a move to the good.
Yeah, I was pretty surprised at how negative folks were about the idea of greening up the boat. I still think it can be done, but it may require significant reductions in consumption. The numbers on the microwave are really daunting.
I don’t think the “greening” is a bad idea at all. I don’t think anyone would think that.
In fact that was how our old boat was run and we are moving towards that with this one. On the old boat we cruised for a year with just solar and wind power, never plugged into a marina, never ran the engines, didn’t own a generator. A fridge, no freezer, no micro, hand held GPS, paper charts, no water maker, no TV (which always makes me laugh for cruisers, what’s the point?!), etc. We were happy, off the grid, and never got stuck in port making repairs to gadgets.
Now we have a bigger boat and a kid. So we put in 4 HUGE solar panels, no microwave, propane oven/stove by Force 10. A very efficient fridge and freezer. No generator, etc. Instead of trying to “trick out” the boat for cruising we are trying to simplify her.
Do your research, stick with it. KEEP IT SIMPLE.