Evanston: auxiliary power
Evanston: auxiliary power
Several of the responses to my auxiliary power question taught me a new word, ‘yuloh’, which is a flat bladed Chinese sculling oar of apparently unusual power.
A couple of references are:
http://www.simplicityboats.com/yulohpage2.html
http://www.duckworksmagazine.com/03/r/vintage/marinerscatalog/03/index.htm
A potential problem with a yuloh, as with any sculling oar, and possibly regular oars as well, which some of you pointed out, is stowage. As regular readers know I don’t carry stuff on deck. Never have. Never will. And I doubt a yuloh of sufficient size will fit below. I don’t even know that oars will. Perhaps in a week or two I’ll have a better idea.
Only two of you have ever actually propelled your own boats manually, although several know of boats that have been. One man sculled his grandfather’s 26’ boat as a teenager. He believes that the oar was 25% to 50% longer than the spinnaker pole on that boat, which on the future GANNET would mean between 12’ and 15’, though he suggests that with less freeboard a shorter oar might work.
I don’t recall the length of the oars on CHIDIOCK TICHBORNE and a quick perusal of THE OPEN BOAT didn’t provide an answer. I think they were at least 8’ and maybe 10’. The oars on an Avon RedStart, of which I am about to buy another, are 5’ 6”.
My experience with rowing CHIDIOCK TICHBORNE was that she moved easily in flat water, but out in the ocean there was a lot of work for not much gain. When the wind died in mid-passage I was not tempted to break out the oars. I waited for the wind to return, as I did on the engineless EGREGIOUS, and will with GANNET.
I found this link one of you provided to a man who did sail enginelessly for a while to be interesting.
http://atomvoyages.com/atom/faq.htm
See the answer to Question 9. I also happen to agree with his answer to Question 10.
A man whom I know in Durban, South Africa, wrote that sailboats are not allowed to sail in the harbor entrance channel. This gives me pause because I left Durban in THE HAWKE OF TUONELA on the trailing edge of a low in rain and wind which would have been impossible to row or scull against, even if the authorities would let me.
I probably will not ever sail GANNET in Durban, but I might encounter a similar situation elsewhere.
I have further investigated the electric Torqeedo and telephoned their U.S. representative. Their Travel 1003 would suit GANNET. The unbiased PRACTICAL SAILOR praises it. The limited range of little more than ten miles on a single charge is more than I need. In addition to being charged by shore power, the Torqeedo battery can be charged from the ship’s 12 volt system, as well as by a foldable solar panel specifically designed for Torqeedo by PowerFilm. However, I was told by PowerFilm that that solar panel cannot easily be used also to charge the ship’s batteries.
The main drawback to the Torqeedo is cost: the Travel 1003 lists for $1999, and I have not seen it offered by anyone for much less. There is the possibility I could defray part of the cost by buying one and writing an article about it.
$900 for the single-purpose PowerFilm solar panel is a non-starter; far better to spend that amount on other solar panels to charge the ship’s batteries.
Several of you said forget about rowing and love your two-stroke Mercury outboard; that two-strokes are simple, relatively maintenance free, and “almost indestructible.”
This is, of course, the advice I will follow initially--assuming the Mercury starts upon delivery. But I’m keeping an open mind about this, as all aspects, of the anticipated bird.
Saturday, April 30, 2011