{"id":13698,"date":"2021-04-06T15:06:36","date_gmt":"2021-04-06T14:06:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/?p=13698"},"modified":"2021-06-18T10:32:28","modified_gmt":"2021-06-18T09:32:28","slug":"powered-by-electrickery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/?p=13698","title":{"rendered":"Powered by electrickery?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

On Saturday I went up to the boat and cleaned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While I was belowdeck I heard the Coastguard put out an alert in my immediate area, because I had the VHF on, not because I have superhuman hearing. A yacht was fiercely aflame and drifting upriver on a strong tide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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My heart goes out to the poor family who owned this boat; such a catastrophic experience for them. They all got off safely, which is really good news, but what a terrible shame.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Early reports are that the fire started in the engine bay; and the engine on sailing yachts has been the source of a lot of thinking (in these parts) lately.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There’s a couple who have an interesting YouTube channel called ‘Sailing Uma<\/a>‘. They came to sailing (and Uma is their first boat) as a pair of complete novices, but they are both architects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of their early decisions when they bought Uma was to pull the diesel engine out and replace it with an electric motor. Now, I do realise that electric motors can cause the same kind of problems as diesel engines, but it’s still an interesting thing to consider. And, it’s fair to say, I’m considering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also, under consideration but only in a wildly impractical kind of way, is the total redesign that Dan (from Canada) and Kika (from Haiti) have done to Uma’s inside.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s worth a look, some of their design and build turns 60+ years of yacht design on its head<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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