Re: $4.50 marina gas
Bottom line is that even if gas goes to $5 a gallon, it's still less money than a complete repower. For me, if I use 400 gallons of fuel a season, and figure $2 a gallon overage if I get it at the marina instead of 7-11, that's still only $800, enough for a good used outboard, but that's about it. However...
A diesel/electric hybrid drive would be efficient only above a certain size due to the need to have the extra machinery.. it's a lot of weight and hull space. Even more if you try to store energy in batteries when the electric drive motor is stopped instead of just stopping the generator.
A small engine with auto start/stop, some modern batteries, and computer control could probably make a fairly efficient hybrid drive, since the engine could be kept running at its most efficient speed all the time.
Plus, you'd get the ability to run twin props off of one generator, which is nice for steering.
We should probably move this to dockside chat...
Erik
