Matthew's blog

Lithium Charlatanism

It's great to see electrification taking off, as was definitely evident at a recent boat show. It's a little less great to see how much charlatanism and huckstership have tainted the nascent field of marine lithium batteries and the equipment that uses them.
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This 1100 W electric outboard is equivalent to a 3 hp gas engine!
1100 W is 1.475 hp, by the literal definition of horsepower which is 1 hp = 745.7 W. Stop lying.
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Big Boat, Big Depreciation

I recently came across a 60-foot motor yacht that, after two years with its first owner, was now listed at a brokerage. The broker mentioned that its asking price of \$2.8m CAD was quite a deal, being a $1.5m savings versus the boat's original cost, while having only 200 hours on its twin Volvo IPS powertrains and being virtually pristine inside and out.

VMG to windward

I've come across a few boats recently that, while they had tempting layouts and nice equipment lists, seemed to be sorely lacking in their ability to make real progress to windward.

Here on the Great Lakes, that's a deal breaker.

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