The province of Ontario in Canada provides a huge range of boating opportunities, from historic man-made canals to more than 250,000 inland lakes, the 30,000 islands archipelago of Georgian Bay, to near-oceanic conditions on the vast Great Lakes.
Naturally, no single vessel can be ideally suited for all these waters: sailboats, large powerboats and cruisers are at home on the Great Lakes; houseboats and smaller cruisers on the canal; and canoes, small powerboats, sailboats, and pontoon boats can best find their way around the archipelagos and inland lakes.
Nevertheless, when making the leap from canoeing to the acquisition of a powered vessel, I wanted an easily trailerable craft that would enable as broad a spectrum of family boating as possible.
In addition, coming from the silence and eco-friendliness of a canoe, I wanted to minimise the fossil fuel impact-which for the sailors among the readers would mean a sailboat, of course! However, finding the art of learning how to sail a bit daunting, and the prospect of trailering a sailboat a bit too cumbersome, I set about searching for a suitable hull for a hybrid electric vessel- to allow silent electric cruising on the canals and around the marinas, and hybrid gasoline/electric propulsion in rougher water and to cover larger distances-common in Canada!-at higher speeds.
The discussion you often find is around electric boats versus gasoline boats, but mixing outboard types is also feasible and, I think, a good compromise to maximise flexibility in energy use.
Hull considerations
The first question was that of a displacement versus planing hull. Clearly, for electric propulsion, displacement would have been the way to go, as the most efficient hull would be needed.
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة August 2023 من Practical Boat Owner.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 8500 مجلة وصحيفة.
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هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة August 2023 من Practical Boat Owner.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 8500 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك? تسجيل الدخول
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