Greenline Diesel Hybrids - real life experience?

[bwmontauk210]

Hello, all

I am a new member and am seeking information on the Greenline Diesel Hybrid from those who may have actually experienced them first hand. I have been looking a lots of coastal cruisers with the thought of purchasing a boat capable of some extended cruising, and wanting to find one that is in the 32-40 ft. range that is economical yet also has good room. I am intrigued by the pictures of both the Greenline 33 and 40, and like the shallow draft of the boats, which would be good for some of the areas we might want to get in and out of. I do have some concerns about the small size of the tanks: water, grey and black water, and specifically wanted to know if anyone that has cruised on one of these boats in Europe has found this to be a problem.

The quality of the boats looks very good, but they are just now appearing in the US, and I am also interested to know how they hold up over time.

I would appreciate opinions and most of all any experience with the boats would be greatly appreciated. Most of my time is spent in the coastal waters around the outer banks of NC, mostly around Cape Lookout, although I would like a boat capable of doing some extended cruising up and down the east coast and perhaps consider doing the Great Loop of North America in the years to come. Any experience on that would be appreciated as well.

Mark

 

[bjl]

You might get additional feedback from a motor boat forum.

Friends have a sailing catamaran that was originally a diesel-electric hybrid but had to be converted to entirely diesel. That particular catamaran is no longer manufactured with hybrid propulsion. Perhaps there's a message there?

 

[westernman]

No experience with hybrids - but I was intrigued by the idea and what the advantage would be.

You might like to read the articles here:-
http://www.passagemaker.com/?s=hybrid+science
and check out my question (which has remained unanswered) at the end of part 2 of Nigel Calder's article here:-
http://www.passagemaker.com/articles/technical/power/the-science-of-hybrid-propulsion-part-2/

My own personal feeling is that if you install a controllable pitch propeller you will get better overall fuel consumption than is possible with hybrid propulsion. And indeed, I suspect that with a modern electronically controlled common rail diesel engine, you will actually get fuel consumption almost as good with a fixed pitch propeller as with a controllable pitch propeller and still be better overall than a hybrid system.

The only advantage of a hybrid system is potentially to use only electricity generated by solar cells or provided by plugging in to shore power instead of using diesel to generate the electricity. Obviously this then has a very limited range unless you spend huge amounts of money on batteries.

Personally I would look very closely at the conventional powered Greenline, the difference in price and how many miles you need to do close to your marina shore power before you can break even.

Note that a modern electronic common rail diesel is very efficient at just 20% of its maximum rated power (check the John Deere figures) - so being able to use the generator only when motoring slowly does not bring any advantage.

 

[jrudge]

I followed one on the upper Thames once. You would think that was ideal electric propulsion territory ... But no it had its engine on at every lock we were behind it.

 

[Steve C Cronin]

I walked past a couple of them moored at their sales office in Levkas Marina, Grece few weeks ago. My first impressions were that they are certainly not offshore cruisers. Also the deck fittings look a bit light. Will be back there in a few days so will see what I can find out and maybe take a few pics.

 

[johnwest]

There is one outside my office window as I type this. No real knowledge of them just general observations. The one here is single screw diesel, as the hybrid option was quite a few thousand pounds more. It seems rather lightweight and, to me, designed more for lake and river use rather than sea going, just the crew moving about causes it to heel. The side decks are very narrow. This one, shortly after delivery, had a couple of serious issues. One was the gear box falling off.
Not my cup of tea.

j

 

[Bertramdriver]

Just been looking at one this afternoon in the marina ( Lefkas). There's now three based here. As a Mobo man I looked at them through that perspective and came to the conclusion that it's pretty, a nice idea but a bit lightweight. All right for pootling around in, definitely canal cruising, but I wouldn't feel comfortable taking a 5/6 on the nose. However some really smart design ideas. Interesting to see how the idea developes.