Will the end of new petrol/diesel cars in 2030, affect boat propulsion?

NorthRising said:
But to what extent will a switch to electric road vehicles make diesel or petrol less available?
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The vast majority of vehicles on British roads will still be petrol or diesel, so the fuel will still be easily available. The whole EV exercise is based on flawed data, like most of what the government does.
 
Luminescent said:
As for electric boats, I'll point out that solar panel are effective and the more modern ones have minimal difference on cloudy days. It may also be that the the charging stations become two way so any excess energy being produced on boats hooked up at the marina can be fed straight back to the grid.
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Absolutely. There have been suggestions that electric cars could make a useful overnight store and supply of renewable energy. You'd tell your car just how charged you'd need it to be and when and it would act as a reservoir until then, for suitable compensation. Not an option with hydrogen ...
 
With the looming legislation to ban sale of new petrol & diesel vehicles in many countries (dates vary) what’s the goss on boat engines?
 
We may just use sails.
I do a lot of sailing in boats with no engines.
Two generations ago, yachts with no engine were not uncommon.

People who could actually sail cruised extensively.

Go back a bit further, trading vessels with no engine were common.

Personally, I suspect by the time the 2030 IC car ban starts to bite, the climate will be changing noticeably and all sorts of politics will be happening.
 
TernVI said:
We may just use sails.
I do a lot of sailing in boats with no engines.
Two generations ago, yachts with no engine were not uncommon.

People who could actually sail cruised extensively.

Go back a bit further, trading vessels with no engine were common.

Personally, I suspect by the time the 2030 IC car ban starts to bite, the climate will be changing noticeably and all sorts of politics will be happening.
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last time i sailed onto the dock in the marina they got really upset!
but you have good point,in the future we need fewer marinas,and more anchorages where you can sail on and off your anchor.
 
atol said:
last time i sailed onto the dock in the marina they got really upset!
but you have good point,in the future we need fewer marinas,and more anchorages where you can sail on and off your anchor.
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I imagine that an electric drive of some sort, with a short range might be a solution for some people.
I think some people are already doing this!

The Thames Electric Launch Company has about 120 years of history already......
 
RivalRedwing said:
I suspect that electrical storage will continue to be an issue and even now this trend towards lithium based storage is creating a major demand for this metal. It is not a widely available metal and the politics & environmental impact of mining it could get very interesting. Tesla have recently purchased 10,000 acres of Nevada to initiate their own mining activity
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Lithium is pretty common it’s the stuff they mix it with that’s rare and that’s not needed in the new Tesla batteries. Also Lithium batteries are extremely recyclable so not that big of an issue.
 
TernVI said:
I imagine that an electric drive of some sort, with a short range might be a solution for some people.
I think some people are already doing this!

The Thames Electric Launch Company has about 120 years of history already......
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Very proven solutions for inland waterways craft, with low speeds, low energy demand and easy access to charging (albeit still generally only cost effective for new build or major refurb)
 
I used to really enjoy rowing my 22' Drascombes so I was very pleased to see quite a few people row or skull their Folkboats... (Folkboats were not originally designed to have an engine). I am looking forward to trying this. My freeboard on the IF Boat is only about 2' and it is quite narrow but I should think I would need 12' long oars minimum that some tie upwards along the shroud to store them, I do fancy a go at skulling however...

Sent from my iPad
 
JumbleDuck said:
Electrolysis is economic lunacy: the round trip through electrolysis and throws away half the electricity you has to start off with ... and that's without considering the problems and costs of storage.
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There are none really.

Most people's understanding of the state of art of hydrogen production and electrolysis is back in the Hindenburg days of flight (and their knowledge of the Hindenburg accident, back in the middle ages).

I think the regs are about inner city air quality mostly where its a serious issue. Hope they retrospectively apply them to narrowboats, they're becoming a real problem where they're constantly not cruising.
 
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Hallberg-Rassy said:
There are none really.

Most people's understanding of the state of art of hydrogen production and electrolysis is back in the Hindenburg days of flight (and their knowledge of the Hindenburg accident, back in the middle ages).

I think the regs are about inner city air quality mostly where its a serious issue. Hope they retrospectively apply them to narrowboats, they're becoming a real problem where they're constantly not cruising.
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When it comes to air quality, the next problem to address is woodburners, coal fires, bonfires etc
 
I can be wrong but as I know for the smaller sports cruisers, often of US origin, petrol is more common. For the larger yachts, diesel is the only practical choice. For example, I love to kayak or canoe but by the end of the afternoon, I'm simply exhausted so I decided to buy kayak motors. You know what the best thing about these motors? With an electric trolling motor, you never have to worry about gas! This means you do not take the chance of spilling it on yourself, breathing in toxic fumes, or paying for any type of fuels. That's why I like kayaks or canoes more than boats or yachts.
 
Cargo ships with gigantic engines dragging `stuff` backwards and forwards and around the world endlessly may be recognised as a greater threat to emissions and therefore global warming than the exhausts of a few thousand relatively tiny engines in yachts and small powerboats used for ,on average, only minutes every year. Every little helps, as they say, so I`ll be turning the donk off earlier and using the sails ....if I ever get back to my boat. On the other hand.... Does anyone have a REAL cure for global warming that doesn`t involve a drastic reduction in the rate of increase in the number of human beings on the planet?
 
There has been a thread on here not too long ago revealing the inadequacies of EVs with regard to towing. Indeed petrol/electric hybrids would appear to be bad candidates as towcars also, as after many years driving diesels I commenced using a petrol car as an experiment, to see if I would like a hybrid. I burned out my clutch in fairly short order due to the necessity to rev the engine and slip the clutch, to gain sufficient torque while manoeuvering the trailer. Just dropping in the clutch at low revs just stalls the engine. My next car will be a diesel.
 
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