Tips and tricks for minimalist cruising

[wgerstmyer]

Nice little tips.

However, it is the 800-pound gorilla in the room that should be the starting point of any discussion about being able to persistently (sustainably) live on this planet.

To be clear, in the US (largest consumer nation per capita by far):
40% of energy use is spent heating and cooling buildings.
26% spent on transportation ...
Petroleum is used in gazillions of products (some recyclable) but fuel (66%) and industrial uses (28%) are the vast majority of where it gets used up forever. Big Oil has a greed interest in seeing petroleum used for as many things as possible (and, admittedly, uses like in medicines are quite important) for as long as possible and therefore state things like “we won’t run out of it for a while.” But fossil fuel use is the chief thing that is destroying the planet, and at an alarming rate.
So while there are lots of “little” things we can do to help the environment, if we don’t wean ourselves off petroleum, the planet is toast.
The majority of full time live aboard sailors have drastically cut back their heating/cooling and transportation loads. This is a good start and a big change of perspective, a change that will be crucial to creating overall change in society.
But to be sustainable (able to persist as a lifestyle forever) fossil fuel use of any kind will have to be reduced drastically. This is because our planet takes a very long time to produce oil and we currently use so much that it’s use is a death knell; the Big Oil argument that we should continue to use it until there is an end date when there will be no more for general use doesn’t work because that will be “too little too late” and doesn’t leave enough oil for use in its more important products.

So address the big gorilla on your boat as best you can: energy use. (And, though much smaller, yes, recycle to not use up materials and energy to make new things, as well as to keep things out of landfill).

SV Nirvana still has a Diesel inboard. We are intrigued by Bill Cheney’s book Penelope Down East about sailing an engineless catboat and hope to learn those skills so the Yanmar can be just for emergencies. We love to row our dinghy and have no outboard. We love fresh food and have a fridge (our only big electrical load) run almost entirely by solar—we have a Honda generator we ran for 2.5 hours last year when the solar couldn’t keep up. So little I think we can jettison it.

No matter what minimalist word or definition you use, if we want future generations to be able to simply live, let alone live well, energy has to be in our thinking.

[Na Mara]

As I pointed out in another thread when I calculated the emissions from my LPG usage for cooking it worked out at about 120kg a year assuming full time living aboard and no induction in harbour. That is between a quarter and a fifth of what I produce breathing in that same year. Investing huge money to replace such a low emission, efficient and practical source of energy for cooking when my engine is pumping out 20 times that each year and the emissions from my food consumption are 10 times that is just a very bad use of resources.

We need to get away from simplistic fossil fuels bad, renewables good ways of thinking and actually look at how much it costs to abate a certain amount of carbon from a certain source. Doing this kind of calculation I find that replacing my diesel with an electric motor has an abatement cost of roughly one euro per kg of CO2. That’s 1000euro per metric ton. Replacing the LPG for cooking has an abatement cost of roughly 3 times that. Now compare this to the cost of abatement in sectors covered the EU emissions trading system where the cost of emitting 1 ton is presently around 60 euro.

Rationally I and the world are much better off if I continue using my fossil fuels on board whilst purchasing the needed emissions tokens on the market than we would be by me investing heavily in tokenism aboard my own boat.

That’s not to say that where it makes sense one shouldn’t minimize fuel use or find alternatives like bioLPG or bioDiesel both of which are on sale in Sweden. Hell why spend all that money on nice sails and not use them. It’s just one should be clinical and rational about this (good minimalist values).

[wgerstmyer]

Na,
I’m sorry if my point was misread by you—I am praising live aboards for their smaller footprint.
What I meant was that society as a whole needs a major shift in thinking and , make no mistake, fossil fuels are bad as there are many products that are distilled in order to get any one of the many petroleum products. They then need to be sold, need a marketplace, or the while enterprise isn’t profitable. And yes, this will cost money. The mere fact that oil will run out is the definition of non-sustainable.

[noelex 77]

Originally Posted by Mike OReilly

That's part of the problem I see for these electrics; keeping the batteries charged and healthy over time.

As Mike has indicated, while electric outboards have a lot of appeal they are not consistent with a minimal philosophy once you factor in the infrastructure to generate the power they require and the difficulty of repairs in remote locations.

“Green” and “Minimalist” philosophies share some common goals, but they are not the same.

[rslifkin]

Originally Posted by noelex 77

As Mike has indicated, while electric outboards have a lot of appeal they are not consistent with a minimal philosophy once you factor in the infrastructure to generate the power they require and the difficulty of repairs in remote locations.

“Green” and “Minimalist” philosophies share some common goals, but they are not the same.

For the electric outboards, the minimalist argument is an interesting one. If you're already going to have a system to produce electrical power (solar, wind, generator, etc.) then which is more minimal: up-sizing the electrical system to support charging an electric outboard or adding a whole separate fuel type to carry (gasoline) to power the outboard?

[noelex 77]

Gasoline has many drawbacks such as safety concerns, but it is easy to acquire almost everywhere and it is possible to store 6-12 months of fuel (for the tender) in a couple of simple plastic containers with almost nothing to fail.

It is not very green, but fits in with a KISS philosophy.

[Na Mara]

Originally Posted by rslifkin

For the electric outboards, the minimalist argument is an interesting one. If you're already going to have a system to produce electrical power (solar, wind, generator, etc.) then which is more minimal: up-sizing the electrical system to support charging an electric outboard or adding a whole separate fuel type to carry (gasoline) to power the outboard?

And here we see why minimalism and environmentalism do not always align as the logical end point of this kind of argument is an all electric boat. Now unless one is willing to live with very minimal range this will require a genset and then you are talking about a 25% increase in fuel consumption when compared to a direct drive system. The system is wonderfully minimal - single fuel, single ICE, everything else clean and electric - but it entails more Emissions, both embodied and in use.

[TrentePieds]

Pete said: "Now I do have a rather nice 1963 Seagull in the attic..."

Oh dear! I have one at the bottom of Whytecliff Cove :-) Have had for half a century. It's there because one day the seas were running straight into the cove from Georgia Straits. With the pitching of the boat - a true replica of Tom Day's Seabird, circa 1901 - the damn thing quit for the sixth or seventh time. Wet plug d'ye see? I assumed the proper posture of prayer there on the poop, and I was wrapping the pull cord around the flywheel for the umpteenth time. But there, on top of the flywheel, right under my nose, was embossed "Best Outboard for the World"!

That was too much!!

I sent the Seagull to play with the tame octopus we kept in Whytecliff Cove in those years. Ran up the canvas and sailed 'er out. Shoulda done that in the first place :-)!

Cheers

TrentePieds


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[Na Mara]

Originally Posted by noelex 77

Gasoline has many drawbacks such as safety concerns, but it is easy to acquire almost everywhere and it is possible to store 6-12 months of fuel (for the tender) in a couple of simple plastic containers with almost nothing to fail.

It is not very green, but fits in with a KISS philosophy.

You’ve also got the engine oil, and the regular maintenance. Minimalism also applies to tasks. Minimalists like simplicity because it reduces maintenance and increases reliability all of which increase the pleasure of ownership. Electric motors score highly here

[Mike OReilly]

Originally Posted by Na Mara

You’ve also got the engine oil, and the regular maintenance. Minimalism also applies to tasks. Minimalists like simplicity because it reduces maintenance and increases reliability all of which increase the pleasure of ownership. Electric motors score highly here

Maybe this is an illustration of minimalism vs frugality. It's hard to justify a Torqueedo based on the latter, but it might score high on the former scale.

[Na Mara]

Originally Posted by Mike OReilly

Maybe this is an illustration of minimalism vs frugality. It's hard to justify a Torqueedo based on the latter, but it might score high on the former scale.

Agreed.

[noelex 77]

Originally Posted by Na Mara

You’ve also got the engine oil, and the regular maintenance. Minimalism also applies to tasks. Minimalists like simplicity because it reduces maintenance and increases reliability all of which increase the pleasure of ownership. Electric motors score highly here

I agree that a major goal of minimalism is reducing the workload of routine maintenance and increasing reliability. These are certainly my goals.

It is not yet clear how electric outboards fair in this regard. They do very well for people sailing for a few weeks a year (as is the normal outboard usage pattern), but for cruisers such as myself who are cruising over 300 days a year, all at anchor with high hours on the outboard, the difference is not clear.

With this high usage a petrol outboard still only needs oil changes once or perhaps twice a year. This is eliminated with electric outboards, but the high number of hours seem to produce more serious and catastrophic problems for electric outboards. Frequently these require specialist help. Petrol outboards can be fixed by most skippers with some duct tape and fencing wire .

Petrol outboards can be expected to have a 15+ year lifespan even with daily or near daily use.

I suspect as electric outboards mature, the more serious failures will be ironed out. I hope so, but perhaps this will lead to more routine maintenance such as replaceable seals and oil in the lower leg.

You also need to factor in the maintenance and reliability of the devices used to generate the power for the electric outboard. If this is just more solar the reliability is high and maintenance almost non existent, but most cruising boats have already maxed out their solar array. The extra power draw can prompt the installation of wind, hydro, or even tip the balance in favour of installing a generator. These are high maintenance devices.

Electric outbords are cool, and green, with many advantages, but I would not agree they are minimalist.

[Narfi]

I asked for tips and tricks for minimalist cruising, "KISS", they said.
I asked how to cruise economically on a budget, "KISS", they said.
I asked how to ensure I could stay on top of all the maintenance needs, "KISS", they said.
I how to plan provisioning for a passage, "KISS", they said.
I asked how to cruise in an environmentally friendly way, "KISS", they all agreed.

I will let you know how it goes,

[goboatingnow]

I find it amusing that this debate trues to justify what is a very high tech system , an electric outboard , as minimalist. ( just try repairing it )

[Na Mara]

An electric outboard is minimalist because it is very simple (one moving part), reliable and basically zero maintenance. If it breaks you probably won’t be able to fix it yourself but it’s so unlikely to break that this isn’t a problem.

I have an electric moped that has done 7000km over 5 years. I’ve crashed it once and driven it in all weathers. It’s never been serviced once. I charge it, drive it and that’s it. Way easier, and ultimately cheaper to own than its petrol equivalent