[PUP] Lightning and Re: Motor+sailer vs Motor-or-Sailer

[Ron Rogers]

One has to ponder whether a mast high enough to support sails would increase 
the likelihood of a lightning strike. There was an article in PassageMaker 
Magazine awhile back which featured a blue trawler that was maybe 45 feet in 
length and was designed with sails, but not a motorsailer. He got a good 
turn of speed from the sails.

Lastly, Buehler and Kasten for example offer designs with a sail plane. 
Surely they think these sails will move the boat.

Ron Rogers

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Ken Williams" <kenw@seanet.com>
Sent: Tuesday, March 20, 2007 1:14 AM
Subject: Re: [PUP] Motor+sailer vs Motor-or-Sailer


| My apologies for protracting this discussion, but this comment caught my
| attention:
|
| "... (A sail on a power boat) is not a good emergency propulsion system 
for
| this reason:  If the engine should fail, sail would get you somewhere, but
| the chances of its being where you wanted to go are pretty slim...."
|
| I confess to being someone who has never been comfortable around 
lightning.
| There is something appealing to the idea of a backup system that requires 
no
| fuel or electricity.