[PUP] comparisons: speed & GPH

[John Marshall]

To your point below, you can't compare speed in a car to speed in a  
trawler. In a car, you are more or less fixed in place, you are mixing  
with other traffic moving at high speeds and very close to you.

It's also not about saving fuel.

In a trawler, you own the ocean, more or less, you can sleep, eat,  
watch TV or do anything else you want to while traveling. Unless the  
waves are really up, it can be as comfortable as being at home. Maybe  
more comfortable. This is your home at sea. As long as you have at  
least two people who can competently stand watch, 7 to 8 knots is  
plenty fast to go anywhere in comfort.

Plus, slower is quieter, and that's a big deal for me. In my book, a  
sailboat under sail is still the reference standard for noise. Closer  
I get to that, the happier I am.

Also, at low speeds, you don't have to be peering out the windscreen,  
holding onto the wheel, steering the waves, etc. Let the autopilot  
drive, and bend an eye toward the radar and chart plotter every few  
minutes (could be much longer on open ocean) and enjoy your book or  
the scenery or whatever.

Even in Inside Passage cruising in the PNW, we can put 12 to 14 hours  
on the boat and arrive as fresh as we left. Often, the cruising day  
seems to be over too soon. Daily runs of 50 to 70 miles are plenty.

Completely the opposite of driving a car, where the longer distance  
you go, the more fatigued you get -- so speed is of the essence, with  
all the tradeoffs that come with that.

With a boat, the lower the speed, the less fatigue for a given  
distance traveled. Or so I see it.

(Of course, this is all predicated on being retired and being able to  
set your own schedules. I'm not sure any trawler makes much lot of  
sense to own if you only have your weekends free.)

John Marshall
Serendipity - Nordhavn 55
Sequim Bay, WA



>> This is impressive -- but, whereas we cruising yachtsmen have  
>> widely varying bank accounts and budgets, we ALL cruise with  
>> approximately the same life-span available to us. So, time has a  
>> very real value. As such, moving at just 7-to-9 knots is considered  
>> by some to be a too-costly endeavor, especially if the primary  
>> reason is "saving fuel."  (If you could get 100 MPG in a particular  
>> model car...but could travel no faster than 25 MPH ... are there  
>> any of us who would not opt for a "mere" 20 MPG, but 60-70 MPH  
>> speeds?)