a great conversion...

 As always, Atom Voyager takes an outboard conversion to what I can only term as 'High Art'.

Seriously, this is the way to do it.

on the most important propulsion system available to us...

This bit of news got me thinking about electric propulsion, various mindsets on sailing and what passes for the norm where sailing is concerned. 

Now, as someone who spent over a decade obsessed with getting affordable electric propulsion to work as a sustainable system aboard "So It Goes", it's safe to say that I've spent a lot of time thinking on how best to get a boat from one place to another. All those years of study resulted in a strong belief that the answer is not electric propulsion. Just to be fair I'll add that it is not an internal combustion engine either.

Some years ago we were in the BVI and having a drink next to a couple who'd just sailed down with the  Caribbean 1500 rally who were quite proud of the fact that they'd only motored for 48-hours. Yesterday I saw that Mads of Sail Life fame spent something like that under power on his way to the Canaries. I suspect that both are an example of the current mindset that the only way to get someplace is to point yourself where you're going full speed ahead. A mindset that's a bit off where wind power is concerned.

One of the things I love about sailing is harnessing the wind to your purpose is both fun and requires some lateral thinking to get you where you want to be. In my experience pointing at where you want to go is seldom the best way to get you there.

Sure, some form of auxiliary propulsion allows you to point your boat dead to windward and current but it is seldom, in my experience at least, a comfortable way to go. As far as being needful to always making forward motion towards your destination the fact that you might sit becalmed for a day or so is not a major tragedy in my thinking as it's just part of a voyage or should be.

Wind power is the most evolved form of propulsion available to us and has the added advantage of being simple as well as inexpensive. Granted, there is a learning curve but nothing too difficult but with the added bonus of being fun.

Sadly, too many these days miss the whole fun element and every time the wind is not blowing you directly to where you want to go the answer is to turn on the engine/motor and thrash to windward instead of enjoying the chance to build your skill set and gain a couple of extra points in your course. For far too many the fact that they have an engine/motor that can be turned on at will is the biggest obstacle in learning how to get the most of of your interface with the wind.

For someone on a budget being able to use the wind to your advantage whichever way it happens to be blowing is a vital tool in your tool kit. Plus it will save you a lot of money in the process...

Need I say more?

a missed opportunity...

As it seems that more human auxiliary powered sailboat were collected for the 2022 R2AK it would have been nice to have a race on the side for the competitors to display their various systems.

A not-very-fast drag race if you will.

I don't know about you but I'd love to see a lot more about what worked, what didn't, and the various workarounds used.

a question of propulsion...

Sailboat propulsion by means other than sail can be a problematic affair. Fact is, whenever I read through sailboat ads in the VolksCruiser price range there seems to be no shortage of boats for sale that don't have a working engine.

Which is hardly surprising considering most folks I know tend to have expensive ongoing problems with their engines of one form or another. With the cost of fixing an engine these days it makes more sense to sell the boat at a lower price than try and fix or replace the engine.

Just for the record I really don't enjoy working with internal combustion engines especially in the cramped spaces they're shoehorned into.

Electric propulsion is an attractive option but you do have to jump through some hoops in the whole power storage and generation matrix that makes my head hurt.

The cheapest and in my opinion best VolksCruiser solution is a small outboard engine. The 6HP longshaft on "So It Goes" has enough oomph to get us in or out of a marina or anchorage and get us to where we want to go if there's zero wind as long as we're not in a hurry. Better yet, outboards are fairly easy to work on when needed and they're a lot more affordable than the other options.

Over at Atom Voyages James Baldwin has the go-to solution for getting past most of the issues and stigma involved when installing an outboard on a VolksCruiserish sized sailboat.

A new YouTube channel you might want to check out...

A family of six on an engineless Ericson 28.

 Most certainly a channel I'll be following.

Some excellent reading...

In the new issue of WoodenBoat magazine there is a really excellent article on doing an affordable and sensible electric propulsion system in a sailboat. In short, pretty much everything you need to know with zero BS content.

Some of you might find it needful reading...

I'm pretty sure this is not exactly an example of progress...

Is it just me or am I the only one who's noticed the somewhat alarming fact that you can now buy cans of gas for your outboard for $7.99 a quart?

While I get the whole ethanol is bad for outboards and suchlike, the idea that we're reduced to buying gas for more than I pay for decent rum is just frelling nuts.

That said, barring someone coming up with a hack that allows me to run my outboard on cheap rum, it is a pretty good argument for dinghies you can row or sail...

Horsepower and sail area...

That somewhat sad and neglected Gemini catamaran is a great example of the more is better silliness where engines and horsepower come into play...

Really, eighty horsepower?

The Gemini is a light boat (some might even say TOO light) and it does not take a lot of power to make it get up and go. Its rig HP is something close to 6.3 HP @ 10 knots of wind, 8.5 HP @ 14 knots of wind, and 17 HP @ 20 knots of wind. Which pretty much says to me that anywhere between a single 8 HP and a 25 HP outboard would be OK and my engine of choice would more than likely be a 9.9HP because the Gemini has a fair amount of windage otherwise I'd have gone with the 8HP.

Then again, eighty-fucking-horsepower...

Offhand, I just can't see why anyone would want an engine that exceeds their rig's horsepower unless what they really wanted was a power boat. If so, why even bother to carry around an expensive rig?

For those keen on checking their rig's HP, the formula is HP at 10 knots of wind = .015 X square feet (use .020 for 14 knots and .040 for 20 knots). Not perfect but it is accurate enough to tell you what you need to know.

So, just what's wrong with this picture?

A quick thought about a couple of extra knots...

Tad Roberts has a new design in the works which, I expect, I'll be telling you a lot more about in the next week or so, but for the moment, I'd just like to point out something important about it and boats in general...

Speed: 6.5 knots with 15HP outboard, 9 knots with 40HP

A little extra speed's expensive, isn't it?

Not only is the cost of a 40HP outboard a lot more expensive than a 15HP outboard, it's going to use a whole lot more fuel in the process and its upkeep will be costlier as well.

Of course, everyone wants to go just that little bit faster... Don't they?

Offhand, it seems to me when the gain seems meager compared to the cost of attaining it, you might want to take a long hard look at your priorities.

Just saying...

Some more thoughts of the Columbia 26 sort...

So, back to the Columbia 26.

As the previously mentioned list shows, there is really not a lot I'd change but a couple of things do come to mind. Mainly the rudder, propulsion system, and rig. Today, because they are somewhat related projects, we'll focus a little on propulsion and the rudder.

Having looked at a lot of old Columbia 26 MK 2's for sale, a great many of them all seem to come with either inboard engines with dire issues or outboards on a transom mount. Truth is, I'm not a huge fan of outboards on a transom mount and I'm not sure that an inboard engine is the best use of space and payload capacity on a 26-foot full time cruising boat.

If I were going to VolksCruiserize a Columbia 26 my first thought would be to remove an inboard with issues (gaining valuable stowage space). If it had a transom mounted outboard (even one that worked) I'd lose it and take it to the nearest consignment store and go engineless (more or less) using sweeps for the most part and a 4hp outboard on the dinghy as a yawl boat when needful.

Of course, a lot of people feel the need for a dedicated engine and, for them, I'd suggest a small 4HP outboard in a well in the rear of the cockpit. Which is just that little bit problematic because you'd have to build a well and a pair of rudders to replace the one in the way

Kind of makes engineless a bit more attractive does it not?

That said, a well is not such a big or expensive project and, more than likely, whatever you do you'll most likely want to rebuild the existing rudder anyway because a rudder built in the late sixties/early seventies is long past its sell by date so a new rudder (or rudders) would be a very good thing.

More about rudders later but, in the meantime, you might want to check out Atom Voyages which has an artful plethora of great information on making excellent outboard wells for small cruising sailboats like this one.

some more quick thoughts on designing a VolksCruiser that makes sense...

Now that you've had some time to think about the lug schooner rig (though we'll be coming back to it in a post or two) let's look at the other big chunk of a budget for a cruising boat...

The engine.

Of course, it's been proven that a couple can cruise pretty well on a small boat without an engine. Lin and Larry Pardey being the obvious example but over the years we've come across a lot of cruisers who have successfully cruised boats without engines. I won't get into it but Jay FitzGerald makes a great case for the engineless sailboat in his book Sea-Steading and it's well worth the read.

Tad's lug schooner has an outboard in a well. Tad did not mention what size motor to me but I suspect it's either a 6, 8, or 10HP (at the moment we're more than happy with a 6HP on our CAL 34). It's a simple and afforadble solution to the auxilliary power problem and has a lot of advantages over an inboard diesel engine. It's lighter than an inboard, less expensive than an inboard, less prone to problems than an inboard, and in the event that you do have a major problem a lot cheaper to fix/replace than an inboard.

What's not to love?

Well, outboards do have some issues...

For one, deploying an outboard on a sailboat is always a pain in the butt hassle. Whether it's in a well or on the transom it is going to be problematic to get the prop in the water and start the engine. Most folks with outboards simply don't bother and just become better sailors simply to avoid having to deploy the outboard in anything less than needful situations.

Secondly, outboards are not as efficient as an inboard diesel which becomes severely problematic if you want a motor boat with sails and are one of those folk who tends to turn on the motor when the wind lessens a touch or simply can't be bothered to take your sail covers off. For sure outboards don't make sense if you want to make long passages under power. I might also add that if you really want to make long passages under power that sailboats don't really make that much sense either.

Lastly, outboards use gas and most of us don't like carrying a lot of it around and stowing the stuff safely can be a hassle but, I expect that Tad will have some super cunning storage plan for stowage of a couple of outboard tanks (and maybe a jerry can as well). Of course, being a sailboat you won't be needing silly amounts of fuel because you're going to be making passages under, dare we say it... sail.

So far we have an inexpensive but powerful rig and a capable affordable auxiliary propulsion system... Find out what else is on offer next time.