Skipper's Blog: It's still a fossil-fuelled future

ONE only has to glance briefly at newspaper automotive sections to see the reams of print being expended on electric cars and electro/petrol hybrids – as if they are even remotely viable alternatives at present.
Fact: until battery technology markedly advances so that the power source drastically reduces in size and doesn’t encroach into the passenger/load-carrying areas or add the weight of three NRL players to an otherwise unloaded vehicle, then, realistically, we are probably stuck with petrol and diesel for at least another two decades – and, believe me, I’m fine with that.

As for marine engines, a proper, serious, everyday electric outboard is currently as realistic a concept as Kerry O’Brien standing as a Liberal candidate. Torqeedo supposedly has a 30 HP-equivalent unit, but battery requirements, power draw and operating time are still unknown factors at present. Call me a lily-livered, spineless coward, but I don’t think you’d see me heading out through the Gold Coast Seaway with one – not without a back-up petrol auxiliary, anyway. 

Hybrid inboards, however, are a different matter altogether, with companies like Steyr, Nanni, VW/CMD blazing an impressively innovative trail, albeit one that is probably idiosyncratically quirky (not to mention expensive) and of curiosity value only at this stage. Technology for technology’s sake – just to show it can be done. However, in terms of the relatively minuscule numbers sold and in use at any one time, pronounced environmental damage from marine engines is about as likely as Tasmania instigating an annual “We Love Primary Industry” festival.

Industry members have been canvassed about the future of marine engine technology, with one member showing that, on matters technical at least, he was navigating deeper intellectual waters than were his usual wont as he pontificated on the merits and demerits of electric outboards. This particular gentleman stated, quite incorrectly, that the problem with electric motors is torque, or lack of it. The opposite, of course, is true. An electric motor has instantaneous, maximum torque on hand the minute it’s energised, with no need to “spool up” into a conventional power band. However, how long that power can be maintained with current battery technology is another matter entirely. Then imagine a reasonably powerful electric outboard incorporating, for instance, a power trim system. Have you ever seen the voltage drop on an outboard battery gauge once the trim switch is activated? So let’s face it: mainstream electric outboards currently make about as much sense as uber-Greenie Clover Moore’s self-indulgent and vindictively anti-motorist bicycle lanes in Sydney.

In terms of outboards, the present crop of latest-technology offerings (be they 4-stroke or DI 2-stroke) show the direction the industry is taking and the technology with which it will persist. With worldwide outboard sales having plummeted off a cliff in the last few years, this means that revenue is catastrophically down. When revenue is down, you can bet that R & D expenditure, particularly in relation to new technology, will not be a priority. Besides, as most of the main protagonists are builders of reciprocating engines to their very core (i.e. their sole focus is the design and creation of fuel-burning internal combustion engines), it is highly unlikely that they will spring the marine equivalent of a Prius or a Nissan Leaf upon us any time soon.

My tip is that it will be, for the most part, a 4-stroke future and we should possibly expect to see (on mid- to high-HP units) more sophisticated, precise versions of systems such as lean-burn, unburnt/excess fuel recirculation, variable valve timing and, before too much longer, maybe even direct injection. Bear in mind these are only The Skipper’s own opinions here, but it remains to be seen how DI 2-strokes will continue to fare, as there is probably little more that can realistically and reliably be done with this concept of both lean air/fuel and oil/fuel mixtures which still utilises “total-loss” lubrication.

However, if you want an “off the wall” theory for what The Skipper feels would be a veritable licence to print money for whoever has the resolve, foresight, doggedness and unflinching nerve to see it through, give this some thought: a diesel outboard. No, wait. Stop sniggering. I don’t mean a reincarnation of the appalling, slug-like, thumping, filling-dislodging air-cooled Ruggerini of some twenty-five years ago or the 3-cylinder 27/36hp Yanmar that, whilst moderately effective, was so laughably cumbersome and heavy as to make a concrete mixer (including the Boral truck carrying it) appear compact and svelte.

Indulge my flight of fancy here, of a new-age, modern-day, diesel outboard of about 150hp based, for instance, on something like the Hyundai I4 170hp or the Volkswagen 5-cylinder 165hp. Both these engines weigh in – minus transmission – at somewhere around 260-265kg, and that includes a heavy belt-driven alternator and the heat exchanger plus all the ancillary pumps and plumbing for the integral freshwater cooling system – whereas an outboard can make do with a flywheel charging system and raw-water cooling. If the weight of the above ancillary items could be pared, and if the engine could be effectively mounted on a V6 outboard centre section and lower unit (it would need the large lower unit to cope with the diesel’s torque) and, further, if it could go into production with a dry weight not exceeding 250 kg, then I reckon whoever manufactured it would have a sure-fire, hold-back-the-masses hit on their hands.

Why would a segment-specific unit like this be such a take-it-to-the-bank winner? Because there’d be a massive, guaranteed market for it with almost every military, police, rescue, tourism, commercial and dive operator worldwide. None of these organisations would use gasoline-powered outboards if there was a realistic, serious alternative. They will never forsake gasoline motors completely, which are still the only way to go for proven, light, compact power in the 200hp+ segment, but any manufacturer with the courage and farsightedness to develop a proper, dedicated diesel (as opposed to multi-fuel) unit of around 150hp will secure a place in outboard history that’s right up there with Ole Evinrude and Carl Kiekhaefer.