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Spider-Like Catamaran Travels 5,000 Miles On One Tank

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the doing-whatever-a-spider-boat-does dept.

Lucas123 writes "Proteus, a Wave Adaptive Modular Vessel that looks like a spider, is so fuel efficient that it can travel 5,000 miles on one load of diesel fuel. The 100-foot-long, 50-foot-wide boat rides on metal and fabric pontoons that have hinges and shock absorbers to flex with the motion of the waves, which helps it to skim over the water at a max speed of 30 knots. It made its debut yesterday in New York harbor."

10 of 196 comments (clear)

  1. More info from the manufacturer by arsheive · · Score: 5, Informative

    http://www.wam-v.com/

    with some stats:
    http://www.wam-v.com/characteristics.htm

    still didn't see tank size though...

    --
    @AlexSheive
    :wq
  2. LOAD = by chkMINUS · · Score: 5, Informative

    According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proteus_(WAM-V) a "load" for this boat is 2,000 gallons.

    1. Re:LOAD = by God'sDuck · · Score: 3, Informative

      Hooray! 2.5 MPG! Global warming is like totally history!

  3. Re:Bzzzt... *Maybe* 4000 gallons by SoCalChris · · Score: 3, Informative

    Actually, according to the link yo provided, the fuel tank is 2,000 gallons.

  4. Re:Absolutely useless reporting by Hamster+Lover · · Score: 3, Informative

    My grandfather was a stevedore (longshoreman) and I actually phoned and asked him. He said smaller coastal ships could go about 2,000 to 2,500 nautical miles, while larger cargo and container ships could go 5,000 NM or more, depending on how much fuel they took on. Obviously, transatlantic container and cargo ships have to hold enough fuel to get themselves across the Atlantic.

  5. Feel good stories by Dan+East · · Score: 4, Informative

    These "feel good" kind of stories are really annoying, because they leave out so many details that most people end up with a completely skewed perception of the facts.
    I did a quick search to get an idea if 2.5 MPG was good for a boat. Here's an article that tested the fuel efficiency of some standard boats - ie boats with normal hulls that sit down in the water, with regular screw propeller propulsion. So they should be pretty poor compared to many other style hulls, etc.

    One particular boat has a V8 350 cubic inch engine that can do 51 MPH. So that's pretty fast. At that speed the boat gets 2.4 MPG, which is basically the same as the boat in the story. At a slower speed of 26.9 MPH it gets 3.6 MPG, which is almost 50% better than the "spider boat". Now obviously the range of these boats are vastly reduced - it's like rocketry, where the more fuel you carry to gain distance, the more weight you have to haul, so the actual gain in distance is only small (or perhaps even negative). So these boats can't begin to touch 5000 miles on one tank.

    So perhaps the significance of this story is ratio of the range to fuel efficiency? If so, it would have been nice if the author would have simply said that.

    Dan East

    --
    Better known as 318230.
    1. Re:Feel good stories by badboy_tw2002 · · Score: 3, Informative

      Those are tiny runabouts, try crossing the Atlantic even when there's not a storm and you're going to have a problem. Most _ocean_ fairing vessels (that is, cruise ships, tankers, cutters, etc) cut through the water, not ride on top. There are traditional vessels that do this, but its a very very rough ride and you're not carrying much cargo.

      You also have to factor in the loaded weight, range, and payload, and cruising speed. That's what's important here - the fact that you can get a stable ride, rest outside of the water while carrying some payload (for comparison, this boat can almost carry the boats you mentioned on top of the framework).

  6. Re:Bzzzt... *Maybe* 4000 gallons by jfisherwa · · Score: 4, Informative

    A mid-range recreational yacht (Say, $60k and 28 feet) will get anywhere from 0.5 - 4mpg. Usually towards the lower end of that scale.. considering the size and speed of that catamaran, it's really not too bad.

  7. Re:Much better is possible by tweel · · Score: 3, Informative

    My trawler yacht has a 130 ton displacement with a 24 litre diesel engine .
    At 1000 rpm (cruising) it does 9 knots which gives it 12000 miles range on
    10,000 US gallon tanks or 1.23 gallons per mile. However my payload is 10 people
    and 25 tons of equipment.

  8. Re:Yeah but, by JonathanR · · Score: 3, Informative

    Except that ton-miles per gallon is a better indicator of fuel efficiency.

    Approximate fuel consumption numbers are (from various sources):

    Inland Waterways: approx 500 ton-miles/gallon
    Rail: 70-200 ton-miles/gallon
    Interstate Trucking: 40-100 ton-miles/gallon
    Airfreight: 5-35 ton-miles/gallon