Let’s face it, good food and drink is an essential part of enjoying time on the water.

Unfortunately, so many boaters seem to forget that they are on the water when it comes time to whip up a meal or pass out the sundowners. Troll through any big marina, hit a crowded beach, or just spend a few days floating around and you are pretty much guaranteed to come across all sorts of junk that has escaped from the galley.

Styrofoam  dishes, plastic utensils , food containers, the stray synthetic “coolie cup” that slipped off somebody’s cold one, coolers, and of course our constant companion, the disposable water bottle, are just a few of the  things that so many boaters take for granted. And yet, this stuff is literally choking the waterways we claim to enjoy.

When it comes time to set up your galley please keep a simple principle in mind – Do not use anything that will not break down if it goes over the side.  

This precautionary principle will serve you well in many aspects of boating, and it is fairly easy to apply if you put your mind to it. All you have to do is look at everything you use in or around the galley and find a natural alternative to the cheap plastic junk that all the ads tell you belong on a boat.

Sound hard? Maybe.

 Doable? Of course.

Worth The Trouble? Your conscience can easily answer this one.

Let’s look at some common galley gear and the green alternatives that are out there.

Dishes –

Plain old paper plates are a good choice if you are on a budget, although they do take up precious space in the trash and a tree was probably cut down somewhere along the production line. If you go this route, shell out another buck or two for the stuff made from recycled paper products. Don’t let the marketing gurus trick you into buy recyclable instead. Remember, advertising executives know our attention span is often short enough that we can be duped into thinking recyclable and recycled mean the same thing. In fact, any paper product “can” be recycled, but most never are.  If you do go the disposable route you also need to avoid the poly-paper blend versions. These are usually shiny, slick, and come in lots of fancy colors. As sturdy and pretty as they may be, the poly base means they are full of chemicals, petroleum, and all sorts of bad stuff. If you really want disposable stuff, look for the new cornstarch or sugarcane based plastic dishes, or even those single use versions made from bamboo or other sustainable materials. The new bio-plastics can be a little tough to find, and while they look like traditional plastic, they will actually biodegrade with ease since they are made from vegetable oils. Be careful using the bio-plastics with really hot stuff, sometimes it melts. Wood dishes have come a long way in recent years. Many options exist from plain to fancy, and most of the wood stuff comes from sustainably grown plants like bamboo (technically a grass, not a wood), acacia, and others.  Be mindful you don’t buy a nice natural wood bowl covered in paint or some other synthetic finish. Look for food safe oils or other natural, plant based finishes. Stainless steel dishes are great on a boat. Now I know the image of a steel mill doesn’t exactly conjure up environmentally friendly images. However, if you compare the environmental impact of a set of stainless dishes that you will have on board for years and that will break down given enough time in the water vs. the completely non-biodegradable plastic set you replace every season or two, stainless wins hands down. Glass and ceramic can be good choices if you can keep them from breaking. Consider recycled glass products, and be wary of ceramic glazes, many contain lead or other nasty stuff.

Utensils –

Biodegradable plastic utensils are available if you look hard enough, but again be careful with hot stuff. Leaving a bio-plastic spoon in a hot baked potato might leave you with nothing but the handle. Wood is a great option here, especially chopsticks. Kids love trying to master them and clean up is easy. Good stainless utensils will last for years, although some people don’t like the metallic taste they can impart.

Pots and Pans – This is a tough one for some folks, and an area where we get a lot of opinions. You obviously can’t use wood over an open flame, although when properly used, bamboo steamers are quite versatile and double as attractive food servers. For the most part stainless steel is the greenest option available. Cast iron works great, but is prone to rusting, especially on a boat. At www.greenboatstuff.com we refuse to carry non-stick cookware. Treated with Teflon, or some other such synthetic, these cook-sets make clean up a breeze, but at a steep price. Mounting evidence shows that the chemicals from these non-stick coatings are showing up in the bloodstream of people around the globe, and even in the breast milk of nursing mothers. Who knows the damage this may ultimately cause, but for our part, we think folks would rather scrub a little harder instead of ingesting Teflon. 

Food Storage – Use stainless steel instead of plastic. More and more stainless food containers are coming on the market all the time. The folks at To-Go Ware have a great product just for this purpose. For more info check out www.greenboatstuff.com/towaststfoca.html

Liquid Storage – I won’t bore you with more statistics on how many disposable plastic water bottles are literally floating around out there, but the numbers are staggering. Recent concerns about PCB (chemical code for really nasty stuff) contaminants leaching from those cute, multi-colored “permanent” plastic water bottles has made a lot of people rethink their water bottles. These same concerns have a lot of concerned mom’s looking for alternatives to the traditional poly sippy cups and baby bottles too.  New “good plastic” water bottles that supposedly do not leach toxins are making the rounds as a result, but most of these are still petroleum-based, permanent plastic none the less.  The best water bottles, in my opinion, are either stainless steel or aluminum. Built to last for years, these bottles can be made from recycled materials and then recycled themselves when they finally give out. Be careful with aluminum though - as long as the bottle has an impermeable liner you should be fine, bottles without liners can impart toxins of their own. Food grade stainless steel is one of the best materials out there for both food and liquid storage. Tough and relatively lightweight, stainless does not require a liner to be safe.

Towels, Linens and Soft Stuff – Avoid anything synthetic. Polyester, nylon, or artificial fibers not only cause problems when they are created, but they can persist in the environment for years. Focus on natural fibers like organic cotton, hemp, and the like. These materials cause minimal if any harm in their production, and they also break down easily if they ever go over the side.

Chip Clips, Towel Hooks and all the Little Stuff – Once again, avoid synthetics. Nylon or plastic galley gadgets come in all sorts of sizes, shapes and colors. All you really need to know about this junk is that it polluted the environment when it was made, and it will be here 100,000 years from now. Brass, bronze, stainless steel, and even wood are good examples of materials that can do the job well, last for ages, usually be recycled, and yet cause minimal damage to the environment. Avoid painted gear if you can, along with chrome, zinc, or other plated surfaces. All this stuff causes harm.

Anyone who has spent time on or near the water lately has almost certainly come across a plastic bag? Whether they are floating by your stern, dancing down the beach, or wrapped around a tree branch, this junk is everywhere. As if it were not enough that we have to look at this garbage dump we have created, we must also recognize that it will be here in one form or another for countless generations to come.

You see, as cheap and convenient as plastic bags are, they come with a much higher true cost to the environment. Mass produced in the industrial boom of post-World War II, every plastic bag ever created is still out there today, either in its original form, or in smaller pieces. Hailed as a “wonder” product by the marketing gurus, the only thing “wonderful” about disposable plastic is that it exposes how short sighted and selfish mankind has become.

Without getting too technical, the bottom line is that plastic bags never really go away. Created from chemicals, primarily petroleum, the modern plastic bag cannot be broken down into biodegradable compounds.  Just to name a few, all the plastic bags in use today - grocery bags, food storage bags, small and large trash bags, pet waste bags, etc…etc… will persist in the environment forever.

Plastic bags can certainly change form.  Given enough time and sunlight, plastic can “degrade” into smaller and smaller pieces, but the same amount of unnatural material still exists, just in pieces. Bury it in an oxygen free landfall and it might shrink a little, but that’s it. Burn it and plastic turns into a glob of goo, releasing most of its toxic components into the atmosphere.

The only hope that plastic bags will ever disappear lies several hundred thousand years in the future.  By then it is possible bacteria will have evolved capable of consuming this stuff and converting it back into its elemental form.  Anybody really care to wait a few thousand centuries?

Unfortunately, most bags just end up literally floating around. Cruise through any metropolitan marina and plastic is in the water. Running an Internet search on the effects of plastic on marine life will reveal facts and images that even the worst litterbug would be ashamed of.  Casualties of the plastic bag include sea birds, marine mammals, fish, and more. 

One of the greatest victims is the peaceful sea turtle. After making it through the last 100 million years or so just fine, these majestic creatures are on the fast track to extinction these days. To be fair to the plastic merchants, fishermen and egg poachers have done most of the damage to the turtles, but a plastic bag adrift at sea looks remarkably similar to a jelly fish, one of the turtle’s favorite foods. For any skeptics out there, try swallowing a few grocery bags and see how you feel.

The gruesome particulars of the damage done include intestinal blockages, suffocation, and the particularly cruel one- starvation. You see as the belly of sea creatures fill up with non-biodegradable plastic there is less and less room for real food, leading to weakness, sickness, and death.

How did we get here - to this point in our development as a species where we are willing to sacrifice one of the most noble, gentle, and harmless creatures ever created so we can stuff more junk in a sack?

So what are we to do?

It’s simple really, stop using traditional plastic.

Viable alternatives exist.

First, get some reusable shopping bags and use them at the store. Organic cotton, hemp, and other natural fabrics are your best choices, but any fabric is better than plastic.

Here is a link to some examples

http://www.greenboatstuff.com/bagscases.html 

Just avoid polyester or recycled plastic bags if you can. Sure, you can argue that the tough bags made from these synthetics are better than disposable bags, after all they are using recycled materials right? While there is some truth to this argument it doesn’t solve the problem of eliminating disposable synthetics in the first place, it only shuffles them around some.  The only way we can break the cycle is to stop using synthetics in the first place.

To quote someone with tremendous insight –

“In Nature no synthetic substance is synthesized unless there is provision for its degradation; recycling is enforced.” – Barry Commoner

If you must choose between paper or plastic in the checkout line go with paper. Many valid environmental issues surround paper production, but trees grow and paper can biodegrade. As in many green choices there is often a choice between the lesser of two evils. In my opinion paper bags do less harm.

Second, consider biodegradable, vegetable based plastic bags. Yes they do exist now.  Plan on paying more for biobags than you would regular plastic, but when you measure the true cost of both options, biobags are a bargain. Made from corn, biobags will breakdown harmlessly given some oxygen and sunshine, both readily available in any ocean, lake, or river. Available in several sizes, from small to large, and several in between.  

One thing to be wary of are the new plastic bags that advertise themselves as "degradable." There is quite a difference between biodegradable and degradable. Biodegradable bags break down into natural compounds and return their contents to the Earth. Degradable plastic simply falls apart with time, converting one big piece of eternal plastic into countless smaller pieces.

For more details follow this link

http://www.greenboatstuff.com/bitrba.html

Third, replace your sandwich bags and plastic wrap with bleach free waxed paper bags and food wrap. Renewable, recyclable, and biodegradable, waxed paper is a very green alternative.  

One more link

http://www.greenboatstuff.com/wabothcucofo.html

Once again, green alternatives to damaging products exist, work well, and are affordable too; all it takes is a little effort on all our parts to do the right thing.

The minute your boat hits the water all sorts of aquatic critters try to hitch a ride. Depending on your water conditions - fresh or salt, warm or cold, you will experience varying degrees of growth on your hull.  If not treated properly, before too long, a little green line will form at the waterline, followed by an increasing amount of slimy stuff accumulating below the waterline. In the most extreme cases the big boys – barnacles, muscles, and their friends will grab on too.

For centuries mariners dealt with this same problem, of course, but somewhere along the way, somebody came up with a solution that sounded pretty good at the time. Unfortunately for the environment, the same basic principles behind this original fix have led to a pollution problem that may never go away. After getting fed up with watching their boats devoured below the waterline, some ancient shipwright decided to apply a thin sheet of copper to his vessels hull. As pretty as it is, copper is deadly toxic to anything that tries to grow on it.

In modern times, the chemical gurus decided that what worked for the Romans would work today. Instead of sheathing entire boats in copper, however, somebody decided to mix copper into a paint that could be applied to a boat’s hull. Other nasty stuff – mostly heavy metals – were also added, making modern day anti-fouling paint.

To prolong the effectiveness of this wonder product, most formulas are designed to be “ablative”, and here is where the damage to the marine environment starts.  Ablative paints are soft.  Over time, the paint layers gradually fall off, exposing a new and more toxic layer of paint to keep the critters away.  The problem, of course, is that as the old layer of paint sinks, it carries along with it trace amounts of all the toxins it contains.

A 30 foot sailboat requires about four gallons of anti-fouling paint to adequately cover the exposed hull surface. The average effective life of this paint job is about 18-24 months. If you are using copper paint you are basically dumping four gallons of paint over the side every few years.  Add up all the boaters doing the same thing and you can start to see what we are doing to the waters we enjoy. As tempting as it may be to blame big industry for most of our water pollution problems, boaters should take a long look into the mirror as well.

There are statistics that will make your head spin about heavy metal concentrations, parts per million, etc… but the one that really hits home has to do with the resident Killer Whale populations of Puget Sound. Based on laboratory analysis of random blood samples from these majestic creatures, the toxic load in their bodies will probably make the entire group sterile, and subsequently extinct, within the next 25 years.  Now obviously, this travesty did not occur just because of boat paint. But if mankind’s efforts to go a little faster, or make their boats look neat and shiny contributed even a little bit, we should be ashamed of ourselves if we use another gallon of toxic anti-fouling paint.

Alternatives exist that are effective, safe, and comparable in cost.

One of the pioneers in the area of copper-free boat paints is a company called EPaint. In a nutshell, Epaint solves the problem of deterring marine growth on your boat with a common substance – hydrogen peroxide. When properly applied, EPaint reacts with water and oxygen to create a microscopic layer of hydrogen peroxide on the bottom of your boat. Hydrogen peroxide is toxic to life forms that might try to take hold, however, when it falls off into the water it breaks down harmlessly. You see, the chemical formula for hydrogen peroxide is H2O2. After it sloughs off your hull, H2O2 converts into good old H2O - or water –in no time. So, instead of leaving a trail of copper in your wake you get to keep your speed, keep your shine, and stop causing harm.

For more details on EPaint you can check out the company’s main web site at

Before you buy please consider going  through  greenboatstuff.com at

Another option that is gaining ground are the “slick” paints being developed. The concept here is a paint that is so slippery it is extremely difficult for any organism to grab on in the first place. Much like a Teflon pan that keep food from sticking, these “Teflon” paints are better alternatives, in our opinion, than the copper paints. The issue we have with the slick paints, however, is that the chemical compounds that make them work can still accumulate in the water, and subsequently the tissue of the plants and animals that live there. The manufacturers will argue that the slick paints are much harder than the ablatives, and therefore less likely to come off your hull in the short term. While this may be

true, all paints peel eventually. Compared to copper, however, the slick paints are a much better choice.

The greenest option, of course, is to apply no paint at all. A long, sturdy scrub brush works pretty well at dislodging most algae. Sure it’s a chore, but so is painting. At about $200 per gallon for anti-fouling paint (reapplied every few years), you can also pencil the cost of hiring a local diver to do the scrubbing for you, or just doing it yourself. If you were looking for an excuse to justify the cost of getting dive certified, here you go.

Whatever you decide when it comes to anti-fouling paint, please try to look at the big picture. As big as we might think the world is, it is still a closed system, affected either now or later by the actions we take.

Walk the docks near any fueling facility and you are guaranteed to see a deadly rainbow sheen on the water. Just a few loose drops of gas or diesel can spread across the water in no time. Turn your head away while filling your tanks and the accidental spray that heads over the side can contaminate an area many times larger than your boat's footprint. Let a few gallons loose and you can destroy an ecosystem.

For boaters who trailer their boats each time they head out, it is easy to fill up just like you do your car. After you fill up a quick wipe down of your boat's exterior will make sure you don't carry any stray fuel to the water with you.

For boaters who keep their vessel in the water most of the time there will be a lot more effort required to avoid a spill.

However, like most modern day tasks requiring the use of nasty stuff near the water, there are some simple precautions you can take to get the job done without causing any harm.

First and foremost, pay attention. More fuel spills are caused by the neglect of a busy skipper than anything else. It is imperative that you take the time to devote all your focus to fueling your boat. This is not the time to be carrying on multiple conversations or doing two things at once. You can afford to daydream when you are washing your boat, but not when you are fueling her.

If you fill up at a marina with traditional fuel pumps take a minute to do it right. Keep the hose nozzle elevated in such a way that the last guys left over fuel doesn't hit the water. Also, keep a few paper towels or a dedicated fuel rag handy as you handle the hose and insert it in your fuel tank. Being able to wipe up those few accidental drops right away is a must.

Unfortunately, many novice boaters fuel their boat on the water as if it were a car. They jam the nozzle down the fuel intake pipe and let er rip. Unlike car's however, most inboard marine engines have venting systems to allow condensation and fumes to escape the fuel tanks. If you try to fill your boat like your car you run the very real risk that these vents will overflow with fuel, right into the water. To avoid this unnecessary mess consider a few things.

One, keep track of your engine's fuel requirements. With some third grade math you should be able to figure how much fuel you use every hour your engine runs, giving you a good idea how much you will need at each fill up. Write these facts and figures down in your ship's log (yes, even small boats should have one of these) so you know when to slow and then stop your fueling.

Two, consider using spill prevention devices. Several exist and they are easy to use. One option is a No-Spill system that is a sealed catch basin you place over your exterior fuel vents to catch any overflow. These inexpensive tools are easy to use and stow easily. My only complaint about them is that you must deal with returning the overflow fuel to a proper container, not always a foolproof task. Compared to causing a spill, however, this minor inconvenience is a no-brainer.

Another nifty gizmo is called a fuel whistle. These simple devices have no moving parts and are permanently installed so you don't have to mess with them each time you fill up.  First, you locate the hose leading to your exterior fuel vents. Then you make a simple cut in the vent hose, insert the fuel whistle and clamp the hose back down. Total time to install is less than 15 minutes for even the mechanically challenged. Once in place, the fuel whistle works according to simple physics. As you fill your tanks the air inside them is pushed up the vent hose, through the fuel whistle, and out the vents. As your tanks fill, the pressure on the expelled air increases. The fuel whistle is engineered to begin making noise once the air pressure reaches a point that corresponds with a nearly full tank. When the whistle blows, shut off your fuel source and you are good to go.

These prevention devices work great for fueling in a marina, but they also help the boater who must bring fuel to their boat. For those of us unlucky enough to deal with this chore there are some simple guidelines to follow. Please don't bring the same cheap fuel container to your boat that you might use for your lawnmower. You know the ones I mean, either plastic or metal with a simple spout on the end that may or may not have a plug in it.  The moment of truth with these containers comes when you make the initial pour. All that fuel rushes down the spout and usually makes a splash. It is nearly impossible not to spill these old fashioned containers. Instead, spend a few extra bucks on the newer flow control containers out there. Usually made from a thick plastic, the flow control models let you positions the container and insert the spout before a drop of fuel comes out. Once ready, push a little gravity switch and your fuel goes where it is should and nowhere else.

For more details on fuel prevention devices please check out our retail website at

http://www.greenboatstuff.com/fuspprcluppr.html

For boaters with deep pockets or a desire to be extra precise, there are numerous electronic gauges that regulate your fuel status too. If installed properly these devices work great. Unfortunately, such gauges are often out of sight when you are bent over filling a tank, so they can be useless unless you have a partner within earshot watching them.

Regardless of how you fuel your boat, the key is to fuel your boat and nothing else. Common sense and patience are the key to doing the job the right way.

           Like most boaters who are heading out for the day or longer, now that you are stocked with groceries it is time to head to the boat. Once you reach the marina the scramble begins to get all your stuff onboard and get out on the water as soon as possible. Before you weigh yourself down with all your stuff, however, take a minute to make your life easier and the earth a little happier.

       Instead of wandering down the dock with you arms full, take a moment in the grocery store parking lot to reduce the size of your load. If you were not quite ready to proclaim your greenness to the world by taking your own shopping bags into the store, whip them out now in the parking lot while no one is looking.  Carefully remove every bit of excess packaging you can find on the stuff you just bought and tuck it away. This too takes a little practice, but before you know it you will find yourself walking the docks with a lighter burden than you are used to.

Where do I begin?

Before we get too specific let me reiterate a concept from the early days of this blog. Being green is not cheap in the traditional sense of the word. As you are confronted by the dollar cost of the gear you need to go boating please remember the true cost of what you end up buying.

In our store we sell a lot of traditional nautical equipment- brass lanterns, barometers, and clocks, stainless steel, bronze, and aluminum hardware and all sorts of similar stuff. We are often asked how such products can be considered “green.” After all, there is no such thing as organic metal. 

There is however, a significant difference between the environmental impact made by the production, distribution, use, and ultimate disposal of one high quality item compared to the impact of buying a new, cheap version of the same item every few seasons.

From a purely green perspective this is a pretty stupid question. Which boat do you think will have a greater impact on the environment, one that relies on fossil fuels to move or one that doesn’t?

SAILBOATS

It would be pretty easy to make this blog all about sailboats. They are after all, one of the greenest boats out there. In addition to the environmental benefits of sailing, there is nothing in the world like harnessing the wind. It is difficult to convey the emotion involved in making a big boat move under sail at the speed of a  brisk walk. A lot of folks just don’t get it. The idea of crossing oceans at 6 miles per hour or so is also something mystical to many, preposterous to most.
Big traditional (mono-hull) sailboats are flying if they reach speeds above 8 miles per hour. Most of the time sailors are happy to be moving at all, so bear this reality in mind if you have stars in your eyes about the sailing experience.
Sailing catamarans (vessels with two or more hulls in the water) can reach much higher speeds than mono-hull boats, but most of the big cats top out at 20 miles per hour, fast for a sailor, a snail’s pace for others.
Learning to sail can also be a bit intimidating at first. All those lines running everywhere are confusing, but only for a little while. Getting caught by a big gust with too much canvas up will be scary at first but easy to prevent with a little practice.
And remember sailboats usually tip, or heel, when they get going. In theory, the big heavy keel that hangs from a mono-hull - but not from a cat - will keep you from flipping under most conditions, or bring you back upright if your boat does go over.  Theories look good in books, living through the actual experience can be a bit more daunting. Many a tale has been told of the sailor who took his girl to sea on his new toy, only to end up sailing solo because she did not enjoy the ride.
Besides the speed issue, sailboats tend to be a little more cramped inside than do power boats of similar size. Because of their shape, the interior of most mono-hull sailboats is like a long hallway. Some people consider this part of a sailboat’s charm; others consider it claustrophobic.
 The big cats are once again the exception here. They let you sail and have a wide open living area onboard. If you plan on having plenty of company on the water a catamaran might be the answer. Many boaters find the speed and roominess of a cat is the perfect complement to its ability to sail. Compared to a power boat of equal dimensions, a cat can be a much greener vessel to operate. The incredible number of cats showing up in exotic anchorages is testament to their growing popularity. 
Pure mono-hull enthusiasts usually have less than flattering opinions of catamarans. The safety issue of not having a keel to right your boat in a capsize is a serious issue to consider, not from a green standpoint, but from a staying alive one. Having occasionally shared an anchorage with these boats, decked out with blaring big screen TVs and frat boy crews launching water balloons at each other I can appreciate the negative opinions some of the crankier traditionalists have about cat sailors.  

Most Sailboats have some auxiliary power supply, be it a small outboard hanging off the stern or a compact engine hidden away in the cabin. Either option can be run with very little impact on the environment as long as you are careful.

The biggest environmental impact power boats usually have on the water comes from their engine.

OUTBOARD ENGINES

Outboards are engines that you can see. They hang off the back of your boat with a propeller that is under water and a fuel line that runs to either a built in tank or a portable, carry-on version. You either yank on a starter chord or push a button to get them running. Engine power and cost are measured in horsepower - the more horses, the more speed you can attain and the more it will cost, both initially and in fuel used.

COMBUSTION OUTBOARDS

Old engines and cheap engines are almost always terribly inefficient. Conventional 2-stroke outboard engines can spill as much as 30% of the fuel they use directly into the water because they are engineered so that the intake and exhaust valves remain open at the same time. Look at the colorful slick spreading behind almost every loud, old outboard and you’ll see this environmental damage clearly. In practical terms, for every 10 gallons of gas you use in these monsters you will dump 3 gallons overboard. Spend a summer on the lake and you’ll add a bathtub of gas to the water. 2-strokes usually produce oily clouds of smoke along with plenty of noise pollution. You can clean, tune, and maintain these older engines all you want, but they will still cause harm. Most of them were designed in an era when draining fuel overboard was acceptable. Newer 2-strokes may be cheap to buy but their true cost to the Planet is enormous. Stay away from 2-Strokes.

Modern 4-stroke engines, on the other hand, are efficient, quiet, generally smoke free, and they do not spill fuel unless there is something wrong with them. They still require fossil fuels, of course, but if your budget dictates your choice of propulsion systems, a well maintained, carefully fueled 4-stroke is a good option to consider. They are the cleanest of the gas powered outboards available today. You’ll have trouble towing anybody behind all but the biggest 4-strokes, and even then don’t expect to pull big water skiers, but they are ideal for fishermen, dinghies, or just taking a ride.

ELECTRIC OUTBOARDS

The new generation of electric outboards are worth a look if towing and long distances at speed don’t enter into your boating needs.  Advances in battery and power train design have made some of the high end electric outboards competitive with gas engines in terms of attainable speeds and initial power output. The beefiest of the new models claim to produce thrust equivalent to a 6 horsepower combustion engine. These environmentally sound outboards won’t contaminate the water with fuel or oil, produce no emissions, and are extremely quiet. Light weight rechargeable power packs connect easily to the motor, eliminating heavy batteries and cumbersome connections. Easy to charge from a 110 volt AC outlet, the manufacturers claim these units will hold power for about two hours. At this time, high end portable electric outboards cost about the same as a new mid size 4-stroke – about $2,000.
The drawbacks inherent with electric outboards relate to how you use them. For boaters needing to pull a small sailboat in and out of a slip, zip ashore for groceries in the dinghy, or take a quick cruise a few cabins down the lake, these motors are ideal. Dawn to dusk boaters, those who spend time in remote areas that require lengthy trips ashore, folks who may need to tow other vessels, or those who need speed will probably be disappointed with today’s electric motors.
 The concept to ponder here is that the more load you put on an electric motor the more juice it will use. The last thing you want to experience as the sun is going down and the wind is picking up is a dead battery, so plan accordingly.

For those of you who are not in a hurry, or do not expect to encounter the extreme, combining a rechargeable electric outboard with a simple sail kit can give you the best of both worlds, especially if you are outfitting a dinghy.

Another neat option is to get a portable solar charger. Many of the newest solar panels can be rolled up and spread out like a towel, making them easy to stash anywhere. With one of these handy gizmos, if you do lose battery power a few hours of sunshine should be enough to get you home.

From a durability standpoint, the jury is still out on most of the electric outboards. Their manufacturers make all sorts of great claims, but the unfortunate fact is most of these motors are essentially plastic. More on the nastiness of plastic later, but for now be aware that electric outboards are no where near as tough as a lightweight, metal-clad 4 stroke.

One of the best features of an inboard from