A couple years back knox county gave huge $$$$ incentives to Sea Ray to move big dollar jobs to downtown... it is my understanding that these jobs have already gone back to Chicago... but has Sea Ray given back the tax payer money???

Joe, that's Brunswick Boats that's downtown (KUB building IIRC), not Sea Ray.

It all goes into and out of the same bucket...

Aren't they the same?

The noise you hear is the chamber partnership scrambling for the proverbial life vests and a press release. "All is well"

It's almost like you could make a bundle shorting local stocks when you see a bunch of faxed-in PR fluff pieces showing up in the Business section just before quarterly reports are due...

I think it is "Brunswick Boat Group" which does include SeaRay.

It is wrong how these folks court leadership for good news today and subsequent votes today then screw the future.

Can a County sue an Incorporation?

Trying to not make matters worse.

Catfish is wrong. From Brunswick's web site, Sea Ray is a division.

"as a result of a continued “soft” market, the Knoxville-based company said today."

I'm reading this as good news. Not in the short run for the 90 people of course, but for the Tennessee river, the air and the world's petroleum reserves. These are the worst sort of gas-guzzling, wake throwing, bank eroding boats and I'm glad to see that $3+ gas is actually having an impact on recreational use of fossil fuels.

Me too, Hayduke. And boat owners think they have entitlement to a daily driver that's an obscene, guzzling carbon factory SUV or pickup because they have the "need" to tow their friggin' boats.

Two generations ago people didn't know better and it was much harder to negatively impact the overall environment, and the boats were much less offensive too. I knew several families who were boaters. They either never towed their boats (keeping them at the lake) or just used their cars to tow. These days, the elevated testosterone levels from eating too much hormone-laced meat has stopped people from using mere cars.

I think a lot of people don't realize what environmental horrors these things are. Sea Ray makes more than 40 models ranging from 17 to 68 feet." Here's some bragging on the great fuel economy of a 34 foot Sea Ray Sundancer:

"Fuel consumption at cruise is in the low 30-gph [gallons per hour!] range - comparing favorably to similarly sized vessels. . . Diesel engine boats should be closer to 1 mpg, or burning about 6-8 gph less than the 6.2L Mercruisers. "

The article goes on to say that it's probably not worth bumping your gas mileage up to 1mpg because the diesel's cost so much. Larger models (and there are plenty of 40+ footers on the Tennessee River) will get much much worse. I think it comes out to 75 gph or so on a 44 footer.

I guess it's a Sea Ray owner's patriotic duty to make sure our soldiers dying in oil wars have not sacrificed their lives in vain.

"I guess it's a Sea Ray owner's patriotic duty to make sure our soldiers dying in oil wars have not sacrificed their lives in vain."

That's why I now prefer sailing!

Adrift in the Sea of Humility

I hate to confess, however I worked for Sea Ray Boats for over 20 years, building 28' to 35' cabin cruisers.I finally got the courage to break free of the fact that I was simply building pyramids for the pharoes. I helped build a product for a good portion of my life that I would not have been able to afford, at the average Sea Ray salery, to buy the gas and pay dock fee on the product that I helped build all those years if the company gave one of them to me. Except for the workers who will be displaced by layoffs, I am comforted that the public is beginning to see how harmful these boats are to the environment and how gluttonous and arrogant most of the owners of these vessels are. I am certain that a majority of the current Sea Ray employees who will be displaced by layoffs, cutbacks as well as possible plant closings, will find gainful employment elsewhere. We all were of course looking for a job when we accepted employment in the boating industry.

How many round trips to the grocery store could most of us make on the fuel used for one weekend invasion by the Vol Navy?

Wearybottom Associates

I don't know about all the rest of it, but a 28' Sea Ray Sundancer is a thing of beauty -- a work of art that I used to lust after but I got over it.

Everybody knows the two happiest days in a man's life, right? The day he buys a boat and the day he sells it.

So now I'm confused. I've heard that barge travel is far more efficient than even railroads. This point was reinforced by the canal tour in Georgetown where a whole boatload of tourists was tugged by a single mule.

So what's this GPH? I was hoping it would be the other way around.

____________________________________
Less is the new More - Karrie Jacobs

A boat is very efficient until it approaches hull speed (the square root of the length of the waterline in feet * 1.34 gives hull speed in knots). Any faster and it has to climb up on top of the bow wake and that takes power.

After gaining enough speed to climb the wall of water pushed in front of the boat, the hull gets to a secondary range of efficiency called "planing." This isn't nearly as efficient as the slower "displacement speed," but it's a whole lot better than the guzzling stage where the boat is essentially going up hill.

Unfortunately, most of the morons driving fat heavy express cruisers like the Sea Rays don't seem to be aware of any of this, which is why you see them cruising around with the bow pointed skyward using even more fuel to throw up an enormous wake. The worst is when they hit a no wake zone and slow down just enough to make the biggest possible wake instead of all the way down to displacement speed.

There are other factors and a boat made to plane won't be nearly as efficient at hull speed as a sailboat or freighter that's designed for it. It's mostly due to vortexes created by the abruptly chopped off stern. If you ever try to row a boat with an outboard, note the twin whirlpools coming off the back. Boats made for rowing move very efficiently with a little effort.

Sorry, TMI.

It's a lot of information, and a lot more than I can grasp. Who knew there was such a science to boat efficiency?

(the square root of the length of the waterline in feet * 1.34 gives hull speed in knots).

So a bigger boat can go faster more efficiently. Kind of the opposite of cars. Hmmm. And a pontoon boat is more efficient than a single hull? Seems counterintuitive. I would think the waterline would be where you have the most resistance.

the hull gets to a secondary range of efficiency called "planing."

This is probably something you determine by the feel of the engine? I would imagine the formula to be a mile long if it took into account the shape of the boat, weight, etc.

____________________________________
Less is the new More - Karrie Jacobs

To see Sea Ray change to producing electric boats? Clean, quiet and they wouldn't even have to change their name much! Check out the pontoon model powered by solar.

Ray Electric Outboards

Sweet! Looks like the, er. . . wave of the future now that a solar powered boat has crossed the Atlantic.

I ran into these guys on their visit to Knoxville last week and while the current boat is solar powered only for battery charging their dream/next boat is this solar hybrid yacht. Six knots, no fuel.

I finally found the odd sized solar panel I needed on eBay yesterday, so I'm about to be off the grid as well.

I was going for a photovoltaic version. I think Leif Erikson kicked your guy's ass.

"I think Leif Erikson kicked your guy's ass."

Well at least my guy was able to inadvertently bring death and destruction, through war and disease, to the deciduous people of North, South and Central America. Plundering their gold, taking their land, while also promoting the love of Christianity. All your wimpy guy did was to co-exist with the natives leaving little evidence that he was even here.

PS: Seems we haven't changed much in 500 years.

Double PS: My apologies to the group for being off topic.

Triple PS: Hayduke started it!

Adrift in the Sea of Humility