The New York herald., 1922-03-24
ALCYONE DOES WELL
WITH NEW ENGINE.
Electric Motor Gives Higher
Speed to Yacht Than Old
Steam Engine.
ny ARTHUR r. ALDRIDGE.

Alcyone. an auxiliary yacht 16S feet
the New York Yacht Club, which mas
recently been fitted with Diesel engines
and electric drive as auxiliary power,
was tried yesterday. The trial was
successful in every way and gave great
satisfaction to- the engineers who have
done the work and was intensely inter-
esting to many engineers who repre-
sented the United States Shipping
Board, the Department of Plant and
Structures, New York, and several of
the large electric companies, the In
tcrnational Merchant Marine and other
large contracting companies. This ves-
sci is the second yacht to be so equipped,
the first being Edgar Palmers Guine-
we're. and with the exception of some
battleships there are very few vessels
that have had the electric drive in
stalled
Naval architects and engineers are
confronted with many hard problems
just now. Economy in fuel consump-
tion is one OF these, and the so called
electric drive Is expected to do much
to solve that problem.
! The Alcyone was built in 1907 from
designs by Tams, Lemoine & Crane. She
| is rugged as n three masted schooner.
length, f40 feet length on the water
line, 80 feet breadth and Is feet draft
She was fitted originally with triple
! expansion steam engine as auxiiia,y y
power, steam being generated in .wo
! Almy boilers. This steam engine ana
| the boilers have been removed. and In
their place two Winton heavy oil en-
| gines of the Diesel type, each OF 20
| broke horsepower, have been Installed.
with two winton generating sets ana
an air compressor. The electric motor
and installation is by the Westing-
| house Electric Company. Fuel tanks
have been built In the yachts bottom.
and carry fuel sufficient for cruise OF
/ about 5000 miles under power alone.
| The designs for the new work We're
| done by Tams & King, successors 70
| the original designers Of the yacht, anu
| that firm superintended the work as II
was done at the Tebo plant OF the Ioiu
| Shipyards Corporation.
The dock trials were made on tues
| day and shortly before il O'CLOCK yes
terday morning the yachts moorn,ss
were cast Off and she proceeded under
mower ont to sea. She started off easily.
| her engines turning the propeller apout
,20 revolutions a minute. They ran very
quietly and without any vibrations. AS
1 sbe nroceeded down the bay the engines
were opened up until they turned ~
revolutions a minute and still there was
M vibration and no noise. The yacht
went out to sea, turned the Ambrose
Channel and Scotland Light vessels anu
then went back TO Tebos, where sne
was docked about 4 O'Clock. Inc yacht
has the same propeller she used when
har steam plant was used. and under
that mower its maximum speed was los
revolutions a minute. The new power
,,,rned the propeller faster and gave the
Yacht more speed.
Among those on board wero j. Fred
eric Tams. New York Yacht CLUB
Charles King, New York Yacht Clup
II. r. Taylor. United States Shipplng
Board Charles I. Perry. Department
OF Plant and Structures; J. w. Culpep-
per Of Gibbs Brothers, engineers recon
dtioning the steamship Lcviathan. rep
reSantine also the international Mercan-
tile Maripe y. r. sibley..J. J. Brown
and III. w. Colman. engineers represent
Ing the westinghouse Electric Company
T. s. Cordes, representing the General
Electric Company L. r. Ford, repre-
senting the Worthington Pump Com
pany: Peter Schilling of the krupp Mo-
tor Works A. i. Raymond, naval arcni-
tect. George w Coddrington and A. @.
Griese OF the Winton Engine Company
George Colley, Capt. ]. O. Walton, naval
engineer of the United States Coast
Guard r. l.. Fayer. w. J. Deed. Capt.
w. B. Porter of the steam yacht Cor
sair, Capt. c, w. Scott of the steam
yacht Aphrodite. both OF whom served
for two years in the war zone on their
yachts Capt. ID. a. Kerr of the Alcyone.
who was a guest. as 1t was builders
trial, and Capts. w. IT. Smith and
George Lewis, who had charges OF the
vessel
On the way nome the engines were
tested for reversing and It took just
sventeen seconds to turn from full speed
ahead to full speed astern, and this was
done without any straining or jarring.
The vessel handled beautifully.