This week’s Roastee had to be Auckland Mayor Phil Goff with his announcement of his intention to purchase a battery-powered tug boat. Apart from the fact that the tug needs to be recharged every four hours, there were plenty of other farcical points to be dissected by BFD readers.
Boondecker served the gravy, commenting that
you can almost guarantee now they’ll be running it on the diesel pretty much all the time or (more likely) back asking the government of the day for a replacement vessel within 5 years.
Philip the Skeptic joked, as he turned the roast potatoes, that
If we destroy the New Zealand economy we can reduce the amount of shipping by 50% and therefore double the battery life.
Saggy poked the roast to see if it was done, asking
Will they have charging stations on the channel markers?
bilgewater sliced the meat when he pointed out Phil Goff’s faulty maths. Goff had claimed the extra upfront cost of $9 million didn’t matter because over the life of the vessel they would save about $2.5 million, due to the lower cost of operating it.
the diesel tug uses 200k l/year. Their cost would be $200,000. So it would take 45 years worth of fuel to pay for the extra 9 million. Government maths again.
The skin was crisp and the pumpkin and kumara were ready to serve when Caustic Monkey summed the entire farce up with this comment.
They need two Diesel engines so that one can run the boat while the other charges the battery. Sort of like a vegan who secretly eats bacon.