1st boat. Is petrol really an expensive option?

[CaptainRon]

My boss was very kind to take me out on his boat for a weekend a couple of months ago, and since then I've been thinking of nothing else but buying my 1st boat.

I've found these forums very useful for info so far but seem to be going in circles on deciding between petrol or diesel.

I'm after something around the 23 foot size which will sleep 4 and be used mainly around the solent. My budget of around £20,000 seems to be pointing me in the petrol direction, something along the lines of a Bayliner 2355. However I've spoken to a couple of diesel boat owners (including my boss) who have advised me against petrol, suggesting it to be too unsafe and very costly.

I feel the safety issues I've read and heard about can be dealt with by common sense, but there's no denying that petrol is very expensive.

I would be interested to hear from people who have a boat of about 23 foot how much fuel they use on an average day out?

Thanks

 

[BrendanS]

Petrol is not at all unsafe if usual precautions taken. Most of the USA market is petrol, so if they haven't banned it, given their litigious culture, it can't be all that bad.

Fuel economy depends on the size of the engine and hull, but you can expect 1 to 2 litre per mile typically at that size. If you let us know which boat and what engine, then we can give far more accurate estimate

Around the Solent? Average use? depend if you just want to potter around and do a few miles a weekend. 20 miles of pottering and zooming can take you quite a few places in near proximity. If you want to go outside the Solent, and your mileage goes up to 100 miles per weekend, then a bit different.

If you equate cost per mile to price per litre, then you can get a good guesstimate

 

[mjkinch1]

As lots of people will also mention - Petrol is less readily available than Deisel in many places, and after a while of carting big plastic containers around, your thoughts turn to that lone deisel pump over in the corner.

Try to make sure your cruising ground gives you good access to Petrol pumps!

 

[Talbot]

Welcome to the forums. Good first post!
A petrol boat will not only be more expensive to run, but will also have a much smaller range than an equivalent diesel boat.

 

[DAVIDO]

My last boat was a 2651 bayliner with a 260hp mercruiser petrol. It would eat up to £45/hour,my current boat a 328 sealine has 2 x ad41 200hp diesels and uses less than half that.
The smaller petrol boats are a relatively cheap way of testing the water but if you get into it in a big way youll soon be hankering after a diesel.
Regards

 

[itsonlymoney]

Hello and welcome.
As Brendan says it really depends on the intended usage. Petrol is more expensive but the extra innitial purchase of a diesel option could far outweigh the fuel saving, unless of course you intend to do long passages. Dont spose its worth asking you what your intended use will be cos with respect you wont know untill you buy a boat and get on the water. Some people like to do lots of miles while others enjoy pottering about. As few people will keep here first boat for long (cos its normally the wrong one or not big enough or they dont take to it etc etc etc) my advise would be to buy an affordable boat and get some experience for a season, you will then be in a better position to buy a boat that best suits your requirements.
Ian

 

[duncan]

welcome Ron

it all depends on where you are going to keep it -

1. availability of petrol and/or
2. lots of nice places to visit / stay within 5 - 20 miles or so

running a boat of the sort you are looking at out of an estuary or similar; Solent, Poole, Plymouth, Falmouth are examples - will make a lot of financial sense when considering purchase and running costs combined.

I would echo Brendan's comments wholeheartedly.

 

[spannerman]

MBY did a test on buying two identical boats , one diesel and one petrol, and allowing for initial purchase price, depreciation, and resale value, and servicing costs/fuel costs, they worked out that up to approx 100 hrs usage p.a. petrol was cheaper, over that and diesel makes more economic sense, interestingly a Norwegian mag did the same test some years ago and came to the exact same conclusion. But at the end of the day it depends on where you are based, and what you plan to do with the boat, I ran a Bayliner 2655 for 8 yrs with a 230hp motor and averaged 50-60 hrs p.a. but what limited me was the economic range of the boat for a £100 for a weekend at 28kts cruising speed I only got to see the same old places each trip as I didn't want to blow any more on fuel in a weekend and I live in one of Europes largest cruising areas with hundreds of destinations!
I now run a 27 foot Rib with a 320 hp diesel and cruising speed of 48knts and now I get to see places further away for less money so its opened up a whole new area to visit.
So as always you pays your money and takes your pick.

 

[DAKA]

There have been some excellent replies and only wish to add you must try to forget the cost per trip or you would never cast off in diesel or petrol.

You need to look at the cost per year and although it is true a petrol boat will cost more per hour to run at 30 knts than most of us can earn, at the end of the year there are not that many miles completed at 30 knts.

There are not that many weekends when you manage to get out and even then most is at 6/7 knots through the harbour.

A 23 foot Petrol Bayliner is an excellent starter boat for your chosen sea area and has the benefit of been able to be trailed by road.

 

[BOATKID]

hi captainron

seems people have forgot to mention that it looks like the price of red diesel is going to match the price of road diesel soon

I would go with bayliner if it is not too old

 

[itsonlymoney]

Thats a very good point............

 

[ari]

The other thing no one's mentioned is that a petrol boat will perform so much better than a diesel.

Faster, smoother, quieter, less smoke, no soot on the back of the boat, more responsive, less vibration.

I personally think that in a sports cruiser up to about 25ft petrol is the preferred option unless you're really looking to do a lot of long distance cruising.

Simply a nicer boat with a V6 or V8 petrol rather than a clanky 4 cyl turbo diesel.

 

[Dave_Snelson]

My T-Shirt says:

If a man speaks at sea where no woman can here, is he still wrong? Anyway, its all existentialist philosophy to me /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

I agree with you boat hypothesis BTW. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[duncan]

[ QUOTE ]
I personally think that in a sports cruiser up to about 25ft petrol is the preferred option unless you're really looking to do a lot of long distance cruising.


[/ QUOTE ]

going to disagree based on GC1 last boat - well last last and almost last. Identical boat fitted with 5.7 Volvo and it's duo leg on the one hand and D4 260 and it's duo leg on the other. Both nominally 260hp. Everyone that tried both agreed that the latter won on every single basis except purchase price.

Personally the petrol boat, even with tabs fitted, couldn't be set up to hold 10-15 knots with any combination of leg, tab throttle whatever - and for a 25ft hull this can be an important speed range when conditions become a little adverse.

I would endorse your view based on my Yanmar in a 25 but these new engines deliver. On the downside they are more complex but they deliver.

 

[Overdraught]

Hi,

I went through the same dilemma only a year ago. The only diesels I could afford were old 150hp jobs and on trialling these I found them very poor. With 4 adults, they were barely getting on the plane, smoky and smelly with it. We ended with a 5.0 litre petrol V8 which goes well but uses a ton of fuel. We're based on Poole and if we go from Poole harbour to IOW and back, its about £80 in petrol. A lot of cash for sure, but I think worth it as we have a much nicer boat than had we opted for diesel.

Had I had the budget for a later model, such as those mentioned on this post, then I would have had a diesel without question but I didn't want to be annoyed at the lower powered diesel, even if running costs were a fraction.

I budget for very expensive petrol, so its not a surprise. Pay your standing charges, berthing/insurance/servicing etc, then consider fuel as your weekend spending...£80 plus about £20 to park somewhere isn't that bad really (cost of very average hotel for a night).

If we stay around Poole, motor through harbour out to the beach then about £20 does it.

Ours is a 26' boat so carrying reasonable amount extra weight compared to 23 footer. Check out a SeaRay 240. Friend of mine got a '96 with new engine for £19000 recently. Good quality boat.

To save some money, I fill 2 jerry cans on the way to the boat and syphon them in. So 40 litres makes only a small dent in a 325 litre tank but each 40 litres bought from garage rather than on the water saves about a tenner!

Good luck!!

 

[oldgit]

You may find that it is almost impossible to locate a 23ft boat fitted with a diesel with the sort of accomodation you require.My old 25 ft Princess 25 had a V6 petrol engine fitted and with care 20 litres an hour could be had but if you opened the throttle fuel would disappear at around 50 litres a hour.
When buying your boat by all means suck your teeth knowlegeably over the quality of the cushions and tut tut over condition of carpet and by all means carefully point out assorted scratches on hull BUT the mechanicals are what really really count.
One way or another you need to make sure the engine and leg are in good working condition,a boat in regular use with a fist full of maintaince bills could be a better buy than something that has sat around for a couple of years.
Most folks started with petrol and stuck with it through a few boat changes before finally accepting the inevitable and buying some sort of clanky old oil burner.

 

[big_si]

i did a week long trip on my boat a couple of weeks ago, when waiting for the Eastbourne lock to fill i got chatting to a couple of chaps.

They had i think a 26ft Rinker and although my boat is only 22ft the differences were stark.

They had said to get to Gosport it would cost them about £100 in petrol, i had used about £25 in diesel to get from Gosport to Eastbourne.

So what if the price rises, it will still be cheaper to run a diesel boat.

For us the running costs were a bigger factor than the purchase price.

 

[Geoffs]

I've been running a petrol boat for 8 years, and hpoe to switch to diesel soon, even knowing the price is almost certain to rise.

I don't reckon safety is much of an issue, it is in theory, but in reality a well maintained petrol installation is safe.

The main issue I have is convenience. Waterside petrol is about 30p a litre dearer than that at the road side. I can easily get through 100 litres in a weekend, so that 30p is significant.

That means I hump jerry cans around, as do most other petrol boat owner I know. A real pain in the aft end. Then if going very far may need to fill up at the water side at up to £1.20 /litre. Then again if going to somewhere like Weymouth, there is no petrol, so have to walk for about 10 mins to filling station carrying as many cans as poss.

Then there is range, most petrol boats have limited range, I'm lucky to get 100 miles, but it is only small.

I'm looking foreward to going diesel.

 

[ari]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I personally think that in a sports cruiser up to about 25ft petrol is the preferred option unless you're really looking to do a lot of long distance cruising.


[/ QUOTE ]

going to disagree based on GC1 last boat - well last last and almost last. Identical boat fitted with 5.7 Volvo and it's duo leg on the one hand and D4 260 and it's duo leg on the other. Both nominally 260hp. Everyone that tried both agreed that the latter won on every single basis except purchase price.

Personally the petrol boat, even with tabs fitted, couldn't be set up to hold 10-15 knots with any combination of leg, tab throttle whatever - and for a 25ft hull this can be an important speed range when conditions become a little adverse.

I would endorse your view based on my Yanmar in a 25 but these new engines deliver. On the downside they are more complex but they deliver.

[/ QUOTE ]

Fair comments, but if you look at the original post he's talking about a £20K boat, not a brand new latest all singing all dancing diesel boat.

He's going to get a much bettter petrol boat than anything he could buy with a diesel at that kind of age/budget.

 

[landlockedpirate]

Petrol will be more expensive to run than diesel.

But based on personal experience wifey was less than happy with all the diesel boats on offer under £20k. We bought a nice petrol bayliner and had great fun for a couple of years.

Getting petrol is'nt a problem as long as you plan ahead. I bought a folding alloy trolley and 3 jerry cans and just kept topping the boat up. (We even cruised the west coast of Scotland where petrol is very rare !)

Yes diesel would be nice but with a 20K budget a petrol sub 25ft sports cruiser is the way to go.