Fuel Consumption On The River

landlockedpirate

landlockedpirate

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I'm looking for a little help. I am intending to bring my small cuddy down for a 5 day trip on the river, but I have no idea what kind of fuel consumption I will get, I realise there's very little petrol on the Thames and I dont want to run out.

So if any one knows the fuel consumption (Gallons per hour) for a 4.3 litre V6 petrol running at about 1000-1200rpm (About 5mph) it would help me out a lot.

Thanks
 
landlockedpirate said:
I'm looking for a little help. I am intending to bring my small cuddy down for a 5 day trip on the river, but I have no idea what kind of fuel consumption I will get, I realise there's very little petrol on the Thames and I dont want to run out.

So if any one knows the fuel consumption (Gallons per hour) for a 4.3 litre V6 petrol running at about 1000-1200rpm (About 5mph) it would help me out a lot.

Thanks
Click to expand...

I'm not very good at this sort of thing but if I am waay off I'm sure someone here will take great pleasure in correcting me. I guesstimate you will be using about 1 gallon every 3 hours.
 
You can get Petrol at Penton Hook & Bray Marinas. It may also be available at other marinas. Perhaps other forumites could confirm?
 
Ramage said:
You can get Petrol at Penton Hook & Bray Marinas. It may also be available at other marinas. Perhaps other forumites could confirm?
Click to expand...

That's where I used to get it. Henley too. GeoffS did this trip last year and should have an accurate view of consumption. Our Freeman with a 1600cc Ford Cortina... sorry, Watermota Seatiger... engine averaged 3 litres per hour.
 
Sainsburys at Staines and Tesco service station near the Kennet & Avon are short walks. You can also stock up on beers as they tend to go down faster than the fuel.
 
Henley now by appt only at Hobbs then going upstream there is T & K then Betterboating alittle further - all down stream of Reading. Don't know any further.
 
Fuel Consumption.

I got some approximate fuel tables for my boat from www.boattest.com.

These are for a 26 ft Maxum sports cruiser with a 320 HP MerCruiser.

RPM Kts US GPH Litres/Hr
650 3.0 1.1 4.2
1000 5.3 1.6 6.1
1500 6.2 2.4 9.1
4000 25 14 54

These figures should have a safe margin if you boat has a smaller engine.

Regards

ps. sorry cannot seem to unjumble the numbers !
 
I don't think Better Boating sells petrol; he's only got one pump.
Could be wrong.

Anyway the Caravan People are just around the corner...

Then I'm fairly certain there's nowt until Abingdon, where there's a good outboard shop who sells diesel and Petrol - but the latter's £1.30 per litre (ouch).
He's just by the starboard hand shallows buoy.

The day hire place (?name), just a bit upstream on port side does fuel - good chandlery - but can't remember if both varieties.

Then there's no fuel at all right to the top of the navigable bit and beyond
Invest in a fishing trolley and a couple of Jerry-cans.
 
Thanks for all the help, I didnt realise you could still get petrol at all. We should be OK with the standard 30 gallon tank and topping up at a couple of the places mentioned. All I need now is a little sunshine.

Thanks to everyone.
 
Would sugest around a gallon an hour as well, we run a 5.7 V8 in a 24` and that is around 1 GPH, when we had the smaller boat with the 3.0l that was also doing around the same. There are a suprising amount of places to get fuel , some others are at Hampton court Bridge and also Maidenhead Bridge. Both are only a couple of minutes walk. Maidenhead is probably easier than Tesco at Reading, its always full of houseboats at Reading and finding a mooring is hard.
 
Re: Byron,

Not wishing to raise hackles or further verbal attacks on the travelling community. The aforementioned collection of liveaboards keep themselves to themselves at the rear of the Reading mooring, in the trees where cruising folk would prefer not to moor.

To my mind the culprits are those who have some gainful employment (the boats are unoccupied in the day) and leave their craft in the middle of the lay by effectively blocking much of the length.

Again, the advantage of Reading is that the Tesco petrol station is a breeze if you have a fishing trolley with decent size pneumatic wheels. I carry quite weighty loads (over wet grass as well) on mine. It all depends how desperate you are to fill up.
 
I used to run a similar size petrol engine and it worked out at 5mpg or 1gph , fuel consumption is very constant on the river so you can plan your journey very accurately in 5 mile sections. A 30 gallon tank should give you enough range to cover the entire length of the Thames! but you need to stick to the speed limit.
 
Hi Mark, trust the Fletcher is going well and you're pleased with it.

Never took my Fletcher on the Thames, but as Gavi reminds me, I did take my Larson from Poole round into the estury and up as far as Oxford. On the non tidal river I averaged 10 mpg, which is about 0.5 gph at 8kph (5mpg).

Engine had to run at 800 rpm to keep to speed limit (approx!!). Consensus seems that you should use about 1 gph, I'd have thought you might use a bit less.

Plenty of petrol on the river, you should have at least 100 miles range. Don't know how far up you are planning to go, but there is Petrol at Abingdon, that's all I can recall above Reading.
 
The fletchers going great, managed to cover quite a bit of the Uk since we picked it up but this will be our 1st visit to the Thames.

Thanks again for everyones help, based on 1gph and a 30 gallon tank I think we should be fine for a long weekend. I will be flying the burgee and keeping an eye out for others.

Thanks again.
 
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