Fuel costs

[tonyh1]

I last owned a boat in the early 1990's and as it was a single engined sports boat, for which I paid for the petrol in pesetas - I never really paid any attention to the cost of fuel.

Now looking again for something practical as both a weekend live aboard and a usable boat I am quite horrified at the potential running costs of sports twins amounting to £100 an hour in direct fuel costs.... Or am I missing something? Excuse my niaivity but I am presuming that Marina pumped diesel is no different in price to road diesel?

My initial thoughts of a single engined Antares 9 looked OK on economy but we (the wife) was completely underwhelmed with the accommodation and so we started to look at twin engined diesels in the 35 foot range to get a bit more space but then I started to look at fuel consumptions of 50-70 litres an hour! That seems absolutely colossal fuel consumption to me? In my other hobby (flying), modern Rotax engines burning 2 gallons per hour are fast replacing the old Continental and Lycomings that burn 7 and 8 gallons per hour. It doesn't seem like economy plays a part in modern marine engines.

I am really at a loss now as to the way forward and have started to look at older trawler yachts to get space and economy in place of performance.

Can I ask what others think of direct fuel costs and how, if at all, those costs can be mitigated? Do I just accept that 50 hours a year is going to cost £5,000 and add it to the mooring fees of about £4,000, insurance, anti fouling and sundries of another £2,000 and accept that £1,000 a month is what it is going to cost us for a decent boat?

Thanks

 

[westernman]

Modern marine diesels are pretty fuel efficient. To a first approximation the fuel consumption is directly proportional to the horsepower you use.

You can move a 20 ton 50 ft boat burning just 4 litres per hour.
.
.
.
at 6 knots.

But I am guessing that 6 knots is not your thing.

 

[rustybarge]

1 1/2 ton 7mtr Cat with 90hp will cruise at 18kts 3 gal .hr.....
37' trimaran will cruise at 11 kts on 1 1/2 gals.hr......

It's a Multihull, or use your boat as a floating caravan.

 

[Nigelpickin]

Hi Tony
You will probably end up paying around £1.10 per litre at your marina right now so you are a little out on your £per hour...although a 35' twin engine spec gives a very wide range of possibilities in terms of litres per hour/per knot....
I had a 36' American sports cruiser with twin 350 mags that ran at around 65 litres per hour at 20 knots.
My 40' twin cummins boat ran at around 90 litres per hour

But I would be surprised if you find that you are running for more than half your engine hours on the plane, so that will probably lower your costs per hour...

Your monthly costings are probably not far off, (albeit with no contingency budget for unforseens), and you have not factored depreciation which could well dwarf the other expenses that you have mentioned.

Buy the boat, live on board, rent your house out to cover the fuel cost..you know it makes sense

 

[Piers]

and a Fleming 55 at 7kts will burn return 1.89nm to the gallon. Fuel in Guernsey a month ago was 61p/ltr....

 

[rafiki_]

I last owned a boat in the early 1990's and as it was a single engined sports boat, for which I paid for the petrol in pesetas - I never really paid any attention to the cost of fuel.

Now looking again for something practical as both a weekend live aboard and a usable boat I am quite horrified at the potential running costs of sports twins amounting to £100 an hour in direct fuel costs.... Or am I missing something? Excuse my niaivity but I am presuming that Marina pumped diesel is no different in price to road diesel?

My initial thoughts of a single engined Antares 9 looked OK on economy but we (the wife) was completely underwhelmed with the accommodation and so we started to look at twin engined diesels in the 35 foot range to get a bit more space but then I started to look at fuel consumptions of 50-70 litres an hour! That seems absolutely colossal fuel consumption to me? In my other hobby (flying), modern Rotax engines burning 2 gallons per hour are fast replacing the old Continental and Lycomings that burn 7 and 8 gallons per hour. It doesn't seem like economy plays a part in modern marine engines.

I am really at a loss now as to the way forward and have started to look at older trawler yachts to get space and economy in place of performance.

Can I ask what others think of direct fuel costs and how, if at all, those costs can be mitigated? Do I just accept that 50 hours a year is going to cost £5,000 and add it to the mooring fees of about £4,000, insurance, anti fouling and sundries of another £2,000 and accept that £1,000 a month is what it is going to cost us for a decent boat?

Thanks

My previous boat was a Sunline 31, great accom for 2 people, fitted with 2 1.7litre Merc/Isuzu diesels. This cruises happily at 20- 22kn consuming 6gals per hour, and is about as economical as a sports boat like this gets.

 

[gjgm]

You have to pay full tax on diesel used for propulsion, but not on non-propulsion...heating,cooking,whatever. HMRC has indicated that it accepts a 60/40 split as an average across all boats. When you buy diesel, you sign a declaration what you you anticipate your fuel split will be ie 60/40. Most people will use this, so atypical price is about £1.10 a litre.

I would think a twin engined 35ft will use at about 75lph for average use.. that is underway, not drifting up a river
£10k a year isnt a bad costings guess for 35ft boat, thought dont worry about it, the depreciation will probably be even worse !!

 

[Whopper]

I think I remember a tread where people posted their diesel usage/pice together with the proportion of their overall annual cost spent on fuel. Could be worth searching for that.

 

[Andy Bav]

Hi Tony


But I would be surprised if you find that you are running for more than half your engine hours on the plane, so that will probably lower your costs per hour...

Agree with Nigel. Just looked at our costs, We took over our boat (twin D4 260's) in late July, have notched up 85 engine hours and spent roughly £1,600 on fuel, which confirmed what a few salesmen said in that the LPH guide assumes you go everywhere at full chat which we didnt. So to make it easy @£1.00 per litre we came in at roughly £20 per hour ....