Fuel for a day out

I did once witness BartW top up his tanks...........5,000 litres of blue (or should that be "bleu"?) from a tanker. Since then, he has added extra tankage!
 
paul salliss said:
Well, all I can say is that the sun was shining the other day so we thought we would return the boat back to her home in Portsmouth. So we set off from Essex and hit economy mode. In short the Mrs and I went from the Crouch to Portsmouth in j 6 hours and 45 mins and we were at a constant 25 Knts. Fuel bill was about £350 quid not that I care a hoot, not because I am flippant but in a week when kids have been blown up the fact that I can go boating means that to be worrying over a bit of fuel is a load of bollox. ( spelt wrong on purpose so it gets through ). Happy boating to everyone this weekend and a cheery wave from us as we may "fly past" literally tomorrow at around 40 Knts. ��
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So when not yawning your willy waving!
 
paul salliss said:
Well, all I can say is that the sun was shining the other day so we thought we would return the boat back to her home in Portsmouth. So we set off from Essex and hit economy mode. In short the Mrs and I went from the Crouch to Portsmouth in j 6 hours and 45 mins and we were at a constant 25 Knts. Fuel bill was about £350 quid not that I care a hoot, not because I am flippant but in a week when kids have been blown up the fact that I can go boating means that to be worrying over a bit of fuel is a load of bollox. ( spelt wrong on purpose so it gets through ). Happy boating to everyone this weekend and a cheery wave from us as we may "fly past" literally tomorrow at around 40 Knts. ��
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Thanks for that, those big motors are surprisingly economical. As to your other sentiments, yes we have lots to be grateful for. Good boating
 
Bouba said:
Thanks for that, those big motors are surprisingly economical. As to your other sentiments, yes we have lots to be grateful for. Good boating
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Forgot to say I forgot that I did top up in Ramsgate, so that £350 did not include the section from Essex to Ramsgate so make that £450 in total. All in all that's economical for a constant 25 Knts over that distance. When we shot around Selsey Bill I was surprised how short the journey was although it did match up within 5 mins of accuracy to my passage plan
 
Well said Snaxmuppet
To me and many others, fuel economy is a big deal. It's surely an attractive feature of a boat, if possible.
If you use your boat as much as I do, it's a huge deal.
 
over seven years of ownership fuel consumption was as follows (not much to do in the winter evenings. :)
Approx 1000 hours.
slow creeps 5 knots. 10 litres per hour,
average cruise. 8-10 knots 20 litres
For gawds sake lets get out of here worse ever 37 litres
2 x 130 HP shaft drive 6 pot diesels.

For distance tidal work litres/gallons per mile is about as useful as chocolate teapot, its the number of hours to do the journey that matters.
Lets say you want to do a 10 miles trip and you boat consumes 1 litre per mile.
With a 2 knot tide your engine will only use 8 litres of fuel to cover the distance, you will arrive calm and collected (provided your outdrives have not let you down) with 2 litres of unused fuel
Do the journey again against the tide and you will be calling the lifeboat two miles short of your destination
It obviously only really becomes important on journies several times longer than the example above and can be totally ignored in the La La land of the Med with no tides and nobody actually goes any distance anyway. :)
 
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paul salliss said:
Forgot to say I forgot that I did top up in Ramsgate, so that £350 did not include the section from Essex to Ramsgate so make that £450 in total. All in all that's economical for a constant 25 Knts over that distance. When we shot around Selsey Bill I was surprised how short the journey was although it did match up within 5 mins of accuracy to my passage plan
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So it was about 400 litres to do about 175 miles? Which is just under 2mpg right? Pretty impressive for petrol power.

Would be interesting(to me at least!) to compare the same boat with a pair of G2 300's. I reckon similar performance with less hp but even better economy. (For a higher price of course).
 
Over the last few days I have been Instructing a young couple who have bought (second boat) a Scandanavian built 7 metre 'Pilot House' vessel with a 150 outboard shoving it forward (most of the time) , rough calculations today reveal consumption at 14 litres per hour at an average of 15 kts
Tomorrow we intend to do a 3 hour 'passage' plus some man overboard stuff and close quarters practice etc etc etc
Cruising speed will be 20kts where conditions allow
All in all on the water for 5 hours
'Mixed Usage' I will call it
Then we will 'top up' said Boat
Then we will know fairly accurately, fuel consumption
I will post the results/figures at some time
The vessel is brand new
I just thought this Info might help fellow Forumites work out motorboat 'costings'!
 
wellf100 said:
So it was about 400 litres to do about 175 miles? Which is just under 2mpg right? Pretty impressive for petrol power.

Would be interesting(to me at least!) to compare the same boat with a pair of G2 300's. I reckon similar performance with less hp but even better economy. (For a higher price of course).
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Hello Just checked your numbers as I did not want to give you wrong info but yes your numbers are correct. And we can't complain at all at them as they as we expected they would be. There is a mass of endless power but being serious who needs to do 40 or 50 Knts. The boat is not trying in the 24 / 34 knt range so that's where we drive her.
 
Bigplumbs said:
Much is discussed on here about fuel consumption of various engines but I have come to the conclusion that don't tell you much. In fact it just scares most people with a modest Budget.
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I get where you are comin from Bigplumbs
'A Modest Budget' in effect is a total variable
Some on here will know I 'Teach' motorboat' stuff now and again
A 'Client' the other day, I asked how much fuel He reckoned He had before we set off
'It's about a third full' He said
''OK'- great' I said, How much is that?
'Three thousand five hundred litres' He said!
'Shite' I said to myself!
To Him it it was a 'Modest Budget' -- the fuel thing I mean
To Him, berthing, maintenance (My Invoice!) etc etc de blah de blah, where more of a concern
If I think back over the last 40 years I have been messing about in motorboats I must admit that fuel has never been or still is a major concern
Yes, it does 'concern' in a way
But not in a way I would never 'motorboat' again
I remember ages ago (late 70's early 80') spending 60 quid a day on my petrol outboard to give the Wife and kids a blast out (they had to come anyway!) but I think they enjoyed it and I thought, well we would have spent more in a Funfair etc etc, well that was my excuse
So-- 'Fuel For A Day Out'?
'No Brainer' to coin a Modern Phrase
OR
Get a Yacht?
Yawn!
;)
 
paul salliss said:
Hello Just checked your numbers as I did not want to give you wrong info but yes your numbers are correct. And we can't complain at all at them as they as we expected they would be. There is a mass of endless power but being serious who needs to do 40 or 50 Knts. The boat is not trying in the 24 / 34 knt range so that's where we drive her.
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The Axopar 37 is magnificent machine no doubt about it. I'd buy one like a shot for crusing around the channel islands and france if I could afford it. On the subject of fuel it also really does show that big outboards running at most efficient revs are now a pretty close match for diesels in a similar sized boat for fuel use at around the 25knot standard cruise speed. With the added ability to do 40+ knots at WOT.
 
SnaxMuppet said:
What I don't understand is who has given you to right to say what people should or should not talk about on the forum? If the subject bores you then don't read it but if other want to talk about it then they should be allowed to do so without you pressuring them not to. This isn't your forum you know!

I for one am interested in discussing the fuel costs of running out boats and clearly there are others that do too.
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+1

Threads like this may well dismiss some of the myths that are holding back a newbie from purchasing a boat.
Helping some decide which boat they want next...etrc.

I find it interesting...
 
I suspect that the bigger the boat the lower that fuel costs are relative to the other costs. For me with a small boat with an outboard that I service myself, fuel is the second biggest cost behind mooring fee. If I did longer trips rather than local bay hoping the gap would be even closer.
 
wellf100 said:
I suspect that the bigger the boat the lower that fuel costs are relative to the other costs. For me with a small boat with an outboard that I service myself, fuel is the second biggest cost behind mooring fee. If I did longer trips rather than local bay hoping the gap would be even closer.
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You are right. When I had a small boat I had a weekly fuel budget that I was only allowed to exceed when we were entertaining visitors. Now not only don't I have a fuel budget, the other costs are so vast that I don't have any budget at all. If it's for the boat then I buy it. Madness, is boating a hobby or a sickness?
 
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