Fuel, how much do you use.

How much fuel do you use?

  • less that 40

    Votes: 34 15.3%

  • 40 to 80

    Votes: 44 19.8%

  • 80 to 160

    Votes: 48 21.6%

  • 160 to 320

    Votes: 29 13.1%

  • 320 to 640

    Votes: 28 12.6%

  • 640 to 12800

    Votes: 14 6.3%

  • more that 1280!

    Votes: 25 11.3%
  • Total voters
    222
  • Poll closed .
maby said:
My university maths lecturer was incapable of adding two numbers together and reliably getting the right answer - he used to refer to anything that used numbers as "arithmetic" and pointing out that a pocket calculator could do it far better than almost any human. Mathematics, he would explain, was about the behaviour of numbers, not the numbers themselves - and numbers behave the same irrespective of the units.
Click to expand...
And?

Pure maths is one thing, real life is another, says engineer who prefers applied maths.
 
Hoolie said:
What a daft question! It's obviously per minute
Click to expand...

An acquaintance of ours had a 165 foot mobo - he could manage close to 100 litres per minute if he tried! Mind you, he would be going quite long distances in that minute.....
 
maby said:
An acquaintance of ours had a 165 foot mobo - he could manage close to 100 litres per minute if he tried! Mind you, he would be going quite long distances in that minute.....
Click to expand...

At 30 knots he would only get half a mile. :eek:
 
We used NO red diesel. In a 7-year old Jeanneau SO 33i

The engine spec. showed typical usage should be 1.2 l/hr.

Actual was 1.21 lts/hr. Guess we'll settle for that.

Very poor sailing year - hoped to get to Spain; made it to Devon (twice), from Cornwall!

Boat miles - 370. Engine hours 69.3. Very poor ratio. Hoping for better in 2019, as hopefully, all the reasons we didn't get away this year will not re-occur!
 
Engine mainly used for getting in and out of harbour and those tiresome tomes when either there isn’t any wind or it’s coming from exactly wher I want to get to.
 
Praxinoscope said:
Engine mainly used for getting in and out of harbour and those tiresome tomes when either there isn’t any wind or it’s coming from exactly wher I want to get to.
Click to expand...
Exactly the same! Mind you, mine only uses .3l/hr running 'fast'. It's not an economical engine either, just incredibly weak!
I've a BMW 1150 motorcycle, which has pretty much the same consumption, over distance of course!
 
My Rival 41C, with a Perkins 4236 burns about 3 lph (0.6 gph). I have two 60 gallon tanks but only keep one in commission, even that is a bit much for my sailing needs.
 
If your cruising plans take you through the Kiel Canal and the Netherlands your engine/sailing ratio is never going to look good. Although I usually use about 2l/hr, this doesn't vary as much as I expected with speed. I have the impression that my 2-blade folding prop is more efficient at higher speeds.
 
I've gone from using 30l/pa in a half tonner to 120l/pa in an Elan 40 to now using 6,000l between end-June and September in our new 50ft mobo. It's been rather a change! This covered various local trips in the Solent, a week down the coast westwards and a fortnight in the CIs and down as far as Roscoff. Roundabout 810NM and still with half full tanks!

I console myself that I don't have to worry about wear and tear on sails and cordage any longer. I ignore the inherent costs of maintaining two 7l engines and more elecontrickery than I can shake a (largely redundant) sextant at.
 
Interesting issue. Like, I suppose, most yacht sailors, we always seem to end up motoring more than we'd like. Anyway, FWIW, over 1,100NM sailed/motored last season with 104 litres used for mainly propulsion but also heating.
 
Last edited:
I understood the OP's motive for starting this thread was to gather data to allow him to calculate the delta in UK government's tax take between rebated fuel and if it was fully taxed. I would be fascinated to learn how he intends to do this from the responses he has received.
If it helps, I usually claim that at least 60% of the diesel used on my boat is spent in heating (the boat, domestic HW), increasing the entropy of the universe and generating electricity for immediate use and storage. Unfortunately, there are some ill informed suppliers who insist they can only cater for 100%, 40%, 0% splits for domestic use.
 
If you do really want stinkpot data it would be worth restarting the poll with bigger numbers. In <24m territory, ie not super yachts, and private holidaying not chartering or living aboard, you can do 1280 litres /year just on gensets. For propulsion a pair of 1300-1500hp engines at cruise speed with do 1280 litres in 3 hours. A season can be as long as a piece of string but 30-40k litres would be typical for c.24m. Halve those figures for say 17m.
 
jfm said:
If you do really want stinkpot data it would be worth restarting the poll with bigger numbers.
Click to expand...
Have suspicion that not a great many really big boats are based in UK and therefore topping up the HMCE coffers.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top