Logged cruising miles vs. Engine hours - what is average?

Long distance sailing we barely motored we just waited for the wind to come back, we were not in a hurry. An example was on the way to the Canaries there was a two knot southerly current so we did keep moving slowly.
 
Thanks to all for your responses. It sounds like I’m pretty much Mr Average - or in voter demographic speak: ‘Morbihan Man’.
 
Slightly off topic but does anyone know how Beta display their engine hours? I don't usually look at it much but because of this thread when I was down there today changing the oil, I did. It is saying "4545" The engine was new in 2013 and sure I motor a bit on the longer journeys, but no way have I put 190 days motoring on it.
 
PhillM said:
Slightly off topic but does anyone know how Beta display their engine hours? I don't usually look at it much but because of this thread when I was down there today changing the oil, I did. It is saying "4545" The engine was new in 2013 and sure I motor a bit on the longer journeys, but no way have I put 190 days motoring on it.
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Don’t know for sure but probably 454.5 hours. Yanmar have a last digit for tenths of an hour, probably fairly standard.
 
I do between 1 & 2 K miles per season & average 300 hours per annum motoring. But I do go into the Dutch canals some years.

One year I cruised from Thames estuary to Brest & managed only 14 hours of true sailing, due to adverse or zero wind. The following year I repeated the trip & only logged about 25 hours motoring, which was almost totally taken up entering & leaving port. It is surprising how much time is taken up going in & out of harbour.

On my 2 SH round UK trips & averaged 40% motoring but I cheated & went via the Cally canal
I reckon 40% motoring is a typical average, even though I have a fairly quick yacht & can make good time under sail. 6kts average is often achieved. If I start to drop to 3 kts the engine goes on if I have targets to meet.
 
My dear Navigator is a sailor not a purist sailer. She dislikes getting into strange anchorages or ports in the dark and prefers to cook at anchor (Well the shore side pub or bar tempts me also). Plymouth or Scilly to S Brittany risks fatigue when shorthanded if crossing is too slow. Engine on if running late and wind contrary or lacking. Maybe 33% of miles.

Further as a Bristol Channel sailors or as an Tamar based sailors we need to go a long way to get beyond headlands or to open water, so on our shorter trips it may be 45% of miles under engine. On "race" days we may try and sail from pontoon or mooring but normally we want to get somewhere different to our own creek. Both our boats are slow

40% of miles under engine seems an approximate average but never bothered to log it.
 
Using pretty accurate records we have 6.6nm per engine hour. That is engine hours as per the hour meter, so covers the time prior to cast off and after arrival before shut down. This yeas figures on their own come out at 8.65 as there were more nice days with good sailing conditions.
 
LadyInBed said:
Since I bought this boat in 2000 I've done 20,330 miles and put 2,360 hrs on the engine, so that's an average of 1,070 miles and 124 hrs per year, giving a ratio of 8.61.
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That's a ratio of 8.6NM : 1 engine hours. Assume an average of 5kts on passage that infers 58% of the time spent motor-sailing, but no-one knows how much of your total engine hours were for getting into and out of harbours/rivers, charging, etc - so assuming a very rough 20% of the hours for this lot, gives 46% of your time motor-sailing.

My own figures since re-engining in 2011 are 3,070 miles and 556 hours, giving a poorer ratio of 5.5NM : 1 engine hour. I know I've spent a lot of time motoring locally and motor-sailing on passage (small stoppy boat which doesn't point high on its own), plus I hardly sailed for two years out of the nine, so the average over 7 seasons is 440 miles and 80hrs per year. If I assume a slower average of 4kts on passage for my boat, then that infers 73% motor-sailing, but knocking off an equal 20% off the hours for my own messing about, suggests I've motor-sailed for 58% of the time on passage.

Clearly these 'results' are sensitive to the assumptions about average boat speeds and how much time spent purely motoring, etc (e.g. if I increased your average passage speed to 6kts and mine to 5kts, then our passage motor-sailing percentages will respectively increase) but they make sense in terms of your comparably higher average passage distances each year compared my own.

I also motor-sail a lot since I'm generally slow and don't want, for example, a Channel crossing 'delivery' to take longer than 12-13hrs, so I'd use the engine to maintain 5kts minimum and help point in all but the most perfect conditions.

Every yacht, every skipper and each cruising ground is different.
 
ithet said:
Using pretty accurate records we have 6.6nm per engine hour. That is engine hours as per the hour meter, so covers the time prior to cast off and after arrival before shut down. This yeas figures on their own come out at 8.65 as there were more nice days with good sailing conditions.
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Looked at that way, I've averaged 5.5nm per engine hour starting in the same neck of the woods so 20% poorer... smaller boat than your's?... lousy choice of destinations... less lucky with my timings... a poorer sailor even?! :)
 
Babylon said:
That's a ratio of 8.6NM : 1 engine hours. Assume an average of 5kts on passage that infers 58% of the time spent motor-sailing, but no-one knows how much of your total engine hours were for getting into and out of harbours/rivers, charging, etc - so assuming a very rough 20% of the hours for this lot, gives 46% of your time motor-sailing.
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Yes, the basic stats are quite misleading. On every trip out I motor an hour and a quarter to an hour and a half getting from mooring to Poole chain ferry and the same getting back. Also, on my last trip to Portugal, going I motored all the way across Biscay, then most of the way down to Lisbon and all of the way from Lisbon back to Spain, but a good sail back from there :)
 
I usually manage a ratio of around 1:4 hours on average. Even under the most favourable conditions, I find I need to run the engine every six hours to keep my service battery charged. It's a little better now I use my iPad for Navigation instead of a laptop but instruments and lights are a drain when night sailing.
 
Topcat47 said:
Even under the most favourable conditions, I find I need to run the engine every six hours to keep my service battery charged. It's a little better now I use my iPad for Navigation instead of a laptop but instruments and lights are a drain when night sailing.
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Can you not find somewhere to hang some solar (maybe off guard wires?)
Overnight problem suggests you need to up your service battery capacity, assuming that you have gone LED with your lights.
 
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