My Sealine F33 Fuel consumption.

[Thepipdoc]

This is a bit of a mixed post with no real purpose!
I'm currently sitting in St. Helier (Jersey) right now on a typical August summers day... It's raining, and I got to thinking about calculating the fuel I've used since leaving Torquay a week ago. Having done 131 miles and used 79 Gallons, I reckon that's 1.66 Miles to the gallon.
I'm running twin KAD 32's and so far they've not missed a beat.
The best bit is filling up with diesel in Guernsey. Boatworks were charging 0.72p on Wednesday but I listened to other people and I called the fuel people at St. Sampson ( about 3 miles north of St.Peter Port) and it cost me only £0.58p a litre. It makes it so much more affordable paying half the price of what I would normally pay in Dartmouth/Brixham on a 60/40 split.
Heading for St. Malo tomorrow - this'll be the first time We've been to France on the boat and the furthest we've been so far. If someone had said to me only 2 years ago that we'd be visiting France I'd have siad they were bonkers, but I have to say It's possible the best holiday I've ever had - and we've still got another 2 weeks to go.

 

[lisilou]

Great. How did you find the crossing etc. All the details and any pics so far?

 

[mil1194]

Anywhere you can buy petrol at under a penny per litre is def. Worth advertising.....

 

[andy59]

Sounds perfect . We are planning that trip asap , did you have to arrange fuel at St Sampsons or just turn up ?

 

[Thepipdoc]

Great. How did you find the crossing etc. All the details and any pics so far?

Fortunately we found a weather window on Saturday ( a week ago) and the sea was slight to moderate until we got to about 5 miles north of Guernsey and it turned quite nasty until we rounded the southern part of the island, then it calmed down. (The same thing happened when we came here in May this year). We cruise at about 19knts and from Torquay to St. PP it took 4 hrs. I've lots of pics but no means of transferring them from my camera.

Anywhere you can buy petrol at under a penny per litre is def. Worth advertising.....

Sorry, I don't understand this!

Sounds perfect . We are planning that trip asap , did you have to arrange fuel at St Sampsons or just turn up ?

I called the fuel people a couple of days before to make an "appointment" and they allocate a time according to the tides. The fuel pontoon dries at St. Sampson and they obviously take into account the fact that you may need to travel from St. PP to St.S so they don't give you a time that's not achievable. (The harbour at St.PP has a sill)

Speaking of sills...... while we were waitng for the water to flood the harbour a was talking to a few fellow motor boators and both water gauges were showing 1.8m. A largish yacht then made his move to leave the harbour until he came to an immediate stop directly above the sill. I initially thought he's either miss judged the draught of his boat or he'd miss read the gauges.
Probably out of embarrasment he then started to bawl at the harbour master that the gauges were't acurate! He was shouting that his boat has a 2m draught and he should have cleared the sill. The harbour master replied, quite rightly, that the gauges were clearly indicating 1.8m and he's got it wrong.
He turned around and waited for the water to rise - about 10 minutes and then left.

Great. How did you find the crossing etc. All the details and any pics so far?

Fortunately we found a weather window on Saturday ( a week ago) and the sea was slight to moderate until we got to about 5 miles north of Guernsey and it turned quite nasty until we rounded the southern part of the island, then it calmed down. (The same thing happened when we came here in May this year). We cruise at about 19knts and from Torquay to St. PP it took 4 hrs. I've lots of pics but no means of transferring them from my camera.

Anywhere you can buy petrol at under a penny per litre is def. Worth advertising.....

Sorry, I don't understand this!

Sounds perfect . We are planning that trip asap , did you have to arrange fuel at St Sampsons or just turn up ?

I called the fuel people a couple of days before to make an "appointment" and they allocate a time according to the tides. The fuel pontoon dries at St. Sampson and they obviously take into account the fact that you may need to travel from St. PP to St.S so they don't give you a time that's not achievable. (The harbour at St.PP has a sill)

Speaking of sills...... while we were waiting for the water to flood the harbour a was talking to a few fellow motor boaters and both water gauges were showing 1.8m. A largish yacht then made his move to leave the harbour until he came to an immediate stop directly above the sill. I initially thought he's either miss judged the draught of his boat or he'd miss read the gauges.
Probably out of embarrassment he then started to bawl at the harbour master that the gauges weren't accurate! He was shouting that his boat has a 2m draught and he should have cleared the sill. The harbour master replied, quite rightly, that the gauges were clearly indicating 1.8m and he's got it wrong.
He turned around and waited for the water to rise - about 10 minutes and then left.
This little incident certainly focussed my attention to the depth of the water when we now enter or leave a harbour with a sill!
I do wonder what happened to the bloke and his yacht though.

 

[Nautibusiness]

I popped across to GUernsey the other day while doing some own boat tuition for a customer aboard his Jeanneau Prestige 34 with twin D4 260s.

Ours was a very brief, adhoc trip, but I know why you are enjoying it so much.
Took us four hours from Poole to SPP too, but it was great seeing the sense of achievment on the face of my client. And what a beautiful area to cruise round!

Likewise, we were pleased with the fuel cost.
We did fill in SPP and found the P34 amazingly frugal having run at 2400rpm for the +/-88nm journey and also having had an hour or two pontoon bashing before hand in Poole we only used 180 litres to brim the tanks! Amazing economy from 2 x 260Hp engines running 2400 and giving 21 to 25 knots depending on tide.
Very satisfying indeed. Barely any juicier than my own 23' Merry Fisher and single 175 running at 17 or 18 knots.

Enjoy your holiday and tell us if you spot any really beautiful stop overs as I may include them in the next pop across.

 

[CharlieAlpha]

re the "Anywhere you can buy petrol at under a penny per litre " you had written 0.72p but we all (except 1) knew you meant 72p or £0.72
Thanks for sharing your adventure

 

[Thepipdoc]

Enjoy your holiday and tell us if you spot any really beautiful stop overs as I may include them in the next pop across.

With that sort of economy it would make it a lot cheaper to fill up ONLY in Guernsey wouldn't it?
Diesel here is €1.42 per litre with no allowance for heating. So it's on par with the UK.
Not exactly a stopover but we've now reached France and our first port is Treguier. It's a medieval small town, very beautiful and quaint, though first impressions are it's very expensive.
The tidal flow is extreme to say the least- its currently just short of 11 metres and when it flows, it really flows. We were shown to a berth by the waiting harbourmaster and with hindsight I should have requested a berth on the opposite side of the pontoon so that I could enter the finger berth stern first, going against the water flow, but I didn't realise we had many berths to chose from and also becuase I underestimated the flow of the water, I thought I'd be OK going in to the berth stern first, with the flow, and using the engine in the forward gear To control the speed at which I entered the finger. This was going fine till I was half way in to the finger and I lost the bow! A strong current came from goodness knows where and took the bow hard into the pontoon! Not a pretty sight, but fortunately
there was no damage (only to my pride!)

We're heading for another small port town up a river just a short hop from here tomorrow, called Lezarddrieux. Apparently even nicer than where we currnly are.
I could easily get used to this life!!

 

[mil1194]

re the "Anywhere you can buy petrol at under a penny per litre " you had written 0.72p but we all (except 1) knew you meant 72p or £0.72
Thanks for sharing your adventure

Apologies.....I thought it seemed (mildly) amusing at best but the ground is obviously stony here.....

 

[Thepipdoc]

Apologies.....I thought it seemed (mildly) amusing at best but the ground is obviously stony here.....

Ah! I understand now!

Still on this business of the fuel prices.....I was hoping to get from jersey to various places in France ( already visited Tregieux, Lezardieux and we're now in St. Quay Portrieux) as well as St. Cart and St Malo and then back again to Kersey without having to take on board any more fuel , but this is looking maore and more unlikely. The price here is now 1.43 Euros a litre! Thats gonna hurt.
Having said that, this holiday is worth every penny! Having a fantastic time.