Running Hours

[boatone]

I keep seeing references to around 100 hours per year and its got me thinking.

A two day weekend of say 2 hours running each day would be 25 weekends to get to 100 hours. Thats roughly six months so is pretty much in line with a summer season but what about holiday cruises and the like?

I have a displacement cruiser so an hours running for me on the river is probably only 4 miles or so. I reckon to spend at least 4 hours running most days I'm out and can easily knock up over 200 hours in a season.

So is the equation one of fewer hours means more miles on planing boats or is it more complex than that?

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[BrendanS]

Difficult.

I could rack up 8 hrs getting almost nowhere on the Thames, especially Aug bank holiday when queues through locks near me could be an hour, with a queue of boats waiting in line so long that you were continually shifting in and out of gear to stay in line.

However, on a nice day, Salcombe is only 4 hours away, and that's 115 odd miles from Lymington. Nice 25-30knt cruising.

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[hlb]

And you told me, you were an old sea dog!!!

I think time is more important than hours. Also slow runnig is probably worse than fast. MF's done way over 100 hours this year but might get an oil change by Christmas....

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Haydn

 

[Moose]

I think the average lawn mower will do more hours per year than the average boat.

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[Sunnyseeker]

Its interesting reading the Mobo issues, we did 900 hours motoring in a year, did two oil changes, one belt, two fuel filters, she runs like a dream. Motored non stop for 50 hours at a time a couple of times. It was an 1991 Volvo43 Turbo, lovely engine.

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[oldgit]

Still using that 100 year old thumbnail we notice.NM

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[longjohnsilver]

Re: Still using that 100 year old thumbnail we notice.NM

I thort that was his great grandson.

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[Soong]

I was doing the same sums in my head earlier.... I have put 60 hours on Sea Cloud in 9 months, but she has been out of the water for 3 of those (dont ask). So an average of 10 hours a month fits the profile, but then I got to thinking about hours on the boat without the engine running; that got scary.

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[chris66]

Can I ask what you mean by "Also slow runnig is probably worse than fast" ?

As the proud owner of two little (very little) girls, I am often asked to chug about at 5 knots instead of going onto the plane at 16 knots +. This is fine as the med is normally very calm and some days I will motor for 2 or 3 hours at v.slow speeds. Is this l"slow runnng" likely to cause any problems?
Thanks

<hr width=100% size=1>Chris

 

[Wiggo]

can cause bore glazing in diesels, which leads to loss of compression, poor fuel consumption, losing at cricket, rain etc etc.

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[kimhollamby]

No, only very extended times (say when you have a high horsepower turbocharged engine kept on the river for a long time). Two or three hours at a stretch (or longer) should be fine as the next time you open up it will blow any soot out and break any signs of bore glazing on the cylinder walls.

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[hlb]

Wiggo has answered your question. Espesialy with turo's slow running does far more damage than fast. Your not up to temp or design speed.

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Haydn

 

[KevB]

I'm sure I read somewhere that Volvo recommend ten minutes full throttle for every hour run, to clean out the crud?

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[adarcy]

Re: Nitpick

Are you sure you're not confusing it with NOT running full throttle more than 10% of hours?

I agree one ought to "clear the plugs (sic) out" at least occasionally but the usual strictures about full throttle is not too much because most of the engines we talk about here are leisure rated i.e. much more powerful than the heavy duty cycle specified ones which can be run flat out all the time.

Anyway the original thought about glazing only occurs in running in new engines when it's most important not to warm up and pootle about without getting the power + turbo boost up. A run-in engine won't glaze but will, of course, benefit from an occasional blast

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