What's My Range?

Little Rascal

Little Rascal

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Don't know if it's possible to get a precise answer to this but: I'd like to estimate my range under power for my Hunter Europa with a Yamaha 3.3hp Malta. I hardly ever use the engine so I'm not sure what my range might be.

The boat is 19 feet long, lightish and skinny, so it cruises easily on about half throttle (flat water.) The internal tank is 1.35L and I carry 10L in fuel cans.

Anyone got experience of similar set ups? How far would I get in a calm do you think?
 
Absolutely impossible to say with any accuracy.
What matters is probably the worst likely case.

I would guess something like 30 minutes for the internal tank at half throttle, so 10 litres will give you about 7.4 times that, so you might be looking at around 8 hours at 4 knots or about 30 miles.

A clean bottom will make a big difference.
Obviously tides will be significant.

Bashing into even light chop will use more fuel and slow you down markedly.

I would suggest filling the engine, driving the boat for a timed 10 minutes and re-filling using a measuring jug if you really need to know. Mark the throttle for a repeatable setting.
 
I reckon very roughly 1/2 gallon per hour for a similar sized boat.

Admittedly with a somewhat larger 2 cylinder engine, although run at more like a fast idle, when ever possible, than half throttle

I must admit the slightly smaller 1 cylinder engine I had originally used significantly less fuel.
 
I used a Tohatsu 3.5 on my Foxcub (very similar boat, but wider rear section).
The motor would do about 3/4 hr on a litre of fuel at about 3.5 knots. It would do 4.5 knots but the wider throttle opening and subsequent noise made that less appealing.
 
Thanks, that's enough info for a rough idea. So approximately 5-6 hours on 10 litres or 25-30 miles...

I have a feeling it might be better than that with an easily driven hull especially in flat water. The longest I have used the motor for was motoring from Ferry Nab to Hammerhole. I made that near enough 2 nm and I'm sure we used less than half a tank... but I will test it in a chop at some point.

Thanks.
 
You'd be about right there. I have motored from the Steamboat Museum to Beech Hill Hotel and halfway back on a tank. Probably about 4 miles. I think it's about 1.4L capacity
 
Stu Jackson said:
You might want to reconsider how you measure. Try hours per gallon or litre, rather than distance. Once you know your fuel consumption, then depending on the conditions, you'll know how far you can go. Much simpler.
Click to expand...

I always reconed on 1 hour out of a tank on a "Yamahar Malta" and a tomhatsu 3.5 2 stroke and an earlier Yamahar air cooled as well..

TO translate that its enough to get to from Lymington to Yarmouth and out JUST past the pier :eek:

I also listened to where I felt the engine was comfortable, not flat out. Water Speed varied to much on weather... Motor sailing unless calm made a significant improvement.

Keep a liter bottle of fuel ready to poor in :rolleyes:
 
onesea said:
I always reconed on 1 hour out of a tank on a "Yamahar Malta" and a tomhatsu 3.5 2 stroke and an earlier Yamahar air cooled as well..

TO translate that its enough to get to from Lymington to Yarmouth and out JUST past the pier :eek:

I also listened to where I felt the engine was comfortable, not flat out. Water Speed varied to much on weather... Motor sailing unless calm made a significant improvement.

Keep a liter bottle of fuel ready to poor in :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

No matter what sized engine or what sized tank, the consumption is always JUST enough to get you in to trouble :)
 
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