Fuel Usage Review After Trip

[RobS]

Just topped off the boat after my trip. Took 96 gallons. Total nautical miles were 6NM before the trip, 186NM over the course of the trip and 7NM last night equaling 199NM. That’s an overall 2.1 NM/Gallon. Statute miles are 231 resulting in 2.4SM/Gallon. Obviously, this includes a combination of cruising, no wake zones, etc. After reading prior threads, charts from other members, etc, I decided to do most of my cruising at 3,000 to 3,100 doing around 16 knots with the exception of pushing it a bit last Monday morning as I did not like the look of those dark clouds. Total engine hours on the 96 gallons was 21 resulting in an overall avg of 4.6 Gallons/HR.

[Elizabeth Ann]

That is some pretty good data Rob, thanks.

[RicM]

Sounds about right on with my numbers. I will be watching the fuel log on our trip (only 8 days away) and will post.

[Denis]

For those of us with the Peninsular engine, I have some numbers I recently compiled from a trip we took to Marthas Vinyard and then to Block Island and back to Mystic. All of the running was at 2,950 RPM at 16.5 knots on the GPS. The trip took 5 hours and 30 minutes and I used 58 gal. of fuel for 10.54 gal./hr. The boat was loaded with 70 gal of water, 130 gal. of fuel, generator, dingy, engine, grill, food etc. My engine hours and fuel burned at the end of the year averages 4.5 gal./hour. Just goes to show how much I could save if I pulled back on the throttle just a little, but if I wanted a trawler I would have bought one. Denis