Fuel Price Impact on Boaters

[boris]

"fuel consumption of one gallon or 4 liters per hour at a cruise speed of 7/8 knots.
Weight of this Powercat will be in the region of 7000 kilo or 16000 lbs"

I alwasy though cats were more economical than monos my boat is 44 foot 6,250 kg and use 1.8 lts per hr at 5.5 kts or 5.5 lts per hr 8.5 kts

[Sandero]

We use so little fuel for our weekend cruising that it has negligible impact. Large power yachts are hurting as fewer seem to be out there.

[fastcat435]

Originally Posted by boris

"fuel consumption of one gallon or 4 liters per hour at a cruise speed of 7/8 knots.
Weight of this Powercat will be in the region of 7000 kilo or 16000 lbs"

I alwasy though cats were more economical than monos my boat is 44 foot 6,250 kg and use 1.8 lts per hr at 5.5 kts or 5.5 lts per hr 8.5 kts

That means that you have a efficient boat , the width is also important and my guess is your mono hull is around 11 ft while this power cat is 15 ft.
The fuel used with 5 knots of speed will be around 1.4 liter per hour or 300 cc per mile .

Greetings

[boris]

Originally Posted by fastcat435

That means that you have a efficient boat , the width is also important and my guess is your mono hull is around 11 ft while this power cat is 15 ft.
The fuel used with 5 knots of speed will be around 1.4 liter per hour or 300 cc per mile .

Greetings

yes beam is about 13 1/2 ft

[fastcat435]

That means that you are a very efficient and smart yachts man.
Running your boat well below hull speed is the way to go if you want to save on Fuel
Greetings
Gideon

[stevensc]

"Funny thing with the cost of fuel. We passed a couple of trawlers coming home this year. They were going slow to conserve fuel."

Check out these figures from my Camano 31 LOA trawler (recently sold) fuel consumption. These are from floscan readings taken before we loaded her down with all the must have aboard "stuff", from dinghy to dog bed.

@ 1500 RPM, 1.00 GPH, 6.2K, 6.2 MPG
@ 2500 RPM, 3.38 GPH, 8.2K, 2.4 MPG
@ 3500 RPM, 8.50 GPH, 14.5K, 1.71 MPG

It does pay to go slow, unless the wind is pushing you!
Good cruisin'
Steve

[chuckr]

i spent some time in new bern, nc recently and several trawlers were there and i talke to them as they came and went and some stayed - all had the same issue - cost of fuel - some were running on one engine and all said they were running at much lower speeds - and some said they were sitting for the summer and fall and not moving - a broker there told me that sailboats were selling but he could not give away powerboats or trawlers
this being my first year out - i can not tell if there are less boats out or not but i did note that when i lived in miami there were a lot of boats sitting and a lot less boats on the bay and a lot more boats suddenly went up for sale - on the other hand those with big $$ it did not bother them
it will probably be this way for a long time and sailing looks better and better
just my thoughts
chuck and svsoulmates
ki4sry
on the hook in cambridge, md

[Dave the Canuck]

Seeing the same thing in the Great Lakes. Lots of power cruisers within an hour or so of port but almost none further out.

Had a funny experience a couple of weeks ago. We're under sail doing maybe 6 knots and spot a big cruiser coming up behind us. Let the Admiral know that we'd best get ready for some wake as they were coming right up our track. Well, when they finally caught up to us, they were barely going faster than we were. It was a big Carver around 40 feet and these things can really go. They had the binoculars on us and I could just about hear them talking about getting a sailboat.

There's going to be lots of great deals on used power cruisers. I'd hate to be trying to sell them right now.

[dacust]

Originally Posted by boris

"fuel consumption of one gallon or 4 liters per hour at a cruise speed of 7/8 knots.
Weight of this Powercat will be in the region of 7000 kilo or 16000 lbs"

I alwasy though cats were more economical than monos my boat is 44 foot 6,250 kg and use 1.8 lts per hr at 5.5 kts or 5.5 lts per hr 8.5 kts

Boat      lph     kts
fastcat:  1.4    5      (from post #18)
boris:    1.8    5.5
fastcat:  4      7-8
boris:    5.5    8.5

Looks like about the same consumption for both, and the fastcat is 750kg heavier (12%). If fastcat's estimates are correct, it seems to me the cat is more efficient in this example.

[ssullivan]

Originally Posted by defjef

We use so little fuel for our weekend cruising that it has negligible impact. Large power yachts are hurting as fewer seem to be out there.

We were talking about this when we transited LI Sound too.

It seems the double whammy of the stock market slide and the mortgage market vaporization, along with the slowdown in real estate stuff has hit Long Island (Sea Ray capital of the universe!) pretty badly.

We saw almost no powerboats out at all in the LI Sound. There were a number of sailboats, but just a few powerboats.

By contrast, the LI Sound is usually something like sailing in a washing machine on the calmest of days due to powerboat wakes.

It was amazing sailing for us, since we had very strong South winds and were headed East, with no powerboats in sight...