Power or Sail

[SV Coronado]

We definitely motored a lot in the Med. With the high latitude, the weather there can be finicky. It's hard to get a good weather window to travel long distances. We filled our 275gal/1000L tanks multiple times in a season. Couple that with the high price of diesel.

By comparision, we crossed the Atlantic and spent the last two seasons sailing the Caribbean and have hardly used any fuel. For example, last November, we left the Chesapeake Bay with full tanks. We sailed offshore to St. Martin and then worked our way back, cruising over 9,000nm. When we arrived in the Chesapeake in May, we still had about 3/4 of the diesel we left with. (We have a large solar array, so we only use diesel for the engines.)

A lot depends on where you're cruising.

[jalmberg]

Before you get too excited about motoring in the Med, check out fuel prices. There’s a reason you see so few powerboats in Europe, except in Monaco.

[mvweebles]

Originally Posted by jalmberg

Before you get too excited about motoring in the Med, check out fuel prices. There’s a reason you see so few powerboats in Europe, except in Monaco.

....may want to check out the price of sails and running/standing rigging while you're at it.

[Sarayu]

The important thing is simply to ‘get out there, have a go!”
We cruised the Med over three summers in a sailing cat. It was great, but some observations of that time are,
1) A monohull is better suited to many of the marina’s , (picture old Grecian style with the city surrounding the marina with Cafe’s to step off the stern for a coffee, each boat snugged tightly ,Mediterranean moored to the dock)
2) The med is a great place to learn to sail, enough wind to give you the basics and plenty of time motoring to consider the mistakes you made for the next day. Flukey winds, probably 3 hours good sailing each day.
3) The fun of Cruising the Med is equally enjoyed with both sail and motor, small jumps , not many overnighters, good supplies most places.
4) the advantage of motor is the accessibility of the many inland river and canal systems throughout Europe. If you are considering motor, i would take this into account.Bridge decks dont work for that. I’d love to revisit the Med ‘Just for the canal system alone’. To be able to do both would be amazing.
A French designed aluminium sailing yacht Allure, with lifting keel and a lowered mast may give you both options if you need to sail, otherwise every boat is a compromise. The cat worked fine for us, we had to make it work as you will your choice.
Over all, my choice for the Medif I was to do it again, either an Allure(or similar) or a motor boat!

[jalmberg]

$8 a gallon for diesel. Just saying…

[mvweebles]

Originally Posted by jalmberg

$8 a gallon for diesel. Just saying…

$6.50/gal in Mexico. No one cares. Well, except the ultra cheap cruisers. But everyone else - power and sail - don't worry much about fuel prices. Doesn't make the top 5 expenses.


Just sayin'....

[Cheyne]

Anywhere from $3.50 to $5.00 on the ICW. We are ditching our Lagoon 380 for a power boat.

Cheyne

[gordonhinds]

Having spent a lot of time cruising over the past three years on a yacht, we motor a lot. I am a keen sailor who has raced for nearly 50 years in many classes of yachts. When cruising you tend to motor as you are normally on a deadline. I figured out that in fact for coastal cruising, the cost of sailing probably exceeds a power boat runing cost of a similar size as long as you don't go too fast in the power boat. To sail you need sails, rig, running gear, winches etc. On my boat that has meant spending close to $50K, to do about 2,000 nautical miles, which is about $25/Nautical mile. If you burn 20 litres an hour in a power boat, cruising at say 10 knots, it's 200 hours of motoring to go 2,000 miles. The fuel cost is about $10,000. To go 2,000 mikes in a faster power boat at say 20 knots would take 100 hours, and burn about 50 liters per hour, so you would use 5,000 litres which would cost about $12,000, still cheaper than sailing ($50K). Sailing is an expensive and slow way to go in a boat that can be compromised with accomodation. If you cross oceans sailing becomes more economical but to get the cost benefit of sailing you have to sail a lot of miles, as in many thousands every year. But sailing without an engine on, is quieter...and sometimes more pleasant.

[CaptainRivet]

Originally Posted by SV Coronado

We definitely motored a lot in the Med. With the high latitude, the weather there can be finicky. It's hard to get a good weather window to travel long distances. We filled our 275gal/1000L tanks multiple times in a season. Couple that with the high price of diesel.

By comparision, we crossed the Atlantic and spent the last two seasons sailing the Caribbean and have hardly used any fuel. For example, last November, we left the Chesapeake Bay with full tanks. We sailed offshore to St. Martin and then worked our way back, cruising over 9,000nm. When we arrived in the Chesapeake in May, we still had about 3/4 of the diesel we left with. (We have a large solar array, so we only use diesel for the engines.)

A lot depends on where you're cruising.

Which sailboat has a 1000l tank, 65ft cat???

[CaptainRivet]

Originally Posted by mvweebles

....may want to check out the price of sails and running/standing rigging while you're at it.

10 years, 10000Euro so 1000 per year
Rig just learning doing it myself, material about 3500Euro, lasts 15 years.

[Cheyne]

Lagoon 440 has a 265 gallon fuel tank.

[mvweebles]

Originally Posted by CaptainRivet

10 years, 10000Euro so 1000 per year
Rig just learning doing it myself, material about 3500Euro, lasts 15 years.

You have a 40-foot Cat and standing rigging, running rigging, winch/deck hardware maintenance, and sails are $10K Euro ($11k USD)?

I'm sure there are a few folks who would like tips on where to find such a deal.....

[deblen]

My 2 cents: sailboat or powerboat.

Before you get into boating,ask yourself some questions.
1. Do you want a boat just to get you to a destination-where you will "engage in recreational activities"?
2. Do you enjoy just getting out on a boat-destination not important?
3. Do you like puttering/working on your boat some?
4.Will you be on a schedule,short on time,need to get somewhere quickly.
5.Do you mind spending several hundred fuel $$ for a day on the boat?


A sailboat,under sail,will average 5 Nm/hr.,if there is favorable wind for the direction you would like to go. If you spend 8hrs(long day) sailing,you could go 40 Nm-maybe...or you could motor& sail at 6Nm/hr,cover a max of 48Nm,& burn 4 gal (16L) of diesel.


Hope this helps.
Cheers/Len

[mvweebles]

Originally Posted by deblen

5.Do you mind spending several hundred fuel $$ for a day on the boat?

Why do you sailors insist on comparing yourselves to worst case fuel consumption? You want to compare a boat that does 30-kts and burns 70 GPH ($300/hour)? Compare it to an AC45 that does at least that speed but costs $10M and spends maybe 40-hours sailing before it's toast - $250K/hr (USD).

I just spent 6-months going from San Diego CA to Guatemala - over 2200 nms - and burned 400 gals, under $2000 in diesel. Works out to around $12 (USD) per day for diesel, including generator run (which a sailboat would also have).

I'd guess the sailboats I've met along the way run by retired couples vs bare-bones broke sailors spent around half what I did, partiallly because they used less fuel, partly because they have no choice where to fuel-up because they don't carry much reserves.

If exaggerating a comparison is what it takes to make you feel better about sailing, great - but keep it to yourself. It's not accurate and has no place as guidance to folks making a comparison.

[Cheyne]

This is why we are going power. We moved a very simlar boat to our sail boat replacement with friends from Charleston to St. Augustine. We covered 192nm in just over 10 hours. Burned 212 gallons, but never had to do a night watch. We did that same trip with our Lagoon and it was normally around 31 hours and if we had to motor the whole way, did that twice out of 5 trips, we burned 63 gallons of fuel. My time is worth way more than saving a little fuel.