What is the Range of Your Boat Under Power?

[bruce smith]

I motored west for 10 days, ,from Acapulco, (@5kn ) to get to the wind.
Sailed north for the next 25 days
Motored east the last 100 miles.
Arrived home , Tacoma,with 90 gallons of fuel .
Enough to turn around and motor back to San Francisco
( I left with a few extra jugs)

[Jimbo485]

With the tanks (100 l), we have a range of 200 nm during calms. With the additional jerry cans of 60 l stored in the bridge deck lockers, another 120 nm. From Panama to Galapagos, we put a 150 l bladder on deck to extend the range across the doldrums.

Just in case.

With hindsight, it was overkill. Even though those 850 direct miles turned into more than 1500 miles through the water and 12 days with winds from the SW, it was still overkill.

Anyway, here we are in Tahiti, the tanks are full, jerry cans empty, the bladder is still on deck with about 70 l, just annoying us everytime we want to go forward on the port deck. On the 17-day passage from Galapagos to Marquesas we used 4 l with the leaving, entering and recovering from one unplanned gybe. The frustrating Panama - Galapagos leg used about 100 l and we gave away another 20 l to local mates in Hiva Oa when the island was running short and the supply ship hadn´t come in yet. Another 20 l running around a few anchorages. Obviously we were too conservative and now it appears that we will reach the other side without topping up.

We don´t normally use the engines until our speed drops below 2 knots. Sometimes, we will just drift around at less than 1 knot until the wind comes back. It always does.

I crewed on a delivery where we started the engines whenever the boatspeed dropped below 10 knots. But that was a delivery, the owner had things to do, deadlines to meet. But cruisers? What´s the hurry?

So, what is the point of the question? Curiosity? Planning of some sort? Concern about what to do when there is no wind? Trolling (for mahi mahi)?

[Rickthesailor]

Originally Posted by DavefromNZ

About 1600nm by running single engines at 6.5kts at 3ltrs per hour. It's a Lagoon 450 with 1000ltrs fuel

Isn't that 2100 nm?

[PaulinOz]

"Isn't that 2100 nm?"

Depends on what units you are using
French Nautical Miles or New Zealand Nautical Miles.

[Rickthesailor]

Originally Posted by PaulinOz

"Isn't that 2100 nm?"

Depends on what units you are using
French Nautical Miles or New Zealand Nautical Miles.

I forgot to figure in the drift rate of Australia as it moves north and warps the ARC of the earth...

[StuM]

Originally Posted by Rickthesailor

Isn't that 2100 nm?

25% reserves?

[Rickthesailor]

Originally Posted by StuM

25% reserves?

Not on a passage.... That's a one way trip...

[Markie]

Good title post for my question. How many gallons of diesel does it take for a 40' sailboat under power to go 1000 miles? I'm new so go easy on me ok. Gracias.

[Neptune's Gear]

I have a 40ft sailboat, about 8000kg in cruising trim. I have motored 1300nm once, on 300ltrs. Under 5 knots though, and we sailed for 7 hours. The rest of the trip there was no wind. At all. Got in with 10 ltrs remaining.


Sent from my iPad using Cruisers Sailing Forum

[StuM]

Originally Posted by Markie

Good title post for my question. How many gallons of diesel does it take for a 40' sailboat under power to go 1000 miles? I'm new so go easy on me ok. Gracias.

A lot depends on how fast you want to go and the boat in question.
If you want to maintain a normal cruising average speed of say 5-6 knots or possibly more, it will take a lot more fuel than if you are happy to potter along at 4-4.5 knots. At the top end, you could use about 1 liter per nautical mile, at the lower end, it may use less than 1 liter for every 3 nautical miles.

IOW, anything from 300 to 1000 liters depending on whether you want to do it in about 6 days or are happy to take 10 or more days to do it.

You asked about gallons and miles, I will assume that is US gallons and nautical miles: that would be 80 to 265 US gallons.

[Panope]

Originally Posted by Markie

Good title post for my question. How many gallons of diesel does it take for a 40' sailboat under power to go 1000 miles? I'm new so go easy on me ok. Gracias.

Here is a thread where the poster motored up-wind and against current for 1338 nm in a 40 foot sailboat: http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...nm-172548.html

He mentioned that his 'normal' no-wind fuel burn rate was less at .74 gal/hr.

Quote from the thread:

"It was 1338 nm in 11 days.
Did two oil changes.
Burned 209 gl of fuel.
Ran the motor 218.6 hr.
Which averages 6.12 kt of speed. Not including the layover times.
6.4 miles per gl.
.958 gl per hr.
Not once was I able to sail. Although, I did have the storm jib up for a while, tiring to steady the boat in the rollers, which proved to be a waste of effort."