Extra Diesel(or other suggestions) for Leopard 40 (2020) to cruise.

[aqfishing]

Greetings All,

We have a Leopard 40 3 cabin in the moorings fleet. Our plan is to cruise with it when she comes out the fleet in 3 years time. Just the Admiral and myself. Probably the occasional guests. We really enjoy our 40, however ideally I would have preferred something in the 45ft range, however the pricing on these seems to have gone through the roof. So we would rather keep the 40, make it work and have more cash in the bank to cruise with!

The biggest drawback for me is the 40 only carries 360L of fuel in 2 plastic tanks under the aft bunks. She also carries 780L of water in 2 plastic tanks in the forward lockers.
She has a 12v watermaker.
When we are onboard we are usually very light on water. We can easily get by with 250L a week without even trying to save.
When cruising I prefer to motor sail if wind is too light, but then again we usually in a hurry as time is limited.
So when she comes out the program and Moorings have given me back half my money I plan to do some refitting to get her cruise ready. We would mostly do coastal cruising.

To solve the diesel problem my wife suggested turning 1 water tank into a diesel tank. This would be very easy to do as it could simply gravity feed down to either diesel tank. There is also a port to starboard fuel transfer pump. Each engine runs off its own tank and the genset off the starboard tank. One would obviously need to check with the manufacturer that the water tank can handle diesel otherwise it would need replacing. Still a very simple task. So what are we missing here?

Other upgrades would include:
Radar
2nd plotter at nav station.
AIS
Spare Water Maker if we plan major crossings(maybe later)
More Solar
Replace batteries, maybe add 1 or 2.
Replace genset
Overhaul Engines
Some form of light wind furling foresail(suggestions?)
Have rigging thoroughly checked by a pro
Replace sheets, halyards and maybe sails.

Any further suggestions welcomed. Buying a new yacht is not an option.

We use our yacht regularly so keep a good eye on Moorings maintenance in the Seychelles. This is our second yacht with them at that base and they have been pretty decent till now.

Look forward to some good advice from this forums experienced cruisers.

Eugene.

[GordMay]

360 litres = ±95 U.S. gallons [3.785 liters = 1 US gallon], or 79 Imperial gallons [4.5460l/Imp gal]
That, and a few deck mounted jerry cans, could suffice (IMO), for most coastal sailing. I’d try it out, as is, prior to investing any time/money in making the substition.

[rtoner]

Sounds like similar specs as our Lagoon. If you plan to cruise full time then take time and pick weather window where you don’t need to burn diesel. If so it takes a long time to burn that diesel. Amazing how nice it is to sail and not have a schedule. The boat isn’t a performance boat but comfortable.

[tkeithlu]

Ditto on the above.

Consider taking a look at your electrical redundancy. If you have two sets of batteries, each charged by a separate engine (a good idea in itself) do you also have a way to parallel them should one side go dead and you not be able to start that engine? Do you have a way to isolate one battery so so the entire boat cannot go dead at one time? Can you power the electronics separately should seawater flood the battery bank and you need help? Can you charge both sides from one alternator if the other goes bad?

One way to deal with all this is to list scenarios by likelihood, and then plan how you would overcome each OMG moment. Then you sleep better.

Despite all our redundancies we lost all power at the panel last year because a forgotten switch in the house bank went bad. It took me a couple of hours to figure out what had happened.Sometimes you don't win even with layers of protection.

Your plans for the boat are very solid.

[aqfishing]

Originally Posted by GordMay

360 litres = ±95 U.S. gallons [3.785 liters = 1 US gallon], or 79 Imperial gallons [4.5460l/Imp gal]
That, and a few deck mounted jerry cans, could suffice (IMO), for most coastal sailing. I’d try it out, as is, prior to investing any time/money in making the substition.

Thank you for that.

I really hate jerry cans on deck. Since we will be cruising east coast of Africa to start with it would not be a great idea. I should have mentioned that.
Diesel is not always readily available, but usually its ok. Extra solar and batteries could also overcome. As we are usually only onboard for 2 weeks max at the moment we tend to use the AC at night as we do not really get time to acclimatise. This would be different when cruising.

[chris mac]

We have 2 -35 us gallon deisel tanks and cruise the Bahamas. With no problems. Before solving the assumed problem, I would suggest trying it with the existing setup. Work out the actual burn rate to see your fuel usage.
For example, our 3gm30f engines will get about 55 hours run time each. I know this from keeping a log on run time and fill amount. So I know that I can motor 55 hours with both engines, or 110 hours on single engine.
This is on a 42' catamaran

[zstine]

We have 50 gallons (200L) Fuel and 30 gal (120L) water tankage and live aboard/cruise just fine (family of 4) and have done 1500mi passages lasting 2 weeks. The water tankage is a non-issue if you have a watermaker, which is almost a must have for any remote cruising. Fuel is for an auxiliary backup propulsion, sail primary. We try to only run the engine during anchoring operations. We burn about 150 gal a year, so your 90 gal should last you at least 6 months. I would remove a water tank and replace with watermaker. Carry a jerry can of fuel for emergency, but 90 gal is plenty IMO.

[imiloa]

We have a 2017 leopard 40 and have always found the fuel capacity to be more than adequate. We have sailed from Florida to grenada and back up the island chain. If we have a multi night passage planned and there is a potential for extended motoring I carry four 6 gal jerry jugs in the forward locker, but I’ve never needed to use them. When motorsailing in light winds we only run one engine and burn very little fuel that way. Our overall fuel usage averages less than 3/4 gal/ hour for both engines and generator combined
As an aside the original owner of our boat removed the stbd water tank because he installed a watermaker, cutting the water capacity in half. It’s OK as long as the watermaker is working, but that’s not a guarantee. I like having the extra space and less weight, but also carry extra water in jugs on longer passages.
If I was going to add more fuel capacity I would add extra tanks in front of the current tanks, there is plenty of room there and easy to plumb then together

[Stu Jackson]

Originally Posted by GordMay

360 litres = ±95 U.S. gallons [3.785 liters = 1 US gallon], or 79 Imperial gallons [4.5460l/Imp gal]
That, and a few deck mounted jerry cans, could suffice (IMO), for most coastal sailing. I’d try it out, as is, prior to investing any time/money in making the substition.

I did the same math. Without knowing your burn rate, how do we answer your question? 2 gph with both engines going at 5 knots is 237 nm to empty. I have 23 gallons at 1/2 gph, I figure range @ 5 knots on only 20 gallons. Go from there. Range is the issue, isn't it?



I wouldn't convert a water tank to diesel, even if your water tank is metal. Water tanks are often plastic these days = indestructible an no leaks, no necessarily good for fuel if not the right kind of plastic. Would be better to add metal fuel tanks than convert, I think.

[Cuvee]

I would first estimate the existing maximum fuel range for your boat. Then determine if that is sufficient for your cruising area and the likely distance between reliable fuel supply.

The advertised fuel consumption curve for your 29hp Yanmars are 2l/h @ 2000 rpm (per engine), 3l/h @ 2300 rpm, 4l/h @ 2600 rpm, 6l/h @ 3000 rpm, and ~6.8l/h @ 3200 rpm.

With 360L tankage and running 1 engine at a time, you've got 180 hrs (~1 week) motoring range at 2000 rpm. You likely know your motoring speed as a function of engine rpm. Perhaps you get 5 kts at 2000 rpm with 1 engine. With 360L tankage, that gets you ~900 nm range with flat seas and no head winds.

Add two 20L jerry jugs so you have 10% fuel reserve.

You'll also need to subtract for fuel consumption from generator during this motoring time. Won't be much with engines running unless you need genset to run an AC watermaker.

You should also confirm the height of the fuel pickup tube in the tank as that might reduce the useable tankage.

Definitely add AIS for collision avoidance and Doppler Radar for squall avoidance.

Regarding the genset, what brand is it, how many hrs, and is it in a dry locker (lifespan can be a challenge with gensets located in bow lockers). My Cummins genset located in an aft cockpit locker is still going strong at 10500 hrs.

[stormalong]

I would not convert a water tank to diesel. There would be no going back. Water makers do break down.

You have a lot of fuel. You could add another diesel tank or use fuel jugs. I keep six 5 gallon fuel jugs in a locker, no need for it to be on deck. Just choose a cockpit locker that does not drain into the bilge and don't overfill the jugs.

[aqfishing]

Thank you all for your responses. Luckily I have plenty time to think about this.

[aqfishing]

Originally Posted by imiloa

We have a 2017 leopard 40 and have always found the fuel capacity to be more than adequate. We have sailed from Florida to grenada and back up the island chain. If we have a multi night passage planned and there is a potential for extended motoring I carry four 6 gal jerry jugs in the forward locker, but I’ve never needed to use them. When motorsailing in light winds we only run one engine and burn very little fuel that way. Our overall fuel usage averages less than 3/4 gal/ hour for both engines and generator combined
As an aside the original owner of our boat removed the stbd water tank because he installed a watermaker, cutting the water capacity in half. It’s OK as long as the watermaker is working, but that’s not a guarantee. I like having the extra space and less weight, but also carry extra water in jugs on longer passages.
If I was going to add more fuel capacity I would add extra tanks in front of the current tanks, there is plenty of room there and easy to plumb then together

Thank you. I did think of this. I could have 2x90L tanks installed in front of the original tanks. Either Ally or GRP.
Another thought is to remove the 390L water tank and put in 2 separate custom tanks 150L diesel and 200L water.

[Kd9truck]

I have a vessel once in with Sunsail, I have 3 heads, I have aspirations to convert a head to multi-use space.
One of the thoughts I had was to convert the black water tank to a back up diesel, it has a deck fitting you can buy a diesel screw down, it’s mounted and vented, it is up hill of the main tank and they are close to each other, and it takes no additional space, it creates no additional stress on life lines stays or stanchions. I have a 400 nm capacity 57 gal fuel tank, 20 more would not hurt.
Cheers

[PippaB]

Our 48’ cat carries 280l of diesel. On one engine at frugal RPM we can manage ~5 knots in flat calm (which is when we do most of our motoring). The only place we have encountered any “range anxiety” is SE Alaska, where the winds are light, or you’re hiding from them. We learned to plan a 2-3 week excursion that would leave us with nearly empty tanks at the next fuel dock. If we got some good sailing days in we’d extend the excursion until we ran out of veggies. We spent three summers in that part of the world, talked about adding tankage a couple of times, but in the end decided that the times we might want it just didn’t justify the costs/efforts.