Ran across this rig over in Biloxi. Anyone want to estimate fuel burn on these puppies? Or buy fuel for them? Yep, those are 350 HP each, Yamaha V8's
You want to buy fuel for this
- Thread starter sailaway78
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Can't beat a sailboat for fuel economy
I last filled up 5 years ago. Since the diesel was getting old and my 18 gallon tank was reading a quarter of a tank I pumped her out...and got out 8 gallons.:dance:
Growing up in the Keys, I saw plenty of the huge mega floating condos that mostly sat in their slips. Even back then when gas was right around $1 a gallon, it would take many hundreds of dollars to fill them up.. and that would get them a couple hours of cruise time. At the same time, I could get from Miami to lower Key Largo on just under a gallon of rum 
Cheers,
Brad
Cheers,
Brad
Yep... I have a Briggs & Stratton 5hp that sips gas and I mostly only use to get in and out of slip... and if the wind is right I don't even use it for that. Last season I still had gas left in my 3 gallon tank. I put it in the lawn mower at the end of the season.
My new 6HP SailPro sips gas....it's insane.
I have a buddy with one of those big ass Baja type cigarette boats. He's always talkin it up about how fast it is, fun and all.....problem is, he NEVER takes it out. Can't afford to. It sits on it's giant triple axle trailer like a trophy collecting dust.
I don't know the exact specs...but it's got 2 monster V8's that put out like 600+ HP each...and burns an ungodly amount of fuel. I think he said it's like $900 to fill it up and it will burn that gas in a few hours.
I have a buddy with one of those big ass Baja type cigarette boats. He's always talkin it up about how fast it is, fun and all.....problem is, he NEVER takes it out. Can't afford to. It sits on it's giant triple axle trailer like a trophy collecting dust.
I don't know the exact specs...but it's got 2 monster V8's that put out like 600+ HP each...and burns an ungodly amount of fuel. I think he said it's like $900 to fill it up and it will burn that gas in a few hours.
While newer outboards are certainly more fuel efficient, four strokes do not appear to make any great gain over 2 strokes once you near full power. Diesels dont either. The diesels and four strokes make their big gains in efficiency at low to part throttle, with diesels in the lead.
Before I read any posts, my initial thought was also 1 mpg, per engine. But it looks like a big boat, it may actually be worse than that. Much depends if this is a planing hull, or displacement, and how hard you push it. It would do better just off idle running only one and pulling the other two up out of the water.
I did 200 miles on the Mississippi, Red Wing to Winona and back, in a 22 foot cabin cruiser with an inline six 165 mercruiser. I averaged just under 3 MPG going down, about 2 coming back. From that time forward I always wanted to go back on the river, but in a sailboat.
From what ive been reading though, thats quite an obstacle too. While going down is quite easy, up requires burning fuel. And then you have that darn Barge traffic. I got to close to the back end of a tow in that cabin cruiser once, we found big rollers of prop wash that looked like 8 to 10 foot waves. Took one over the bow and it scared the dickens out of me, glad we had a big enough boat with an enclosed cabin, a small open boat would have been sunk.
But there sure are a lot of sailboats up there from places far south, even beyond the gulf coast. They obviously made it up there somehow.
Before I read any posts, my initial thought was also 1 mpg, per engine. But it looks like a big boat, it may actually be worse than that. Much depends if this is a planing hull, or displacement, and how hard you push it. It would do better just off idle running only one and pulling the other two up out of the water.
I did 200 miles on the Mississippi, Red Wing to Winona and back, in a 22 foot cabin cruiser with an inline six 165 mercruiser. I averaged just under 3 MPG going down, about 2 coming back. From that time forward I always wanted to go back on the river, but in a sailboat.
From what ive been reading though, thats quite an obstacle too. While going down is quite easy, up requires burning fuel. And then you have that darn Barge traffic. I got to close to the back end of a tow in that cabin cruiser once, we found big rollers of prop wash that looked like 8 to 10 foot waves. Took one over the bow and it scared the dickens out of me, glad we had a big enough boat with an enclosed cabin, a small open boat would have been sunk.
But there sure are a lot of sailboats up there from places far south, even beyond the gulf coast. They obviously made it up there somehow.
When we fueled up last week it cost $104.36 for 20 gallons of diesel. I hadn't fueled up since February and use the boat a LOT. Before we started the pump, I pointed out to my son that the pumps had records from the two prior fuel-ups: $850 and $980!!!!
I knew a guy who had a big cigarette with three 454 mercruisers. Can you imagine at todays prices its probably consuming over $30 a mile?
How about buying fuel for my buddy Gery's boat. It is slightly over 100' long, has twin 12 cylinder Caterpillars, 2800 gallon fuel capacity and burns about 40 GPH per engine.... Hell his "slip" was over 7 figures alone, forget what the boat and upkeep cost... If you have to ask how much.... I no longer ask Gerry "how much" cause I have to keep picking my jaw off the floor.......
My brother has twin 225 EFI two strokes on his Mako and it burns a lot for the size engines.... Surprisingly my friend Mike has twin Yamaha 350's, same as the three pictured above, on his Grady White Canyon and it burns about the same as my brothers boat does... The new Yamaha's are sweet motors..
These Yamaha 350's burn 24 GPH at a 27 knot cruise..
Fuel Purchase
Delivered with intrepid owner and his wife.. This 1978 model, 53 foot Hatteras .. twin Detroit diesels at 330 hp each.. Econo cruise was 10 knots where it was burning 10 gal per hour.. one mile per gallon. Delivery was about 950 miles. We burned more diesel in that trip than I will have burned in my whole lifetime sailing !.. But we were comfortable..
Delivered with intrepid owner and his wife.. This 1978 model, 53 foot Hatteras .. twin Detroit diesels at 330 hp each.. Econo cruise was 10 knots where it was burning 10 gal per hour.. one mile per gallon. Delivery was about 950 miles. We burned more diesel in that trip than I will have burned in my whole lifetime sailing !.. But we were comfortable..
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Seen a powerboat fueling up the other day, he stopped the pump at $950 not likely because it was full but perhaps to avoid having to admit that it takes a "grand" to operate the boat.
Must have had 671's. 10 GPH is sipping it for a 54 footer. The big Buddy Davis, Post & Gamefishers I used to fish on burned about 45-100 GPH but they also cruised at over 30 knots..........
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