Headed out to Block Island for Labor Day this year (my 3rd time there this year alone, but only the 2nd time I've ever taken my boat there). Treating the passage more of a delivery, We left Thursday evening about 7pm and motor sailed until sunrise when the wind allowed us to turn off the motor and go under sail alone. Continued non-stop and arrived in Block Island just after 3pm.
Hung out on the hook until Monday evening leaving the fuel dock at Paynes a little before 6pm and making it back home to Stamford about 2:30pm after another non-stop passage. Mis-judged the timing of the race (more so wanted to stay a few hours extra on the island than mis-judged, and thus didn't really pay attention to the timing with the knowledge that we would make it through one way or another) so we motored against the current for many hours, and a couple hours from our home port the CG issued an advisory about some severe weather that was heading roughly in our direction so I dropped all sails and motored the last few hours despite having wind to sail, in case the 35kt winds made their way to us.
The trip gave the new fuel system, 4 blade high-thrust propeller, and auto pilot one heck of a good workout, and all performed spectacularly. The new tank holds 9 gallons, and I carried a 5 gal jerry can in addition. Coincidently conditions dictated that I burned almost exactly 11 gallons of fuel each direction motor sailing, with an average of 14 hours of time on the engine each way, with some of that at high RPM to power through heavier seas (heading out) and strong current (returning through the race), for an overall average of just under 0.8 gal/hr, with consumption at normal cruising RPM closer to 0.5gal/hr.
The autopilot was at the helm for over 3/4 of the trip there (even a bit of the time spent with the chute up), and nearly the whole return trip (with someone always standing watch of course).
The log recorded a little under 200nm of water under the keel, with a plotted course of about 185nm. This puts my total for this season around 350nm on my boat, and who knows how many miles racing on OPB (easily another 250nm+)...
While the fuel tank upgrade I did this year really simplified that aspect of the journey allowing both the longer range and most significantly the easy monitoring of the fuel level as well as an excess of 12 hours of engine runtime before pulling out the jerry can, and the auto pilot made it possible to double hand the trip without too much stress or lack of sleep, the real amazing upgrade that made the passage so easily achievable was really the new propeller...
New Fuel Tank
The difference in motoring performance after switching from the standard 3 blade to the 4 blade high thrust prop is nothing short of amazing. When we left Stamford on Thursday evening the wind was ~12kts straight on the bow, and seas were 3-5ft, coming straight down the sound with over 70 miles of fetch to build through. The bow was going airborne and smacking down every few minutes when a particularly large wave came our way, and more than a few times the bow buried into oncoming waves. You may question why we left in those conditions, but it was only 12-13kts of wind, I didn't expect the waves to have built as much as they did, not to mention it was forecast to die out over night starting a few hours after we left, building again from the west in the morning, which it did. Despite the rougher than anticipated conditions we were still able to maintain 4kts+ of speed over ground, without pushing the engine too terribly hard. With a 3 blade prop we would have struggled to maintain even 2kts of SOG, and the prop would have been cavitating badly in the chop. Even motor sailing on a port tack (engine is on the port side, so it is higher in the water on a port tack) the 4 blade prop did not cavitate except in the most extreme angles of heel, and never once did it do so badly enough that I needed to back the throttle off to prevent the engine from over-revving.
The overall takeaway here, anyone running an outboard with a normal 3 blade prop should immediately try to find a 4 blade high thrust for their engine, and if you want to take a longer trip, absolutely invest in an auto pilot. I couldn't have done the trip without the two.
Hung out on the hook until Monday evening leaving the fuel dock at Paynes a little before 6pm and making it back home to Stamford about 2:30pm after another non-stop passage. Mis-judged the timing of the race (more so wanted to stay a few hours extra on the island than mis-judged, and thus didn't really pay attention to the timing with the knowledge that we would make it through one way or another) so we motored against the current for many hours, and a couple hours from our home port the CG issued an advisory about some severe weather that was heading roughly in our direction so I dropped all sails and motored the last few hours despite having wind to sail, in case the 35kt winds made their way to us.
The trip gave the new fuel system, 4 blade high-thrust propeller, and auto pilot one heck of a good workout, and all performed spectacularly. The new tank holds 9 gallons, and I carried a 5 gal jerry can in addition. Coincidently conditions dictated that I burned almost exactly 11 gallons of fuel each direction motor sailing, with an average of 14 hours of time on the engine each way, with some of that at high RPM to power through heavier seas (heading out) and strong current (returning through the race), for an overall average of just under 0.8 gal/hr, with consumption at normal cruising RPM closer to 0.5gal/hr.
The autopilot was at the helm for over 3/4 of the trip there (even a bit of the time spent with the chute up), and nearly the whole return trip (with someone always standing watch of course).
The log recorded a little under 200nm of water under the keel, with a plotted course of about 185nm. This puts my total for this season around 350nm on my boat, and who knows how many miles racing on OPB (easily another 250nm+)...
While the fuel tank upgrade I did this year really simplified that aspect of the journey allowing both the longer range and most significantly the easy monitoring of the fuel level as well as an excess of 12 hours of engine runtime before pulling out the jerry can, and the auto pilot made it possible to double hand the trip without too much stress or lack of sleep, the real amazing upgrade that made the passage so easily achievable was really the new propeller...
New Fuel Tank
The difference in motoring performance after switching from the standard 3 blade to the 4 blade high thrust prop is nothing short of amazing. When we left Stamford on Thursday evening the wind was ~12kts straight on the bow, and seas were 3-5ft, coming straight down the sound with over 70 miles of fetch to build through. The bow was going airborne and smacking down every few minutes when a particularly large wave came our way, and more than a few times the bow buried into oncoming waves. You may question why we left in those conditions, but it was only 12-13kts of wind, I didn't expect the waves to have built as much as they did, not to mention it was forecast to die out over night starting a few hours after we left, building again from the west in the morning, which it did. Despite the rougher than anticipated conditions we were still able to maintain 4kts+ of speed over ground, without pushing the engine too terribly hard. With a 3 blade prop we would have struggled to maintain even 2kts of SOG, and the prop would have been cavitating badly in the chop. Even motor sailing on a port tack (engine is on the port side, so it is higher in the water on a port tack) the 4 blade prop did not cavitate except in the most extreme angles of heel, and never once did it do so badly enough that I needed to back the throttle off to prevent the engine from over-revving.
The overall takeaway here, anyone running an outboard with a normal 3 blade prop should immediately try to find a 4 blade high thrust for their engine, and if you want to take a longer trip, absolutely invest in an auto pilot. I couldn't have done the trip without the two.
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