Motor Cruising Range

[bhmcp]

I will be heading from the Boston south shore area to Rockland, ME in the near future and since I''ll be far offshore most of the way, I''m wondering if I''ll have enough fuel if I have to motor the whole trip. I have a 1988 Catalina 34 with a Universal 25 hp diesel. The trip should be about 140-150 miles and others tell me it should take 22 hours. Any helpful advice is greatly appreciated.

[hamiam]

How big is your tank?

[bhmcp]

Sorry I left out the essential info, it''s a 25 gallon tank.

[hamiam]

I had a C&C 30 with a similar sized engine. She went thru approximately 3/4 gallon per hour at full throttle. You may want to verify your burn rate and do that calculation.

[pjfsail]

Our 33'' Yorktown with a 38 HP Volvo-Penta MD3B averages about 1/2 gallon per hour at 5.5 knots. Probably the best thing you can do is test your boat''s average consumption rate so you will know for sure.
1. Fill the tank.
2. Motor at the throttle speed you intend to motor on your trip for 1 hour.
3. Track the distance covered.
4. Come back in and top your tank off.
5. Note the fuel burned in one hour.
6. This should be close to your average consumption rate.
7. From this figure you can estimate how much fuel you will need to cover the distance you intend to motor.
8. If you are going to burn more than your tank will hold carry some extra fuel on the topsides.

[mgiguere]

I can tell you that you have plenty of capacity already. I have a Volvo 2002 27 hp diesel and had to run the engine from Annapolis to Marblehead (550 miles) and ran out of fuel off Plymouth. I have an Apache 37 sloop that displaces 14,500 pounds. (I figured we''d be sailing some of the time, but it was flat calm for 3 days on this 24hr/day trip).

[sidney777]

it is good to have 500 mile range.