Newbie question: what's the average cost per NM for a power cat 47' ?

[amarinesurveyor]

Not sure if this has been mentioned, but it depends on how fast you run the engines. Throttle back to sub 10 knots, you'll be getting your best economy. between 10 knots and planing speed will be inefficient. Once you get on plane and speed comes up will be better efficiency, and will be better at slow planing speed than at fast cruise or full throttle.

[mcarthur]

I did some analysis on fuel efficiency for largish cruising powercats that may help - bluenomads.blog. I must bring it uptodate (which I've said many times - poke me if you want it done ).

[mcarthur]

Originally Posted by s/v Jedi

Why don’t have motor-cats hydrofoils?

There was one I read about (sorry, can't find it) that had a single wide foil attached at each hull under the mid-aft bridgedeck. The article wasn't owner written, so I didn't take much notice of the comments but it was said to work well.

One reason I haven't taken it further for our boat is that I think it would probably do better than the Great Ocean Cleanup in collecting detritus as you went along. (given how poor the GOC has proved, I could have said "certainly better"...)

[Senojev]

If the fuel cost is a factor in your decision, you should probably consider not buying a boat.

Difficult to give answer without more information. Specific vessel, engines, desired speed , etc. all have a bearing on the number. At max it could be 0.8 nmpg, at 6 kts it could be 3 nmpg.

With the average power boat running around in the 100 to 150 hrs per season, the fuel cost is not a significant factor when you consider depreciation, loss of investment opportunity, insurance, storage, maintenance, etc. Just insurance alone costs me 4 times my fuel cost.

Someone once told me “A wise man never works out his overall cost per nmpg and if he does, he never tells his wife.”

[Mark424]

Originally Posted by ScienceSailor

Hi! I know this question will have a lot of 'what ifs' but - roughly speaking, assuming a standard configuration and solar to provide power to the internals, how much will it cost me to power a power cat, roughly 47' feet ?

There is some data here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A__gvoQ8Fl8

a 47' won't be that much cheaper than this boat.

[mcarthur]

Originally Posted by Mark424

a 47' won't be that much cheaper than this boat.

The previous Aquilla's that I looked up aren't designed particularly for efficiency compared to some other more one-off designs. For example most from Malcolm Tennant's design hand would potentially be half the consumption at various speeds/conditions. But have a look at First Edition, the lengthened Aquilla 44. Then the lovely Herley 3400 for something smaller, or lust after Domino as larger or the Santorini 65.