Fuel Expense

[bill brown]

LOUSY MATH - - SHOULD BE $4000 BB

[bathharbor]

I like when Dashew of Deerfoot Boats fame explained his transition from sail to power- The cost of the custom sails he changed out every other year exceeded the consumption of fuel estimate on the powerboat. I have seen several of my friends go into the power side never to sail again- I have trounble understanding this concept .

[Jack Tar]

Angelique has a 135hp tubo John Deere. At 1700 rpm cruise 7.5 Kts she burns 1.5 gallons an hour. She is capable of holding 300 gallons. Perhaps a bit more. I find I motor or motor sail far more than sail here in Puget Sound. Known for light air summers the sound is what it is.

[motion30]

I had fast boats all my life, my last one went 110mph. 150gal for a weekend was not unusual. I then bought my 30year old trawler. From the chesapeake bay to s. florida I used 400 gals of fuel. I have had more fun on my 8mph trawler in the past three years with 3 round trips down the ICW then I had had in the last 25 years running 60mph I use to laugh at the slow boats...go figure. of course I am now 53 yo and I lived aboard for 7 months last winter in sunny florida

[Bash]

Originally Posted by bathharbor

I like when Dashew of Deerfoot Boats fame explained his transition from sail to power- The cost of the custom sails he changed out every other year exceeded the consumption of fuel estimate on the powerboat. I have seen several of my friends go into the power side never to sail again- I have trounble understanding this concept .

Back in my racing days, I was often involved in delivering offshore racers to the next venue. If there were delivery sails aboard--in other words, worn out sails from previous seasons--we would be encouraged to use them. But if we only had the racing suit of sails aboard the owner could be counted on to remind us that fuel was cheaper than sails.

Cruisers, of course, tend to tolerate a bit more stretch in the sails before considering them worn.

[Bill Lee]

My 42 foot Convertible holds 524 gallons of diesel. At 21 knots and with 3/4 load (full water: 200 gallons, all our equip: bikes, toys, food, etc..., but 3/4 fuel) she burns about 25 gallons per hour. Although we use the boat year round, our "off-season" cruising is VERY close to home (say from our Marina to downtown for lunch, Granville Island or downtown for an overnighter). Our real cruising takes place during the summer when I take almost 2 months off. Since I have to come back to town, and since we have 2 youngish kids (9 and 11) we currently need something FAST. In the summer we are out alot. Our annual fuel bill is about $10K. Does that hurt? No. not really We're not rich and we hope one day to afford a used Nordhavn and go slow but spending that kind of money means that we're using our boat (over 150 hours on the motors each year equivelent to 3,150 nm in the PNW). Apart from boat payments our fuel bill is about 1/3 of our total boat costs (not including food and entertainment). Again, this is alot - but it translates directly into useage. I'm gald we use her as much as we do. However, I can't wait until we're sipping fule at 2-5 gallons per hour once the kids are 'done with us'. Cheers,
Bill

[boatman61]

Originally Posted by Bash

Back in my racing days, I was often involved in delivering offshore racers to the next venue. If there were delivery sails aboard--in other words, worn out sails from previous seasons--we would be encouraged to use them. But if we only had the racing suit of sails aboard the owner could be counted on to remind us that fuel was cheaper than sails.

Cruisers, of course, tend to tolerate a bit more stretch in the sails before considering them worn.

Mine have to be restitched 5 times before I call them lightly used....

[S/V Alchemy]

I'm with you, Boatman. I've made a bit of a career out of acquiring new-to-me composite sails from the racers in my club who share similar dimensionals. Basically, I convert tape-luff Kevlar or Mylar sails of two or three freshwater seasons' race use to hank-on cruiser sails for $100-200 per sail. Then I use the hell out of them for five seasons and turn them into painter's dropclothes or gear bags of colourful provenance.

What counts as "sub-optimal" for a racing sail can, well-cared for, give a number of cruising seasons of use...at least to me.

My best score was a one-year-old Dacron main used one season and then packed away for 12 years in favour of a full Kevlar suit. It's three inches short on the hoist and needs full outhaul, but it cost me zero dollars and drives my IOR boat like it cost the $3,400 I didn't spend.

[downunder]

Originally Posted by fishwife

I imagine most if not everyone, before they buy a boat is worried about the cost of ownership. It occupies many pages of this forum, in one guise or another. Before I bought my boat I tried to research this and was given answers that ranged from 10% to 25% per year of the purchase price. The wide range was accounted for by how much maintenance you did or had done for you and how much you spent on 'wanted' items like the latest electronics.
Doing all the maintenance myself and resisting the temptation to buy bigger monitors and the new dinghy and the latest navigation programs etc, it seems to be working out at slightly less than 10% of the purchase price. I've talked to many sail boat owners who I consider serious sailors that find they spend a similar percentage on their boats.
To clarify the figures a little, I'm talking about everything you spend on the boat: food, booze, moorings, maintenance, entertainment. Day sailors may spend less but I don't think it's going to be a lot less. If you have a $30,000 boat, the percentage is going to be much higher, just because of the amount you spend on your own needs.

P.

Fishwife

from my observations of the discussions on forums your 10% seems a reasonable stsrting point for living and crusing on a vessel.

[boatman61]

Alchemy..... ya gorra luv racers... but I cheat... I remove the hanks and fit slides then use on my furler...
OK... so the racers pass me.. but who's racing... not me...

[osirissail]

Originally Posted by bill brown

The bill: touch over $10,000 - 2000 gallons to fill her up - - only $2.00/gallon - - them were the days! bb

Check your math unless there was a $6,000 tip involved . . . I'd like to work in that fuel dock.
- - But anyway, several years ago I sailed from Miami to Nassau which took about 42 hours and about 20 gallons of diesel. As I was docking at the Nassau Harbor Club next to the Texaco pier, a superyacht - 120 feet plus or minus called the fuel dock for fuel and told them they need 10,000 gallons. When asked where they came from they said Miami but did the trip in a the same morning rather than my nearly two days. The Bahamas raised their check-in prices to US$300 from the previous approx US$100 for us little sailboats and we bitched - but for these bit guys that is "tip money."
- - Most of the Caribbean is now in the US$4.00 plus or minus half a dollar range per gallon of diesel. Of great pleasure and surprise we just found out that Dutch St Maartin is only charging US$1.04/gallon - gonna tank up to the max . . .

[S/V Alchemy]

Originally Posted by boatman61

Alchemy..... ya gorra luv racers... but I cheat... I remove the hanks and fit slides then use on my furler...
OK... so the racers pass me.. but who's racing... not me...

Given that the old Dacron being replaced looked like Grandma's War Knickers, even a slightly blown race sail has generally been an improvement.

I'm surprised you can find decent used sails to convert from hanks to slides. Usually it goes the other way, because hank-on guys will use them until they are getting sunburned on the shadowy side...

[thinwater]

Originally Posted by boatman61

Mine have to be restitched 5 times before I call them lightly used....

Nicely put.

And then there would be the cost of replacing the engine, if I ran it all the time. I think that would buy some sails too. It would need to be larger too, of course, to be suitable when the wind is up.