Average Fuel Usage for 38'ers

[barnakiel]

Originally Posted by Mate

Why would the leopard then be so high , one spec I read said 2 gallens per hour . In my turms thats over 7.5ltr / hr , far to high.

There is no such thing as "far too high". It is all up to how fast you go - the faster you go, the more hp you use, the more juice you gurgle. Go slower and you will use less fuel (and maybe also go further).

If you look at the info given by Farr of their recent HR projects (HR homesite) then you will find that their boats get max range under very low speeds. But we all know that it is not always practical to go "that" slow - e.g. when beating against the tidal current or power-sailing to windward.

There is also the (marginal) probability that the builder of a specific boat used a mis-matched combo of engine/propeller sizes. In effect the boat may do funny things - like not reach its hull speed even if the hp per ton is perfectly adequate, etc. But other than such errors all boats of the same size/design will burn comparatively close amounts of fuel per hp used.

b.