Motor yachts for long range cruising

[MAJICDAN]

When I decided that I wanted to cruise the world I knew that I had to give up on the idea of a motor yacht. I also owned a Hatteras that I loved but it cost me over $12,000 in fuel to go from Florida to the Bahamas and back for 6 weeks.
I have visions of sailing around the world.
I downsized to a 53ft Gulfstar Motorsailer Pilothouse Ketch. It is about 64 ft long overall and about 16 ft wide. It has 6ft 10-inch headroom in the salon with three staterooms and two heads. It holds 350 gallons of water and has an 18 gallon an hour water maker. I bought and outfitted it for under $150,000 including a rebuilt 6 cylinder Perkins diesel.motor and generator.
I found that I had a cruising range of up to 2000 miles on motor alone if I did not want to sail. I now have the best of both worlds. I have a generator when I want to run the AC or the washer and dryer, but we normally live on our four 345 watt solar panels and two wind generator with a 22 battery house battery bank..
You would not realize how much money I have saved just on fuel. I have a top speed of about 10 mph but we usually, cruise about at between 6 to 8 mph.depending on how far we want the fuel to last.
This was the best decision for me and my family.

[DeepFrz]

Originally Posted by Simi 60

Another a bit smaller
Uses 19lph @ 10

Power Catamaran World: Hero: Bill Shuman's dream powercat

Okay, now push your trawler up to 10 knots and let us know how it compares.

[Simi 60]

Originally Posted by DeepFrz

Okay, now push your trawler up to 10 knots and let us know how it compares.

Pointless exercise.
You want to compare a cat at its most economical speed with mine at its least?
Also bear in mind we are more than twice the displacement.

[Simi 60]

Originally Posted by MAJICDAN

I also owned a Hatteras that I loved but it cost me over $12,000 in fuel to go from Florida to the Bahamas and back for 6 weeks.
.

About 500nm each way isnt it?
You very obviously had the wrong boat.

[ranger58sb]

Originally Posted by MAJICDAN

I also owned a Hatteras that I loved but it cost me over $12,000 in fuel to go from Florida to the Bahamas and back for 6 weeks.

Originally Posted by Simi 60

About 500nm each way isnt it?
You very obviously had the wrong boat.

I think the shortest leg from FL to Bahamas is 46nm.

I'm guessing this sounds like a multi-island tour, mostly (always) at high speeds... and maybe when diesel prices where higher...

I could probably spend big fuel bucks like that on a similar trip, but when we go slow -- when we can -- our fuel consumption rate can be quite modest.

-Chris

[dcstrng]

If you can find a copy of Beebe’s “Voyaging Under Power” (I still have my 1970s vintage text, but it has been updated several times), it pretty much outlines the parameters of the discussion.

[Carat]

This is a helpful thread because I started off want a motor yacht. Now I'm seriously considering a sailboat.

[Enyar]

Originally Posted by wayne.b

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If you want to do long range cruising with a Hatteras, probably your best bet is the 58 LRC. These boats are very capable but are getting old and will require maintenance and upgrades. They have also held their value well so do not expect any bargains if still in reasonable shape. For blue water operation you definitely need some type of stabilization, either active like Naiad, or passive paravanes like the commercial fishermen use. Be aware that active stabilizers require a fair amount of periodic maintenance.

All that said, my wife and I cruise a Grand Banks 49 which is now 36 years old. We have a usable fuel range of close to 1,000 nautical miles with 1,000 gallons of diesel capacity. Our speed averages a little over 8 knots. We've been everywhere from southern Grenada (about 70 miles from the South American coast) to northern Canada very close to Newfoundland and Labrador. The Grand Banks is not truly a blue water boat but given judicious selection of weather windows you can island hop down through the Bahamas and Caribbean, and make occasional runs of 500 to 600 nautical miles.

Do you have any recommended reading for these kind of trips? I'm interested in learning about what's past the Bahamas.

[wayne.b]

Originally Posted by Enyar

Do you have any recommended reading for these kind of trips? I'm interested in learning about what's past the Bahamas.

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A good place to start is Bruce Van Sant's "A Gentleman's Guide to Passages South." We reference it all the time.



https://www.amazon.com/Bruce-Van-Sant/e/B003R95I62


After that there are many excellent cruising guides for Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Windward and Leeward Islands, etc.


For quick reference on ports of entry, clearance procedures, etc. I have found https://www.noonsite.com/ to be useful.