On 2 Sep 2004 14:51:37 -0700, (Brad) wrote:

Hello All,

Now I know that normally a sailboat would use a lot less than a
powerboat, and maybe that's not the right heading to use, but I am
currently looking at the possibility of buying one or the other type
of boat (used), and I am trying to get some info on boating long-term
on the Atlantic.

Although a powerboat would use oodles of fuel at a fast clip, any idea
of how much that would drop if traveling at the rate of a sailboat
(say 7 or 8 knots)?


7 or 8 knots would be a fairly large sailboat - 35 - 40 ft, I think.

My Yamaha 30' sailboat did about 5.5 knots, at about 1.5 litres/hour.
I now have a 28 ft Trawler, and find a comfortable cruising speed for
it is 6.5 knots, and about 5.4 litres/hour. (Both boats were diesels)

Between these boats I had a 26 ft planing boat, with twin gas
sterndrives - it did 15 knots at 55 litres/hr (but I found just before
I sold it that the props had too much pitch - reducing the pitch
increased the speed, but I don't recall the fuel consumption. I did
occasionally run that boat around 7 - 8 knots, and I think I was still
over 12 litres/hr.

If you intend to run at displacement speeds, you should get a
displacement hull - planing hulls don't handle well at low speeds.


--
Peter Bennett, VE7CEI
peterbb4 (at) interchange.ubc.ca
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