a 42 boat motoring using just 6 hp is rare indeed. **planning** on using no
more than 6 hp so one has enough fuel is not prudent seamanship. essentially,
one is engineless in a 42 foot boat with a 6 hp engine. Hell, a 32 foot boat
with 6 hp is damned near engineless.

Now, engineless isn't bad, as long as *you* understand you are engineless.

Jere Lull answers this question quite well from a cruising sailor's
viewpoint. My experience in offshore cruising sailboats 37 to 42 feet
in length yields fuel consumption of about 0.4 gallons per hour at
cruise.
T A Will

In article ,
(JAXAshby) wrote:

0.4 gallons of diesel fuel used per hours equals of about 6.4 hp. but
who's
counting.


Your point being what?

We cruise comfortably at 5-7 hp. We can go a full knot and a half (about
20%) faster when we want to, but at 4 times the burn. Not worth it to us
most of the time.

Cruising is very different than storming around at full power for an
afternoon.

Hell, we don't fire up until our VMG is under about 2 knots unless we
feel like it.

--
Jere Lull
Xan-a-Deux ('73 Tanzer 28 #4 out of Tolchester, MD)
Xan's Pages: http://members.dca.net/jerelull/X-Main.html
Our BVI FAQs (290+ pics) http://homepage.mac.com/jerelull/BVI/