Well, if you doubled... or quadrupled... that, would it be a major expense
factor?


Maxprop wrote:
No, but $160 won't take you far in even a 35' CWB with a single Ford Lehman
135.

It will if the bottoms's clean, engine in good shape, and you know how
to drive.


... We didn't cruise much this past year--no time and ****ty weather--but
still logged around 400 miles, mostly under power. The CWB would have
racked up a $250 diesel bill with the same distance at 8 kts.

Well, that's part of the problem. Going 8 knots is wasteful. At 7 knots
the fuel burn is about half, at 6 1/2 it's less than a quarter.



... My friend's
35 CWB with twin 125 Lehmans burns about half a gallon per mile, and another
friend with a similar wood trawler with a single 135 Lehman burns about 1/4
gallon per mile.

That's still about twice what we burn.

... My boat gets about 8-10 miles per gallon, depending upon
wind and if assisted by sail.

Well, obviously sails don't burn fuel, but they are expensive and have a
limited life span. You could, if you were diligent, figure out how many
miles/$ you got out of sails, but you'd probably prefer to not know.




You'd have to cruise at least half time or more (depending on the boat, I
don't think of Nordhavens as particularly fuel-efficient) to spend on fuel
what you already spend on insurance and taxes. Add in a full-time slip,
and fuel becomes almost trivial.


Insurance: approx. $400 for my 34' Sea Sprite, taxes: approx. $60 per
year, not including fuel taxes or sales tax. Grand total of $500, including
fuel expense. If I cruised half the time, I'd have well over 2000 miles in
the trawler, and no trawler I'm familiar with can travel that distance on
$500. More like $1250.

Only if wasteful. I'd expect to burn half that. Part of it is that with
good fuel capacity, shallow draft, and patience, you can buy at the
cheapest places. For example, our last fuel buy was late summer and
$1.20/gal


... And why aren't Nordhavn's fuel efficient?

They're too beamy and they're dragging an extra prop through the water.

... A
Nordhavn 40 with a 140 Lugger

Which is about twice the power it'll ever realistically need.

or a 101 John Deere and 920 gallons of diesel
can cross the Atlantic, or travel roughly 2750 miles without refueling.

That's still not even 3 miles per gallon.

... Try
that in a Grand Banks with a pair of 3208s, not that GBs are offshore boats
by any stretch.

No twin is fuel efficient, but that's not the point. Twins are supposed
to be fast.



I can tell you this- for what sails & running rigging cost, I can cruise a
long long way in our trawler.


This is a typical obfuscation of the argument when powerboaters attempt to
compare costs with sailors. No one denies that both types of boats have
expenses, albeit quite different ones. The net costs typically average out
between the two types of boats of similar length and displacement. It's
*pay me now or pay me later.* But we were discussing fuel costs. Period.

Right

And it's my point that fuel simply isn't that great an expense, compared
with all the other costs of having & keeping & maintaining the boat.

And it wasn't my intent to denigrate powerboats or trawlers.

I didn't think you were, just making a point.



We've spent approx $150 on fuel this year, making 2 cruises of 300+ miles
plus going out almost every weekend, and we've still got more than 1/2 full
tanks... which is good, because now we're running the heater almost full
time...


What type of boat do you have?

http://community.webshots.com/album/63279185YQtgSA

1984 Sundowner 36

... What power?

Ford Lehman 135 with 2100 hrs, barely broken in. Again, twice as much
power as needed, but it has a nice prop.

... Sounds quite economical, unless
you only run at 6 or so knots.

So? Do you always sail faster than 6 knots?

We generally go 7 to 7 1/2 and burn from somewhat less than 1 to 1 1/2
gph. At 6 kt we burn about 1/2 gph. If I slow down to idle, the boat
goes 4 1/2 and the engine actually pulls in hyrdocarbons from the air,
converts it to diesel fuel, and pumps it into the tanks

Fresh Breezes- Doug King