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. This comes from consistent engine use when our speed under
sail drops below 3.5 or 4 knots - firing up the engine is always the
call of the man on watch - our goal is to make good about 135 NM or
more each 24 hour period underway. I have a hard and fast rule to not
leave on a voyage unless we have 200 hours of fuel onboard, or, as is
the case with the boats I normally take offshore, about 80 gallons of
fuel. This pencils out to about 900 to 1000 NM under power, with some
leeway for daily battery and frig plate charges while under sail
alone. This fuel quantity has worked quite well while on voyages of
30 days nominal length, yet we've come in on fumes once or twice,
having to wait for wind during the last week out to make it into port
with enough fuel remaining to negotiate the harbor and docks.

T A Will