A question from a landlubber from Nebraska
 

It might be a stupid question to some of you old salts but hey I have
lived in Nebraska and Colorado all my life. The biggest body of water
close to my house is the stock tank by the windmill.

I have read about quite a few Ocean crossings in sailboats but I have
always wondered about crossing the Atlantic or Pacific in a motor
powered boat. I assume there are no gas stations floating around in the
middle of the Atlantic or Pacific Oceans??? My experience with small
ski boats etc. is that they suck a lot of fuel. My old 18 foot Glastron
165 I/O MercCruiser would go through 25 gallons in a day easily. Using
fuel at that rate I figure it would take at least 1000 gallons to make
it from NYC to the UK (3500 miles give or take at 3.5 mpg). Does
anyone have any idea about what kinds of Atlantic/Pacific crossings
have been done in smaller powered craft?

You must take into account of the extra mass of the fuel, besides the fact
that it just screwes up your take-off speed. I have always been a sailboat
person myself so I dont have to worry about that. Besides that is that I
wouldnt trust a powerboat, its not as sea worthy as a sailboat, all it takes
is one wave to come up your tail, flood your engines and youre screwed. So
whatever you do, take a very good mechanic, a SSB and make sure everything
is working since putting in so many constant hours into an engine may have
bad effects.

Sebas

"twoguns" wrote in message
ups.com...
It might be a stupid question to some of you old salts but hey I have
lived in Nebraska and Colorado all my life. The biggest body of water
close to my house is the stock tank by the windmill.

I have read about quite a few Ocean crossings in sailboats but I have
always wondered about crossing the Atlantic or Pacific in a motor
powered boat. I assume there are no gas stations floating around in the
middle of the Atlantic or Pacific Oceans??? My experience with small
ski boats etc. is that they suck a lot of fuel. My old 18 foot Glastron
165 I/O MercCruiser would go through 25 gallons in a day easily. Using
fuel at that rate I figure it would take at least 1000 gallons to make
it from NYC to the UK (3500 miles give or take at 3.5 mpg). Does
anyone have any idea about what kinds of Atlantic/Pacific crossings
have been done in smaller powered craft?

twoguns wrote:
It might be a stupid question to some of you old salts but hey I have
lived in Nebraska and Colorado all my life. The biggest body of water
close to my house is the stock tank by the windmill.

I have read about quite a few Ocean crossings in sailboats but I have
always wondered about crossing the Atlantic or Pacific in a motor
powered boat. I assume there are no gas stations floating around in the
middle of the Atlantic or Pacific Oceans??? My experience with small
ski boats etc. is that they suck a lot of fuel. My old 18 foot Glastron
165 I/O MercCruiser would go through 25 gallons in a day easily. Using
fuel at that rate I figure it would take at least 1000 gallons to make
it from NYC to the UK (3500 miles give or take at 3.5 mpg). Does
anyone have any idea about what kinds of Atlantic/Pacific crossings
have been done in smaller powered craft?

Yes, it's been done but only in displacement speed trawler yachts. You
can't do it in a small planing hull because of fuel consumption (and
seaworthiness). Google "Nordhaven" trawlers.

twoguns wrote:
It might be a stupid question to some of you old salts but hey I have
lived in Nebraska and Colorado all my life. The biggest body of water
close to my house is the stock tank by the windmill.

I have read about quite a few Ocean crossings in sailboats but I have
always wondered about crossing the Atlantic or Pacific in a motor
powered boat. I assume there are no gas stations floating around in the
middle of the Atlantic or Pacific Oceans??? My experience with small
ski boats etc. is that they suck a lot of fuel. My old 18 foot Glastron
165 I/O MercCruiser would go through 25 gallons in a day easily. Using
fuel at that rate I figure it would take at least 1000 gallons to make
it from NYC to the UK (3500 miles give or take at 3.5 mpg). Does
anyone have any idea about what kinds of Atlantic/Pacific crossings
have been done in smaller powered craft?


A lot of smaller boats wouldn't go directly across from New York...they
might stop in Nova Scotia or Newfoundland and fuel up there. From
Newfoundland to Ireland (another refuel) is probably not much more than
half the distance from New York to England.

"twoguns" wrote in message
ups.com...
It might be a stupid question to some of you old salts but hey I have
lived in Nebraska and Colorado all my life. The biggest body of water
close to my house is the stock tank by the windmill.

I have read about quite a few Ocean crossings in sailboats but I have
always wondered about crossing the Atlantic or Pacific in a motor
powered boat. I assume there are no gas stations floating around in the
middle of the Atlantic or Pacific Oceans??? My experience with small
ski boats etc. is that they suck a lot of fuel. My old 18 foot Glastron
165 I/O MercCruiser would go through 25 gallons in a day easily. Using
fuel at that rate I figure it would take at least 1000 gallons to make
it from NYC to the UK (3500 miles give or take at 3.5 mpg). Does
anyone have any idea about what kinds of Atlantic/Pacific crossings
have been done in smaller powered craft?

As others have mentioned Nordhaven sponsored a Rally across the Atlantic
last year. These guys went the southern route via the azores.

The boats involved are the ultimate small trawler. The approach sail boats
in their sea worthiness though they lack the deep keel. They try to offset
this by using active fins to control roll. If there was any substantial
outcome from this crossing it was that the active fins systems need work.
Virtually everybody had problems.

There is a great account of the voyage told by a good storyteller at:

http://sanssouci.talkspot.com/bbs/bb...asp/t/3274/p/1

Note that some sailboats have large fuel capacity and are efficient motor
boats. Some of the Transpac boats return to the States by crossing the
Pacific high where there is generally no wind. They just motor 1500 miles.

Jim Donohue