I read an interesting quote in this newsgroup: "If you have to worry
about fuel perhaps you should own a bigger boat".

OK, well, that is probably good advice but I would still like to own
and operate a (decent sized) boat. There must be a size of boat where
fuel is only a moderate or at least an acceptable issue.

For example, I think we can agree that smaller 14' - 16' boats are
quite fuel efficient (compare to the 20+') and I am assuming that most
of these owners do not have to worry very much about how much they
will need to dig in their wallets at the end of a typical weekend.
At the other end, I seems to hear and read that essentially 25'+ boats
are fuel gulping monsters (0.5 to 1.5 GPM).

So I guess my question is: at what point (size of boat) does this
transition occurs. Yes, I know the usual "it depends" will come up but
I am just trying to get a sense of what is good, what is not. For
example, could I expect an 18' boat to behave (fuel) more like a
16' or more like a 24'. How about a 19'? a 20', etc? Surely there
must be some sort of arbitrary cutoff point.

Or is it simply a linear incline that is 16' 17 18 19.... you
get the picture. I am getting the sense that fuel consumption, when
it comes to boating, follows more an exponential curve. So I am
trying ot find the point where there is a good "ratio" between size
and fuel consumption i.e. I would like to have the biggest boat
possible that I can afford to operate without freaking out about fuel.
Right now, I am thinking 18' to 22' range but I am not sure if these
are also fuel-gulping monsters.

Cheers! Andre