Mileage Performance Checkup

[workinpr0gress]

Many a big boat has sight tubes on there tanks. The best fuel setup ever IMO on those bigger boats is below cockpit/bilge fuel fills directly on the tanks with a wooden stick on the bottom side of the cap and no sighttube to break...sticking the tanks is very accurate if they were done right I have pulled into Fernidena Beach from Pamlico on a 60' custom with nine gallons in each rear tank...lol...Plus if you have a fuel spill while filling , just shut off the bilge pumps and clean it up when you can instead of it dumping overboard and having your tiny problem turn into a huge ordeal

[eggsuckindog]

I was thinking ahead to this summer when I hope to join other CSC'ers head across to the Bahamas. Since I've never made the crossing, I figured a good way to estimate fuel needs would be to factor gallon per mile at a fairly constant cruising speed.

On that trip just running to places you know have fuel is the deciding factor and that will be within 100 miles. WPB to WE - then to Foxtown. So you shouldn't be stretching it

[Tiny]

A little late to get into this conversation but I have a question???

Why is everyone so concerned about how many miles per gallon they get? Or is this just a different way to get the information then hours per gallon?

Now let me explain. When I was running a 30 ft Allura with a 350 inboard I put on over 1400 hours and I could not tell you what my mpg was.

However I could tell you what my burn rate was per hour and almost any speed. I use to log my hours and every fill up. So if I was going port to port my burn rate would be 8 gph. If I was doing fishing cruising or cock tailing my burn rate was 6 gph. So by using the hour meter and the high end of the burn rate I could always tell how much fuel I had left, and there was confirmation at every fill up.

Anyway that is my story and I am sticking to it.

Short answer, gas was cheaper back then?

For us I'd say its because miles per gallon is a way of measuring efficiency in relation to time, and with gas getting more expensive; it's not about how much you burn each hour but how little you can burn on a given trip. If gas gets crazy expensive, those getting the best miles per gallon will be the ones still fishing, IMHO, which is why we have a 70 safari, with a mercrusier alpha and 4.3l :-)