how much gas should I go though?

[PowerAddict]

I have a 73 cobalt tri-hull; 1600lb boat dry with engine. Its got a 140 mercruiser.

How much gas should I expect to go through for a few hours of boating pleasure!?

skiing and tubing and just crusing a little.

 

[studlymandingo]

Re: how much gas should I go though?

skiing and tubing are going to use much more fuel than cruising. It's hard for anyone to give you an answer because everyone uses their boat differently. Rule of thumb for an outboard is about 1 GPH for every 10HP; a slight amount less for an I/O.​

 

[Silvertip]

Re: how much gas should I go though?

Hull efficiency, how fast you run, how many bodies on board, what you are towing, all affect fuel consumption. There is no hard and fast number to grab as there too many variables. For outboards, the rule of thumb (and it's very accurate by the way) is at wide open throttle an engine will burn 10% of its rated HP per hour. 150 HP = 15 gallons per hour. 75 HP = 7.5 GPH.

 

[luckyinkentucky]

Re: how much gas should I go though?

+1 To what they've said. I have a '95 Skeeter 200SL with a '94 Vindicator 200 hp and a 41 gal. tank. Yesterday I made a 30 mile run down river with 6 people on board, and I had it at Wide Open Throttle. I used around 15 gallons going down river at around 50mph.

On the way back I was going UP river, I had 2 less passengers, I was traveling 62mph, but I only used around 10 gallons.

Like they said you really have to get all of the factors into the equation. Weight of people, weight of fuel, cargo, hull drag, wind direction, current, and speed. You can guesstimate what you will get, but unfortunately for outboards there is no MPG rating just for that reason. What they said in the previous post is generally a good assumption to make.

 

[Wotam]

Re: how much gas should I go though?

Slinging a big tube around is about as bad as it gets when it comes to burning fuel... you're spending horsepower digging holes in the water to try and toss them off. Lotsa fun for the kids though. (big kids)

Right behind tubing is running around WFO... reducing throttle a little bit will typically save a considerable amount of fuel... so run around in the 'sweet spot' for your boat.

Watersports like skiing and kneeboarding aren't too bad on fuel at all. Wakeboarding not really bad either unless you're in a wakeboard boat ballasted down to throw a mountain of a wake behind you.

Overall for 'recreational use' in a 3.0L Mercruiser/19' bayliner classic, I'll burn about 10-12 gallons for a typical 'rec-day' ... which probably works out somewhere between 2 and 3 GPH of boat running time. The rest of the day goes into swimming, eating lunch, lounging around, changing riders etc.

 

[AguaSki]

Re: how much gas should I go though?

I like the ignorance of not knowing how much gas I am burning. It is even better when my wife questions me on how much boating costs, and I can honestly say I don't know.