Reply
 
Thread Tools Search this Thread Display Modes
 
Old 08-26-2016, 08:07 PM   #1
Guru
 
tpbrady's Avatar
 
City: Gooding ID/Wrangell AK
Vessel Name: Silver Bay
Vessel Model: Nordic Tug 42-002
Join Date: Sep 2012
Posts: 1,040
2016 Summary

I know a lot of trawler owners and potential owners are interested in long term performance of boats so I thought I would post our summary from 2016:

1996 Nordic Tug 42, 6CTA 420 HP Cummins with 5295 hrs, 39,000 lbs estimated weight

Distance (SM) 2471 miles
Fuel 720 gals
MPG 3.43
GPH 2.03
Engine Hours 354.9

We generally cruised at 1200-1300 RPM (7 -7.5 knots in calm water) and for short periods as high as 1600 RPM. On the last leg between fuel stops where most cruising was on the low side (1200 RPM) and we covered 627 miles and saw 1.84 GPH and 3.9 MPG (I don't believe it but that is how the math comes out so I guess the wind and current were with us a lot).

Tom
tpbrady is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-26-2016, 09:52 PM   #2
Guru
 
healhustler's Avatar
 
City: Longboat Key, FL
Vessel Name: Bucky
Vessel Model: Krogen Manatee 36 North Sea
Join Date: Oct 2009
Posts: 5,196
Dang, Tom. 420 Cummins and all that higher cruising potential and you're getting what I get at 7 knots....., wow! I gotta get me a 42 Nordic Tug.
__________________
Larry

"When life gets hard, eat marshmallows”.
healhustler is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-27-2016, 12:14 AM   #3
Guru
 
dhays's Avatar
 
City: Gig Harbor
Vessel Name: Kinship
Vessel Model: North Pacific 43
Join Date: May 2015
Posts: 9,046
Very efficient Tom. Better than what I think I am getting. I don't have much experience yet however.
__________________
Regards,

Dave
SPOT page
dhays is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-27-2016, 10:54 AM   #4
Guru
 
Moonfish's Avatar


 
City: Port Townsend, WA
Vessel Name: Traveler
Vessel Model: Cheoy Lee 46 LRC
Join Date: Nov 2011
Posts: 1,576
That's pretty impressive! (From one who is quite conscious of fuel economy.)
Moonfish is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-27-2016, 11:36 AM   #5
Guru
 
Nomad Willy's Avatar
 
City: Concrete Washington State
Vessel Name: Willy
Vessel Model: Willard Nomad 30'
Join Date: Oct 2007
Posts: 18,743
Quote:
Originally Posted by healhustler View Post
Dang, Tom. 420 Cummins and all that higher cruising potential and you're getting what I get at 7 knots....., wow! I gotta get me a 42 Nordic Tug.
Larry,
The NT is narrower than most and some or most have rocker in the bottom. May be lighter too.
One point not mentioned by the OP is how the burn rate numbers were computed. Most here look at the hour meter and their fuel reciepts and it seems objective but few really realize how far off it is .. or don't want to know. However the rpms posted are very low and the seemingly good burn may be a result of over propping. Or a number of similar elements can produce good numbers and at time even low burn rates. I'm suspicious of most all fuel comsumption numbers. Execpt my own because I burn so little it hardly matters and haven't "measured" it for a long time. So if you meet another boater that dosn't talk about and seem to care about fuel burn he's prolly not burning much.
__________________
Eric

North Western Washington State USA
Nomad Willy is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-27-2016, 11:50 AM   #6
Guru
 
tpbrady's Avatar
 
City: Gooding ID/Wrangell AK
Vessel Name: Silver Bay
Vessel Model: Nordic Tug 42-002
Join Date: Sep 2012
Posts: 1,040
Eric,

Without a fuel flow meter I can only compute fuel flow numbers using the hour meter and fuel receipts. However, I do see fluctuation between different legs. For example the Garmin MFD tracks average speed while moving. When went to Wrangell from La Conner it showed an average speed of 7.1 knots and the fuel burn for that leg was 2.5 GPH. On our leg with the best fuel burn, 1.84 GPH, the average speed was 6.1 knots. This tracks pretty closely with the Cummins performance graphs for the engine but where we are operating on the graph it is really hard to interpolate the predicted fuel flow.

I don't think the boat is over propped as we can hit almost 2700 RPM at WOT which is 100 RPM over the Cummins WOT RPM for the engine.

Tom
tpbrady is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-27-2016, 12:04 PM   #7
Senior Member
 
tallswede's Avatar
 
City: Baytown, Texas
Vessel Name: Islander
Vessel Model: Prairie 36
Join Date: May 2013
Posts: 290
Nice numbers there Tom. That's about what I'm getting although I've only got about 300 hours this year. Our best part of the season is still to come this year so I'll post better numbers this December. 2X 4-236 Perkins.


Kevin
tallswede is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-27-2016, 12:11 PM   #8
Guru
 
psneeld's Avatar
 
City: Ft Pierce
Vessel Name: Sold
Vessel Model: Was an Albin/PSN 40
Join Date: Oct 2011
Posts: 28,148
Over time....

If you fill a tank and use gallons burned from the receipt...compared against hrs and miles....most experienced boaters I know are pretty confident in their numbers.

Sure tides and winds and a few things alter the equation...but after thousands of miles and numerous fillups, the math starts to get pretty acccurate.

I am confident enough in my numbers to plan arrivals with way less than the 1/3 rule rookies should live by.
psneeld is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Trackbacks are Off
Pingbacks are Off
Refbacks are Off


» Trawler Port Captains
Port Captains are TF volunteers who can serve as local guides or assist with local arrangements and information. Search below to locate Port Captains near your destination. To learn more about this program read here: TF Port Captain Program





All times are GMT -5. The time now is 01:32 PM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.8 Beta 4
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.
Search Engine Optimization by vBSEO 3.6.0
Copyright 2006 - 2012