Fuel Capacity

[rwidman]

I was browsing through the Fuel Check section and I saw refferences to 200 gallosn, five hundred gallons, etc.

My boat holds ninety gallons of diesel. OK, it's small for a trawler, either 28 or 31 feet, depending on who you ask.* Is this an unusually small capacity for a small trawler or did these folks have much larger boats?* How much fuel does your boat hold and what is the length?

 

[dwhatty]

We hold 250 gallons. 32 feet.

 

[jleonard]

My 40 Albin, single engine holds 360 and that is too much IMO. 200/250 *would be plenty.

My ex, a 34 single screw Mainship I *held 220 and I thought that was too much. 150 would have sufficed.

 

[BaltimoreLurker]

My 34' MT holds, as best I can tell, 200 gallons, spread over 4 plastic tanks.* It was advertised as 300 gallons, but I don't think so.* 200 is overkill for how I currently use the boat; about 100 gallons/year.

 

[windmist]

400 gallons on a 37 footer. This is enough to reach Ketchikan from Seattle with lots of side trips in the Boughton's. I was pretty low when I filled up in Ketchikan and don't think I would do that again. Running out of fuel in the Dixon would not be pretty.

Ron

 

[capt jerry]

the boat that* i run holds 1600 gals, just fueled it up and it took 1176 gals* for 3,0150dollars, it has a pair of 1692s DD and burne 90 gals a hr at 1800 rpm, glad i dont have to foot the bill.

 

[Alfton]

My Pilgrim 40 holds 140 gallons and I burn 1.6 gallons per hour plenty for me.*

 

[Giggitoni]

Grand Banks 42 holds 600 gallons.

 

[Steve]

My Monk 36 carries 300 Gal. of fuel, the holding tank 45 usually we fill up when the holding tank needs a pumpout. I don't have a floscan but calculate we get about 3 statute miles per gallon @ 8 - 8.5 statute miles per hour.

When I owned a Camano, Spirit #170, couple of times I carried 2 - 5 gal jerrycans of diesel in the cockpit but never really needed them.

 

[Nomad Willy]

Ron,

My boat is closer to yours in some ways (especially size). We go much slower w much smaller engine. But we burn 1gph and if you go fairly slow I'll bet you burn very close to 2gph so we probably cycle fuel at nearly the same rate. We burn half as much fuel and have half as much capacity. Fuel capacity on a boat is highly related to the boat weight and fuel as ballast factor however planing boats probably carry more as a percentage of disp due to their excess consumption. But full disp boats are frequently designed for much longer range so would need more for that. But fuel on a boat is dead weight and I would not want anymore than necessary. At 100 gallons we have probably twice as much as we need. I'd rather have smaller tanks and cycle the fuel faster. Fuel is available almost everywhere even in SE Alaska. When I had new aluminum tanks built I asked for 2* 35 gallon tanks but got ignored so I still have 2 50 gal tanks. How often do you run low on fuel? If never you've got too much tankage but to change that would be expensive unless you had to change tanks for some other reason and the boat may suffer resale value as well. After all that I'd say 90 gal on your boat is very normal or just about right.

 

[dwhatty]

Steve wrote:
My Monk 36 carries 300 Gal. of fuel, the holding tank 45 usually we fill up when the holding tank needs a pumpout. I don't have a floscan but calculate we get about 3 statute miles per gallon @ 8 - 8.5 statute miles per hour.

When I owned a Camano, Spirit #170, couple of times I carried 2 - 5 gal jerrycans of diesel in the cockpit but never really needed them.

Pop math quiz: caculate the mpg of the holding tank?

 

[Larry M]

Hobo's*(Krogen 42) fuel*capacity is 700 US gallons.*

 

[Anode]

30' Sundowner Tug - 50 hp 4 cyl Kubota - 2 x 50 gal tanks (100 gallons total for the mathematically challenged) - cruise at 1gal/hr. 7 knots.

 

[tadhana]

Tadhana holds 400, but I only filled full one time. The entire boot top in the stern was underwater, It was an uphill climb to the pilothouse. at 2.5 GPH I find half a load, 200 gallons is more than enough. Some people worry about condensation in a partially filled tank. I have fiberglass tanks so am not too worried about condensation. Many years experience tells me that fiberglass tanks condense far less water. In 700 engine hours in 2.5 years have not seen one drop of water in the filter. Holding tank 45. and water is 300 which lasts about 8 days of normal use, and 16 if we are careful and do not use the washing machine.

 

[FlyWright]

34 Californian LRC with two 125 gal aluminum tanks for 250 US Gal total. This equates to approximately 60 hrs of cruising with 15% reserve.

 

[Conrad]

Our 32 footer holds 100 imperial gallons/454 litres, and burns 10 litres/hr at 7.5 knots. So theoretically we have a range of 340 nautical miles, although I like to start looking for fuel after 20 hours or so.

This summer there was a large (80'?) yacht at the fuel dock, and after fueling to the tune of $8000 his credit card was declined. Never heard how that turned out.

 

[Delfin]

I feel like an oil tanker.....

2450 gallons.

 

[Tom.B]

Delfin wrote:
I feel like an oil tanker.....

2450 gallons.

*HOLY CRAP!!! Yea, I can see how you can feel that way.

 

[swampu]

1000gal

 

[Daddyo]

compared to Delfin we're just a paltry 1100 gallons.

 

[Art]

34' Tollycraft at 17,000 lb. when dry, approx 21,000 fully loaded.* Twin 350 cid / 255 hp Mercruisers in tuned, top running*cond. Two 100 gal*alum gas tanks = 200 cap:

Either engine running alone and*traveling quite*slow (5.9 to 6.2 knts)*avg near 3 nmpg.

Both engines running...*at*6.7 to 7.3 knts (just below hull speed of 7.58 knts) we avg 2 + nmpg.**

Fully on plane at 16 +/- knts she gets 1 +/- nmpg; but*that can quickly get expensive these days.*

Higher rpm, quads begin to open -*never tried it long enough*to calc nmpg, probably can't count that high anyway - LOL.*

But... when speed is necessary she will top out*(WOT / 4,500 rpm) at over 21 knts.* So far only had to stress her real hard once to solve*a potentially disastrous developing*situation of dumb boaters while we were helping to usher Tom Perkins Maltese Falcon under Golden Gate Bridge and into SF Bay.* I kept her nearly opened up for a couple minutes, until out of the danger zone!* Only other time I hit WOT was during sea trial, then held her just slightly back at 4,400 for*a few*minutes.* I would not doubt that 40 to 50 gph is her fuel consumption at that speed... OMG!

Currently, due to weight/nmpg results, we generally cruise at or below hull speed keeping tanks under 50% full and put some gas in at 15 to 20% reserve.* Soltron fuel additive has worked wonders for our fuel system.* Weve been using it for a couple years and our fuel stays fresh with no water and no gunk build up, such as previously would occur.* During first half year of use Soltron cleared up gas problems wed been experiencing on regular basis... and has kept it that way!* Also great for diesel.*http://www.soltron-gtr.com/english.htm

So... Our Crusing Range(s):
-****** At 6.2 knts; well below hull speed w/ one eng running... 500 +/- miles
-****** At 7 knts; just below hull speed w/ both eng running..... 350 +/- miles
-****** At 16 knts on full plane.................................................... 175 +/- miles
-****** At nearly WOT ................................................................. Forget About It!! *

 

[Keith]

700 gallons on my Krogen 42.

 

[O C Diver]

In the continuing search for a trawler, I'm often amused by liquid capacities.

When looking at fuel capacity, I tend to think of it more in cruising range. For what I envision as cruising, more than a thousand mile range seems excessive.

Then I wonder why a boat with a 2,000 mile range at 7 knots (700 gallons), only holds 200 or 300 gallons of water. Think I'd be a lot happier with 300 gallons of fuel and 700 of water.*

Ted

 

[HeyJude]

280 gal...burn 1 gph at 7 mph. Theortical range 1950 miles

 

[Daddyo]

O C Diver wrote:
In the continuing search for a trawler, I'm often amused by liquid capacities.

When looking at fuel capacity, I tend to think of it more in cruising range. For what I envision as cruising, more than a thousand mile range seems excessive.

Then I wonder why a boat with a 2,000 mile range at 7 knots (700 gallons), only holds 200 or 300 gallons of water. Think I'd be a lot happier with 300 gallons of fuel and 700 of water.*

Ted

*


OK, 1,100 fuel and 500 water. twin 120 Lehman, range at 1400 cruise a really long ways.

 

[belizebill]

36' Marine Trader ,1979, 120 HP single, two tanks @ about 144 gals each. 1.5 gal. per hour @7 knots@1800rpm,dead calm with a wind on my arss.BB

 

[FF]

Who cares about gallons? , what matters is RANGE!

My guess would be your 200G would give 100+ hours of operation at at least 5.5K. With or without a noisemaker.

550 miles of range should be fine for an inshore cruiser.

Blue water does take big tanks which reduces the room in the vessel, and can cause huge problems with storing the fuel as it might decay.

 

[Keith]

That's why they make watermakers.

*

O C Diver wrote:

In the continuing search for a trawler, I'm often amused by liquid capacities.

When looking at fuel capacity, I tend to think of it more in cruising range. For what I envision as cruising, more than a thousand mile range seems excessive.

Then I wonder why a boat with a 2,000 mile range at 7 knots (700 gallons), only holds 200 or 300 gallons of water. Think I'd be a lot happier with 300 gallons of fuel and 700 of water.*

Ted

*

 

[Tom.B]

I'd give up half of my supposed 300g fuel capacity for more bilge storage... and may yet someday.

 

[rwidman]

Thanks for the replies. They are really all over the place it seems. I just cruise the Atlantic ICW so I'm not really that far from a fuel supplier, but I have little confidence in the fuel gauges so I'm uncomfortable once they get down below 1/3 for each tank. Also, for some reason, I seem to be pulling more fuel from one tank than the other (or returning more fuel to one tank) and running one dry would suck air and create a problem.

The owners manual goes into detail about the compromise of more fuel capacity vs. less weight, but it looks like they could have made the tanks wider and increase the capacity by 30 gallons or so, something I would be more comfortable with.

My cruising involves tidal currents so I might be doing 9 knots at 2K RPM or I might be doing les than 5. With the inlets on the ICW, this can change a couple times in a day.

All in all, it's a minor thing, I love the boat.