I know there have been several threads on fuel usage, GPH, MPG, etc. but I thought my recent info might be helpful to someone. I know that when I was looking for a boat to do the loop, fuel was a critical issue.
The boat is a 1978 Marine Trader 36' double cabin with a recently rebuilt Ford Lehman 120 engine. The bottom was pressure washed last may and divers have kept it in pretty good shape since then.
I filled at Hoppies on the Mississippi in September. Since then I have put on 293 hours and have used 724 glallons of Diesel. That works out to 2.47 GPH.
Speed varied depending on who I was traveling with but on average it was about 7 knots or in my world about 8.4 MPH (at 1,650 RPM).
This included down rivers, up rivers, a Gulf Crossing and down the ICW to Ft. Myers Beach where I just paid $3.81 a gallon.
All of this feels about right for the full 5,800 miles or so that I have traveled since last May but some of my detail was lost to the computer gods a while back so I don't have the data without a lot of reconstructing.
These old Trawlers can be great, comfortable, and economical traveling machines.
Arch
The boat is a 1978 Marine Trader 36' double cabin with a recently rebuilt Ford Lehman 120 engine. The bottom was pressure washed last may and divers have kept it in pretty good shape since then.
I filled at Hoppies on the Mississippi in September. Since then I have put on 293 hours and have used 724 glallons of Diesel. That works out to 2.47 GPH.
Speed varied depending on who I was traveling with but on average it was about 7 knots or in my world about 8.4 MPH (at 1,650 RPM).
This included down rivers, up rivers, a Gulf Crossing and down the ICW to Ft. Myers Beach where I just paid $3.81 a gallon.
All of this feels about right for the full 5,800 miles or so that I have traveled since last May but some of my detail was lost to the computer gods a while back so I don't have the data without a lot of reconstructing.
These old Trawlers can be great, comfortable, and economical traveling machines.
Arch
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