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Fuel


Mark42

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Hi Folks

At Easter i will be having 2 weeks on the Norfolk Broads on the Broads Sunset from Richardsons. I have only ever spent 1 week on the broads and i was wondering how you monitor your fuel usage as i understand there is no fuel guage or wooden dip stick. Will there be enough fuel in the tank for 2 weeks or should i take some fuel on at the start of the second week. Based on the fact that we some how got through £140.00 worth of fuel last Easter and only went to Reedham and back along with Horning and Wroxham which seems exssesive for 1 week, we dont want to be running out of fuel in the second week if we have the same fuel consumption, also fuel is more expensive now than it was last Easter. i pray to god we dont use £280 worth of fuel as this time we plan to cover the entire Broads.

Mark

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Hi Mark,

For a two week trip, I top up at begining of second week, as when you return to the yard you get money back for what you havn't used anyway.

£140 seems a little steep. For a one week trip, north and south, from stalham to wavney, oulton, rockland, and back up to wayford then to stalham I only used about £50 - £60

:Stinky

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Just had a quick look at my holiday tale, and coppied this bit

Now back at the yard they started to fill San Pedro up with fuel to see if I got any of my £75.00 fuel deposit back.

Not much will come back, I thought.

Stalham-Horning-Ludham-Ranworth-Fishermans-Waveney Cntr-loddon-Rockland St Mary-Berney-Wayford-Sutton.

Quite a trip in one week. Only used £45.65 worth of fuel.

Didn't use as much as I thought

:Stinky

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Hi Mark

Hmmm, does seem a little steep. For example I have had 2 weeks on the Broads out of Brundall, covered the whole network North and South and used 100 litres of fuel.

Generally boats should have enough fuel on board for a fortnight, touch wood, I have never had to top up!!

Going with the tides can make a tremendous difference, particularly through Yarmouth and on the lower Bure, Waveney and Yare. Punching a strong tide can gobble up fuel. Most boats are now fitted with warm air heating and this also uses diesel fuel, I was once told about half to three quarters of a litre per hour but I could be wrong!

I think a hire boat would typically hold around 40 gallons or 200 litres approx. I was also once told that a hydraulic drive will use more fuel than a shaft drive, but again I could be wrong!!

Have a great holiday and I’m sure you won’t use £280 of fuel, I would have thought half that figure would be nearer the mark.

Good luck!!

cheersbar

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Guest DAYTONA-BILL

If they`d tried charging us £140 for a one week cruise with not much cruising done, i would have gone balistic. That`s absolutely ridiculous. Even allowing for punching tides, you should have barely used half of that?. The best thing to do when you get there,this time is to ask them to dip the tank before you set off. If they refuse, i would think they`ve got something to hide :norty::norty::norty: . Regards to all...................... Neil.

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It is a lot - did you have the heating on most of the time? That would explain it a bit more, I would suggest limiting that anyway, especially on such a large boat if sensible fuel is appealing, as well as keeping the revs low on calm waters... trundling along nicely makes a big difference to being mischievous and slightly exceeding the speed limit, or so I have been told :naughty:

All the best

Dan

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I would be very surprised if you needed to top up the tank on a two week holiday, last summer we were on the go for two weeks covered over 200 miles and it cost us £55 to fill up. Of course we didn't need the heating and that can make a big difference.

cheersbar

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Can see why you decided to stay on the smooth side of the beach now Colin, 2 weeks on Happy Jax or half hour on the bumpy stuff on Clanny.

Always wondered what the slots were for in the side of HJ2 now know that they are for the oars :naughty::naughty:cheersbar

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Can see why you decided to stay on the smooth side of the beach now Colin, 2 weeks on Happy Jax or half hour on the bumpy stuff on Clanny.

Always wondered what the slots were for in the side of HJ2 now know that they are for the oars :naughty::naughty:cheersbar

I have even got a drum so lou and the boys can stay in rhythm. :grin:

The fuel running costs were a major factor in our decision to keep hold of HJII.

cheersbar

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I thought it was a lot at the time Mark but that is what went into your boat when she came home, I can only put it down to pushing the tide and running the heating all the time, apart from that I am at a loss :?

We dont put dipsticks on the boats these days as people were dipping the water tanks but if you feel the need to check before you leave the yard just ask, it would be no problem.

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Fuel consumption is probably something that little attention has been paid to when passage planning on the broads, and to be fair unless you are on the lower stretches and braving the ten foot waves and Kraken on Breydon that is quite understandable. But a little example using the same kind of parameters we use when passage planning a sea trip may interest some and explain some of the disparity.

Let’s assume a vessel making 5mph through still water and using say 3l an hour to do so.

In still water obviously to do 5 miles would use 3 litres in that given hour.

Plan your passage with say a 2mph tide up your chuff and you would travel 7miles for the same fuel, or an increase of 40%.

Cast off without thinking and travel for an hour against a 2mph tide and you would travel only 3 miles for that precious 3 litres or a decrease of 40%.

At its two extremes i.e. 3 miles for 3 litres and 7 miles for 3 litres there is a whopping difference of almost 135% and that’s before you start on different speeds, heater usage and attendant higher consumption.

I think it is therefore a pointless exercise to compare one person’s experience of fuel consumption against another even for the same hire craft, in fact I would go so far as to say it’s a bit pointless comparing your own from last year against this year. Unless of course you have identical passages plans and throttle settings. There now, anybody left awake please feel free to comment.

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Thanks for all the advice i will make sure we have the tide pushing us and keep the heating off as much as we can and just hope that we dont have a massive fuel bill for 2 weeks. To be safe i will put £50.00 worth of fuel in at the start of our second week.

Clive thanks for the offer to check the fuel before we take the boat but no need for this am sure all your boats are re checked and re fueled at he start of the new season...i suspect i managed the £140.00 because of the boiler system and admit to having it on all day and night as did not realise it ran off diesel.

Does the fuel consumption change much if you reduce your speed by 1 or 2mph.

Only 4 weeks to go now.

Mark

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Does the fuel consumption change much if you reduce your speed by 1 or 2mph.

Hi Mark

Yes! Someone will be along no doubt with exact figures but if you run at half or quarter throttle you will save a lot of fuel.

ps I don't think you should need to top up.

Have a great time!!! And please report back!!

cheersbar

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Every hire boat has a fuel saving device fitted. You will not be able to get one without the device.

There is a lever somewhere near the wheel to operate this fuel saving device. They even have a little dial to show that it is working . Pull the lever back a tiny distance untill the reading on the dial is showing 100 less. The fuel saving will be very significant.

Ok this post was written in a slightly sarcastic manner but the bit about the fuel saving is worth thinking about, probably buy you a free meal out at the end of 2 weeks cheerscheerscheers

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Guest DAYTONA-BILL

I think the give away there was the admission you had the boiler on all day and night. Now that WOULD burn fuel like there`s no tomorrow. I can`t understand why the boat builders and operators dont put a car type fan heater system alongside the deisel system for heating while running. It`s something i thought about after reading a thread on the Hampton Safari owners website. CLIVE, if you`re reading this, is there a good reason for NOT doing this?. It would be relatively easy to build a radiator box with a fan blowing ducted air through it. Actually, i might sketch one up just for the fun of it. Regards to all........................Neil.

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The heater system uses less than a Webasto type heater, but it does heat the water aswell as the radiators, the heater matrix type needs the engine to be run to heat the water and constant running to heat the matrix for hot air.

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The smaller the ship the more fuel you will save.

Strange I know but the answer lies somewhere in a foreign world called hydro dynamics, can't pretend to understand it but at a very basic level the longer the hull the higher the displacement speed. The displacement speed is the highest speed a vessel can run at without the bow wave trying to push the bow up. As you approach this speed then the fuel consumption will increase exponentially.

Effectively if you have a bow wave it is costing you money, the wave is caused by resistance of the water and the more resistance the bigger the wave and cost.

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While reading the rest of this thread, my son came up behind me and said

" I know how to save on fuel "

" How, would you do it, I asked "

" Well " he said, "Get a yacht and sail, row or use one of those long stick things to push it "

He is now nursing a black eye, for being silly.

:Stinky

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While reading the rest of this thread, my son came up behind me and said

" I know how to save on fuel "

" How, would you do it, I asked "

" Well " he said, "Get a yacht and sail, row or use one of those long stick things to push it "

He is now nursing a black eye, for being silly.

:Stinky

Should think so too Donny,dont give him any dinner either! :naughty:

Andy

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Yes is suspect it was the heating and the instant hot water sytem that used all our fuel but at least i now know the boiler runs off diesel and not gas, no wonder we where so warm last April even at night, but i did not mind paying £140 to have the luxury of the heat and hot towel rails and boiling hot radiators, also we had an old person with us last year so this also resulted in me keeping the heating on, this time we will keep the thermostat on zero for most of the time and just turn it up when we require hot water for a shower or to wash pots etc. Am fairly confident i will manage a fuel bill of less than £280 for 2 weeks. It was my choice to choose a boat with a boiler and you get what you pay for, if i was having a boat in the summer then no way would you require the heating and would opt for a standard boat that heats the water through running the engine etc.

Mark

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