How Much Diesel Use

[Smoggy]

1 hour ago, vanessan said:

We were told a while ago that the use of dipsticks is frowned upon these days. I’m sure there will be someone who can verify that. 

I believe it's down to repeatedly being dropped into the tank and eventually wearing a hole in the bottom as they always hit the same spot.

[OldBerkshireBoy]

Correct me if I`m wrong but I think Andy of Freedom said of slivers of wood entering the fuel pump.

[Vaughan]

10 hours ago, OldBerkshireBoy said:

slivers of wood entering the fuel pump.

I hadn't heard of that one.  To get to the pump they would have to get through a sediment trap and sometimes two in-line filters.  Dipsticks are usually made of a hard wood, like mahogany.

"Back in the day", fuel tanks were all made with a striking plate welded on the bottom of the tank, to strengthen it in the area under the filler cap.  I don't see any problem with the one on our boat - a tried and trusted method!

[Oddfellow]

10 hours ago, OldBerkshireBoy said:

Correct me if I`m wrong but I think Andy of Freedom said of slivers of wood entering the fuel pump.

About 10 years ago, we has a private boat in for some work that was surging and cutting out. It would run well for a while and then fail. Leave it for a while, rinse and repeat. 

The fault was eventually tracked to a fuel tap (of the rise and fall gate variety) that was clogged with shavings of mahogany that had been taken off the dip stick over successive dips and made its way into the fuel system. The dip stick was a bad fit for the tank filler and need to go in "just so" else it would snag and more wood came off. 

That fault took a bit of finding. 

[Oddfellow]

11 hours ago, Meantime said:

I'm not so sure about that, our toll money seems to pay for a fair few at Yare House 

And are they not frowned upon? 

 

[Meantime]

11 hours ago, Smoggy said:

I believe it's down to repeatedly being dropped into the tank and eventually wearing a hole in the bottom as they always hit the same spot.

I still have one on my boat from the days when it was a hire boat. It has a cross piece a bit like a sword to ensure it can only go in so far, thus it never touches the bottom. It has four marks on it effectively dividing it into 5 sections, so 20% per section. I'm not sure just how far of the bottom of the tank it reaches, but I never run the tank too low anyway.

I always track the mileage since the last fill and very rarely use the dipstick.

I thought it was more for environmental reasons they were removed from boats. If I use mine which is rarely, I have some rag handy and wipe as much diesel as possible of the stick, then leave it in the sun to dry before it goes back in the gas locker. The rag then goes into a plastic bag and disposed of properly. I can imagine some being returned to the locker without being wiped, or drips being left to drip over board, or worse washed in the river water etc etc. If they are wiped what sort of cloth has been used? was it dirty? did it have grit or fluff on it etc.

[Meantime]

59 minutes ago, Oddfellow said:

And are they not frowned upon? 

 

I deployed the subtle art of keeping on the right side of moderation, I hope! I kept it as a light hearted jovial dig, but I'm sure most knew what I was thinking! 

[LizG]

WRs was or is still an aluminium stick with notches and a handle that stops it falling into the tank.   Only snag with the aluminium is that it is almost impossible to read in sunlight!

[Vaughan]

13 minutes ago, Meantime said:

before it goes back in the gas locker.

Now that would be frowned upon, as one should not use the gas bin for storage but we all do it, including me!  Rhond hooks, mooring stakes, lump hammer, spare mooring rope, it all goes in there.  Fishing maggots as well.

Trouble is the drain in the bottom is there to drain away any leaking gas, but not muddy water which will bung it up.

[Meantime]

To be fair I do my best to keep it clean and apart from the dipstick the only other thing stored in there is a spare temporary mooring rope which is used as an extra spring in some mooring situations. The gas locker has a couple of aluminium braces near the top which keep the two gas bottles in situ and the dipstick and rope just sit across the top of those so they are handy to get too and kept out of the water.

[Cal]

Surely the addition of fuel gauges on most hire boats has negated the need for dip sticks?

We hired the same boat from Barnes a few times. The first time it had a dip stick but for subsequent hires a fuel gauge had been fitted.

A dip stick wouldn't have worked in our boat. The fuel filler was at the back of the boat and the tank buried midships in the engine bay. Access to the tank was tight to say the least.

[Andrewcook]

Hi all I was quite Surprised of the diesel being used even with Heating on got a nice Refund from the Boat yard  this morning. As this morning was very Chilly I hope Griff and the Whole Grew got warmed with Griff Navy exercise   and have a pleasant Ladd's week

[andyg]

I've just checked the invoice hw sent for our trip next week. Fuel deposit is £175, not sure if that's a standard amount they charge and it is a large boat. But seems a bit excessive for what is basically a three day cruise. 

[DAVIDH]

Does seem over the top Andy. Richardsons charge £120 for short breaks and £150 for weeks, on their larger boats. This is pretty standard across Hoseasons, though Faircaft charge significantly less, and Barnes levy up to £200 on their larger craft. 

[Andrewcook]

Well Richardson's charge £150  Fuel Deposit as to the Fuel the Boat used I got a fair bit back  

[Coryton]

1 hour ago, Cal said:

Surely the addition of fuel gauges on most hire boats has negated the need for dip sticks?

When we hired on the Broads (with Herbert Woods) the boat had a fuel gauge.

I'm not sure what it was actually indicating though - it seemed to be all over the place.

We filled up half way through our two weeks to be on the safe side and that saw us through (with money back at the end).

[CeePee1952]

57 minutes ago, andyg said:

I've just checked the invoice hw sent for our trip next week. Fuel deposit is £175, not sure if that's a standard amount they charge and it is a large boat. But seems a bit excessive for what is basically a three day cruise. 

We paid £175 fuel deposit on Sovereign Light (HW) for our week at the beginning of Sep 21.  To be fair, we only used £30 worth (ish) of fuel so it was a nice refund back!  We've also paid £175 fuel deposit on Supreme Light (HW) for next September 2022 and it's also the same amount (at the moment!) on our booking for Royal Light in 2023.

Chris

[andyg]

18 minutes ago, CeePee1952 said:

We paid £175 fuel deposit on Sovereign Light (HW) for our week at the beginning of Sep 21.  To be fair, we only used £30 worth (ish) of fuel so it was a nice refund back!  We've also paid £175 fuel deposit on Supreme Light (HW) for next September 2022 and it's also the same amount (at the moment!) on our booking for Royal Light in 2023.

Chris

Thanks for that, I look forward to a refund lol...

[Oddfellow]

3 hours ago, LizG said:

WRs was or is still an aluminium stick with notches and a handle that stops it falling into the tank.   Only snag with the aluminium is that it is almost impossible to read in sunlight!

Paint it matt black. 

[Oddfellow]

2 hours ago, Cal said:

Surely the addition of fuel gauges on most hire boats has negated the need for dip sticks?

We hired the same boat from Barnes a few times. The first time it had a dip stick but for subsequent hires a fuel gauge had been fitted.

A dip stick wouldn't have worked in our boat. The fuel filler was at the back of the boat and the tank buried midships in the engine bay. Access to the tank was tight to say the least.

Most? 

The majority of hire boats do not have guages. New builds might but very unusual on an older vessel. 

 

[Coryton]

23 minutes ago, Oddfellow said:

Most? 

The majority of hire boats do not have guages. New builds might but very unusual on an older vessel. 

 

Interesting. We had one on an Aquafibre diamond 43 and I think they go back a way. But as I said it didn't work very well. (Nor did the steering at one point, but that's another story).

[Cal]

1 hour ago, Oddfellow said:

Most? 

The majority of hire boats do not have guages. New builds might but very unusual on an older vessel. 

 

We have hired older and newer boats over the years and for the last 15 years or so have not had a boat that didn't have a fuel gauge.

As I said before one boat we hired several times had a gauge retrofitted between times we hired it.

[grendel]

9 hours ago, LizG said:

WRs was or is still an aluminium stick with notches and a handle that stops it falling into the tank.   Only snag with the aluminium is that it is almost impossible to read in sunlight!

And there is a stain on the aluminium that looked at wrong can give the impression that the tank is nearly full, when in reality you are low.

[Broads01]

11 hours ago, andyg said:

I've just checked the invoice hw sent for our trip next week. Fuel deposit is £175, not sure if that's a standard amount they charge and it is a large boat. But seems a bit excessive for what is basically a three day cruise. 

If you're hiring for 4 nights that's over the top in my view. I'm thinking HW are taking inflated fuel deposits as a means of helping cash flow. To use that much fuel on a short break, you'd have to cruise at full throttle all hours of daylight and have the heating on 24 hours a day. 

[Oddfellow]

10 hours ago, Coryton said:

Interesting. We had one on an Aquafibre diamond 43 and I think they go back a way. But as I said it didn't work very well. (Nor did the steering at one point, but that's another story).

There were only 7 or 8 Diamond 43s built. The one I had I am pretty sure didn't have a fuel gauge. Only one boat in my fleet had one and that failed (and was not repaired). When it worked, it caused constant problems with people ringing up saying that hadn't moved, was there a problem with it? No, there was about 220 litres of diesel on board and you needed to suck a lot out to make the needle respond. You can't please everybody.