Is this possible?

J

jack keifer

New member
We just returned from boating on the big northern Idaho lakes, Pend Oreille and Coeur d'Alene. We put 10+ hours on our 16 cruiser with a 50 Honda EFI and about 550 lbs of people and gear, and we started with 18 gallons of fuel aboard, for another 110 lbs. We did the 10 hours on less than 16 gallons of fuel. I am running a 9 pitch prop and we travelled at 4200 rpm which on GPS yielded 11 mph +/- a half. The water was flat almost the whole time, and the altitude is about 2600 ft. This seems like exceptional fuel mileage. Am I totally wrong or does anyone else have a similar experience?
Jack
 
Yes, that sounds about right to me. I regularly do the 3 hour run from Edmonds up to Deception Pass in my 16 Angler, cruising about 4200 RPM, and typically it's 5.5 gal up and 5.5 gal back, so about 11 gal for 6 hours, covering about 100 miles round trip (or 16.5 gal for 9 hours to compare to your 16 gal in 10 hours). Although, I'm running a 14" pitch prop and at 4200 RPM I'm doing about 16 mph. Sounds like you are running a bit heavier, and higher altitude so maybe the 9" is necessary? What is your WOT rpm? My engine is not a Honda, but it is a 50 hp EFI. Brock (Catman) has the Honda 50 EFI on his Angler and it seems like he gets similar mileage. I'd say your numbers are definitely in the ballpark!

-Mike
 
That seems about right. I travel a little lighter and get a little more speed at 4200 (using a 10" pitch). I bought an 8" pitch for high altitude and was surprised that it only made 100 rpm difference at sea level.

On my boat, 4200 is just below the sweet spot for calm water. Going up to 4600 gives me +5 knots more speed and the fuel consumption only goes up by less than .5 gal per hour. My miles per gallon is actually better at that rpm (almost 8 mpg).

One of the things that might be helping me is that my 23 gallons of gas aren't in the stern. That 138# and the batteries have been moved forward.

While messing around with my Lowrance chart plotter, I found that it logged as "Trails" all of my travels since it was installed this spring. So I know that I'm just over 900 miles on the boat this year. I have a fuel management unit that I installed at the same time, and I know that it has kept track of total fuel usage. I just have to remember to look at both and calculate my actual miles per gallon for everything I've done so far.

Truth be told, I've had so dang much fun that I don't really care.

Mark
 
Based on the responses, I guess it is possible. I don't usually track fuel use as the trips normally combine trolling with cruising. Also I don't usually carry 18 gallons. Usually a 6 and a 3 as a 3 spare fits under the cuddy berth. WOT is 6200, did not check speed. I put the 9 pitch on last year before the Yellowstone rendezvous (7,000 ft altitude). We troll Kokanee and the 9 makes it easier to hold 1.5 mph. The 11 1/4 is now the spare. We also have the battery under the helm seat, and have a Permatrim. Like you, we don't spend much time reviewing this stuff as these boats are just too much fun, but this was the one time I tracked it. Thanks for the responses.
 
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