Doral 250se with MAG350

Salacia

Petty Officer 2nd Class
Joined
Aug 15, 2008
Messages
132
Hi All

I have finally tracked down a Doral 250se the only catch is that it's got s mag 350 not a diesel. This is important to me as I live in the UK and have high fuel costs.
Would anyone know what sort of fuel consumption or revs from the motor I can expect at say 25mph and 8 mph as these generally are the speeds I would be using the boat at?

Thanks in advance folks.
 

scott8058

Petty Officer 2nd Class
Joined
Jul 15, 2012
Messages
192
No offense but my dad used to always tell me if you can't afford the fuel, you can't afford the boat! Sorry I can't answer your question prob need more info to make an educated guess.
 

Salacia

Petty Officer 2nd Class
Joined
Aug 15, 2008
Messages
132
Paying for it is not the problem wanting to pay for it is something different again!
 

ZacUSNYR

Cadet
Joined
Jul 31, 2012
Messages
29
Boat that size with that power plant is around 2-3 mpg (or across the pound speak, .85 - 1.27 kilometers per a liter of petrol)
 

jkust

Rear Admiral
Joined
Aug 2, 2008
Messages
4,942
It's a bummer, I have lots of English friends and colleagues, most of them at Lloyds, and they can't fathom the way we live over here stateside and even more so how we don't have to consider fuel costs as they do. I have a similar sized boat with a 350 mag as well and it gets reasonably decent economy unless we are towing a wakeboarder or flying around at high speeds. The bummer is everyone pays the same price for gasoline but the pump price of course is very different.
 

southkogs

Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Jul 7, 2010
Messages
14,784
THIS has been an interesting site I found not long ago. Fuel economy on a boat is tough to consistently track, but for the 350 this suggests 12.5 gallons per hour at about 4,000 RPM. When I looked at my boat, it was close to what I think I've been experiencing so perhaps it's close for these too.

That's a lot of liters per hour :eek:
 

Salacia

Petty Officer 2nd Class
Joined
Aug 15, 2008
Messages
132
Thanks I have been using this site which is great and why I was asking about the ROMs at those speeds.
 

Scott Danforth

Grumpy Vintage Moderator still playing with boats
Staff member
Joined
Jul 23, 2011
Messages
47,296
You would be spinning between 3000 and 3200 at 25mph depending on prop, wind, current, and other factors.

However fuel economy would be directly tied to load and only somewhat affected by RPM
 

ZacUSNYR

Cadet
Joined
Jul 31, 2012
Messages
29
Curiosity. Similar boat with a diesel, how much better would the burn be? Or is diesel cheaper in the UK/Europe?
 

Scott Danforth

Grumpy Vintage Moderator still playing with boats
Staff member
Joined
Jul 23, 2011
Messages
47,296
diesel vs spark ignited difference is 0.067# per HP per hr savings in fuel. there are 7.5# of diesel in the imperial gallon. assume your load commands 200hp to move that equates to 1.78 gallons per hour difference between a diesel and gas motor. so over an average season of 50 hours, assuming that your at 200hp the whole time, that would be 89 gallons of fuel difference, or 400 ? more per year of fuel (diesel is currently 1.18 ? per liter the UK per google)


diesel motors burn an average of .333 # of fuel per HP per hr
spark ignited 4-stroke motors burn and average of 0.40# of fuel per HP per hr
2-stroke carbureted motors burn an average of 0.55 # of fuel per HP per hr

so again, your burn rate is dependent on the load on the motor and how long you are running at that load

going upstream against the wind will burn more than downstream with the wind.
 

Salacia

Petty Officer 2nd Class
Joined
Aug 15, 2008
Messages
132
Thanks Scott that's a big help.

The issue of fuel in the U.K. is also a wider question of availability very few places will pump petrol but diesel can be got almost anywhere. The loch I use my boat on doesn't have any petrol fill up points so I would end up filling from cans which is not ideal in large quantities.
 

mr 88

Commander
Joined
Nov 3, 2010
Messages
2,115
There are very few boats in the US that are under 30' and have diesels in them. The added weight and cost/maintenance of them along with the fuel costing more [ in the US ]generally means you would probably never recoup the extra cost over the average lifetime of the boat. I would guess 3- 6 gallon cans would keep your boat full over time if every time you go out you add that amount. 18 gallons x 2.5 mph = 45 miles per trip, which is a lot of miles for the average boater. The last few years I have gone this route with a boat that holds 240 gallons and gets about 1.2 mpg. I do have a wagon to transport the 6-6 gallon cans from the parking lot to a private dock and I also use the shaker siphon hose to eliminate gas spills. I don't have to take gas with me every time I go out ,maybe every 2nd or 3rd trip. I have saved a lot of money that way vs the extra 1.00 per charged at the local marinas which do not allow you to bring your own gas..
 

jkust

Rear Admiral
Joined
Aug 2, 2008
Messages
4,942
I've never seen a diesel boat engine in my 43.5 years of boating in my state. Diesel has been shunned up until very recently even in cars and light trucks. I have a 60 gallon petro tank in my boat and it lives on the water in front of my house on a lift in the spring and summer. I fill it once per year when it is brought out of storage and then I have many 6 gallon gas cans that I use to constantly top it off. It's no big deal to keep it close to full if I just add a sixer to it every day. Between the boat and the waverunner, my fuel bill given I'm only on a lake and my boat is not large is at least a car payment per month in the summer. Supercharged waverunners in particular are fantastically massive fuel users...worse than any thing I've ever seen.
 

QBhoy

Fleet Admiral
Joined
Mar 10, 2016
Messages
8,286
My neighbour in the marina has just the very same boat. We are in Loch Lomond and he actually chose the petrol 350 mpi over a diesel. May be a different ball game in the sea though.
He says the fuel consumption is very reasonable and the refinement, power and ability to actually talk to your passengers whilst underway with the hood up was a big factor on his decision.
She performs really well and last I heard, I'm sure he said it was on the plane at less than 3000 rpm.
The fuel economy with these modern mpi engines is very similar to the diesel options...just that the diesel is obviously cheaper. One thing is for sure...the performance difference will be very noticeable. There isn't a diesel option for that boat that will rival the power of the 350 mpi, as far as I know.
Servicing is easily done at a fraction of the cost and is easily self serviced too.
 
Top