Big single or smaller twins for a 28-32 ft cruiser??

25thmustang

Lieutenant Commander
Joined
Mar 20, 2008
Messages
1,849
Re: Big single or smaller twins for a 28-32 ft cruiser??

Twins. I had a 26' Fiberform Baja flybridge with twin 350 mags that cruising 30mph ate about 11 gph for the PAIR. This was also a 9000 lb boat. So the milage isn't really that much worse with twins, they're not working as hard. And on a high profile boat like that one was, twins were a must for docking.

Wow nearly 3 mpg!!! I'm doing something wrong!
 

blzrul

Cadet
Joined
Dec 8, 2010
Messages
11
Re: Big single or smaller twins for a 28-32 ft cruiser??

We have a 34' LOA with a single diesel. Uses about 1.5 gals per hour (we carry 300 gallons). However, our top speed is 12 knots, and we cruise around 8.5. Any faster and we'd miss the beautiful scenery ;)

We have a bow thruster but have learned not to rely on it since they do burn out and it would suck to depend on it and have it go out on us. We dock and undock without it, only using it while waiting for the slowpoke deckhand (me) to get the docklines secured if the bow wanders a bit.

Single screws are not the easiest to handle, and we have a very difficult slip which always has me holding my breath as we depart and re-enter...that said, once you master the "pivot" you can go anywhere without fear.

We would have liked twins, but they're more prevalent in gas and we didn't want gas both for safety and fuel consumption reasons. Diesel twins are pricey but I would have loved them from a handling perspective.
 
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