16' Starcraft - optimum cruising speed and daytrip distances?

[ShoestringMariner]

Hey guys, I'd like to do some scenic day trips in our Starcraft supersport. I know that there's many factors to cruising speeds but I am wondering what to expect in terms of times and distances for doing a long cruise through a river system.

I've only used my boat on small lakes and have never taken it too far. Usually I just motor to my spots and use the electric troller on my spots, so I don't know what to expect for distance cruising.

I'd anticipate that we'd be plowing around or just barely on plane. I'm not sure what speed 'barely on plane" is, but I imagine that's where our best fuel efficiency would be?

Does 10 or 15 mph sound about right?

For you guys running these boats or similar, have you figured out what your optimum speed is?

I'm running a 65hp merc with 2 people onboard plus extra batteries and a kicker if that is of any value.

 

[DLNorth]

"Optimum speed" - this can be different things to different people or goals.

But if your concerned about fuel, I'm guessing 10-15 is a bit low, (but don't know), I would think to stay on plane would be closer to 20. Of course it also depends on your motor (old, new, 2 stroke, 4 stroke) and do you have T&T?

In our case, if we are "shoreline gazing", we are just at a high idle and slowing moving through the water, but the wife gets bored with that and want's to be moving at speed, I'd guess 25-30, not WOT but maybe about 75-80%.
We have a older '76 Merc 85 hp and can burn through 6 gals in maybe 10-12 miles? I usually switch tanks about 1/2 way back from down the lake (which is 8 miles long).
I usually keep 3 - 6 gal tanks in the back.

Dan

 

[ShoestringMariner]

Thanks Dan. I do have a TNT. It’s an old two-stroke. Top speed I can get out of this old boat is 30 mph with a phone app Speed tracker. So perhaps 20 mph might be on plane like you said.

I Thank before we do a trip like this, I’ll pay attention to what my speeds are. I just bought a helix seven, so I’ll be able to pay attention to low-mid speeds

 

[mattsteg]

On my old boat (16 ft, lighter than an SS, 80ish Merc 50) and also my parents' smaller boat (18 ft, but still lighter than a 16ss, 55hp) We normally count on 25ish miles/6 gal tank (there's a common turnaround point 22 miles out that is a 2-tank trip with a reasonable reserve). Honestly just back off from WOT to a speed where you're comfortably on plane and that's probabably as good of economy as anything. I have a fuel flow meter in my 22 foot SS (obviously a bit different in numbers, but the trend is interesting) and pretty much any speed on-plane seems to get 2MPG +/- 10%, with current prop (which isn't a great match), and needing a bit of a tuneup. My initial impression was "I control my economy a lot less than I was expecting".