Useage Cost

[cberry2000]

Greetings,

My family and I have decided to get back into boating now that are littlest one is 2. We have been debating on pontoon,deck and bowriders. We have older kids that want to try skiing and tubing. I have located a 23' cuddy with a 351 cobra engine. My wife really likes this boat and we are a little concerned with fuel useage on a typical outing for 4-6 hours of skiing cruising. I was hoping someone here could give a ball park figure on fuel cost for this boat.

Secondly I found a 23' pontoon with 90hp merc and was curious if anyone knew if that would pull a skier?

thanks for the info in advance.

 

[reelfishin]

Re: Useage Cost

I can only guess on the 351 Cobra motor in a 23' cuddy, but I doubt it would be what I would call economical.

If this is any help on the pontoon situation, I had a 20' open pontoon with a 70hp and there was no way it would pull a skier, it was a lake only boat and didn't do anything fast. Wind was it's biggest enemy. It probably would gain enough speed to pull a skier on a calm day but it didn't have any power to pull the skier up fast. I'm not a skier and didn't choose of buy the pontoon I had, it sort of was given to me. It was great for fish off of. I only tried pulling a skier once when one of my buddies decided to bring a wake board along, it was like someone tossed the anchor overboard with him on the back.

 

[JCF350]

Re: Useage Cost

Please the wife. They like their comforts. You got to think of the times on the boat with no children also.

The 351 will pull skiers. Fuel consumption will be greatest during skiing and such, just cruising and enjoying the water your not gonna burn a whole lot. You don't need to use a lot of throttle once you get on a plane.

 

[Andy in NY]

Re: Useage Cost

Greetings,

My family and I have decided to get back into boating now that are littlest one is 2. We have been debating on pontoon,deck and bowriders. We have older kids that want to try skiing and tubing. I have located a 23' cuddy with a 351 cobra engine. My wife really likes this boat and we are a little concerned with fuel useage on a typical outing for 4-6 hours of skiing cruising. I was hoping someone here could give a ball park figure on fuel cost for this boat.

Secondly I found a 23' pontoon with 90hp merc and was curious if anyone knew if that would pull a skier?

thanks for the info in advance.

My buddy has a 22' bayliner cuddy with a 350 chevy, and if he is cruising he will go through 10-15 gallons in 4 hours or so...

 

[tommays]

Re: Useage Cost

I would recmond staying away from the 351 ford/ OMC combo DUE to the diffculty of getting parts and service compared to Merc or Volvo units that are still in production

 

[cberry2000]

Re: Useage Cost

Please the wife. They like their comforts. You got to think of the times on the boat with no children also.

Very true.


Thanks for the replies I will look into the cuddy a little more. I hate to get a 23' pontoon and it doesn't do what we want.

 

[JCF350]

Re: Useage Cost

BTW you can use the "paranoia" over these drive units to make a better deal also. The parts and skills are still out there.

 

[45Auto]

Re: Useage Cost

A 21 foot pontoon with a 90 HP Honda tops out at just over 20 mph with no load. I doubt if the skiers would be very happy with the pontoon.

You may be interested in some data I looked at before I bought my boat. I found that any family-type boat (O/B or I/B, bowrider or deckboat) over 20 feet or so gets right around 3.5 MPG at cruising speeds, no matter what size motor it has. I imagine that this is because boat efficiency is highly drag dependent, and it takes so much power to go a particular speed no matter what size motor you have.

You can see that the 4.3's in the smaller boats get just over 4 MPG.

If you're looking for a 22' - 23' boat you can expect a max of about 3.5 MPG.

You can figure that cruising at 25 MPH or so you're burning around 8 gallons per hour (GPH). Towing a tube or skier will drop it down to 2 or 3 MPG, which will mean you're burning about 10 GPH.

Throw in some idling and no wake zones, you'll average around 10 GPH in gas.

 

[cberry2000]

Re: Useage Cost

very interesting. 10GPH..not very attractive. The problem is the lake that will be taking it to is very rough and if I get a smaller boat the wife will never go because she gets bounced around too much.

 

[QC]

Re: Useage Cost

Hey, cool chart 45!! Helps to vindicate my "you're gonna get 3ish . . ." standard answer What the flyin' flip happend to the 5.7 Regal at idle? Bad chunk-uh-data?

I love the showing of that 250 Opti. Should shut the "Four Strokes are the only way to go" guys up . . . Source?

 

[45Auto]

Re: Useage Cost

The 10 GPH is only when it's moving, CBerry - if you're tubing, etc, you're probably spending a lot of time just floating too.

Hi QC,

Not much time to write now, will try to get online tonight. Most of the data came from Boat Test and Boating magazines.


Four Winns: http://www.boattest.com/boats/1716/test_results.aspx


Hydra Sports: http://www.boattest.com/boats/1474/test_results.aspx


Regal 1900: http://www.boattest.com/boats/1107/test_results.aspx


Regal 2000: http://www.boattest.com/boats/1427/test_results.aspx


Regal 2200: http://www.boattest.com/boats/467/test_results.aspx


Monterey 220EX & Pro-Line 23 Sport are from Boating Magazine, January 2008.

Yamaha 212 is from Boating Magazine, May 2008.

The Crownline 225 numbers are from my boat. Full tank of gas, 4 people on board, probably at least 250 pounds of "stuff", taken the last 2 weekends. Smartcraft GPS Speedo, Tach and fuel flow data.

You can see from these pics how a couple of MPH makes a difference from 3.4 to 3.6 MPG (about 5%). Left digital number is instantaneous mileage.

 

[QC]

Re: Useage Cost

Thanks. Good stuff and obvious that hull efficiency is more important than engine efficiency in boat discussions. Anyone that is confused about that should take a look at an instantaneous fuel readout from any modern car. Economy improves as speed increases up to a pretty high point. Much less of a low speed hump like the chart above shows.

It is also pretty useless to talk about different technologies although higher tech is typically better economy, but the guy who buys a 4.3 because he is worried about a 5.7 being thirsty has sorta lost the plot. First, the difference is negligible, and second when compared to all of the other costs of boating, that $7.50 you might save per day is inconsequential.

 

[jaxnjil]

Re: Useage Cost

i just posted this for another guy but you might find it intersting. this was on lake powell last week
this is my wifes boat and is a 23'. more of a cruser than a cudy.




i just got done sorting out my wifes 230 and found a 15x21 with a 1.65 to 1 final drive ratio got me 4200 rpm at 3600 ft elevation,
her 454 has 41 to 42 hundred rpm max wide open throttle printed on the valve cover
i also instaled a fuel flow gauge and was 22 gal per hr and 43 (gps) mph at wot.
best econmeny came at 3000 rpm 10 to 11 gal per hr and 29 to 30 mph
this boat is real close to 6200 lb full of fuel and gear

 

[JCF350]

Re: Useage Cost

very interesting. 10GPH..not very attractive. The problem is the lake that will be taking it to is very rough and if I get a smaller boat the wife will never go because she gets bounced around too much.

Cruise at 18-19 mph that's what I do and get better, my 24' Stamas is turning about 1900- 2100 rpm at those speeds. If propped right that 351 will keep her on top.

But as always yah got to pay to play and if you don't have the space and comforts on board you need, ain't no one gonna be happy.

 

[cberry2000]

Re: Useage Cost

Great information! I will be looking at the 23' this weekend. After discussing with the wife in some worst case scenarios of GPH we decided it would be worth it for everyone to be comfortable. If it's better than 10GPH

 

[QC]

Re: Useage Cost

Heed the warnings about the Cobra though. You really want a Merc or a Volvo for best parts availability and the most help here. Good luck!!

 

[45Auto]

Re: Useage Cost

As QC says, be careful if you're seriously considering getting the Cobra. Do your research on the out-of-business (OMC Cobra) part supply. Look around for some prices on OMC typical "older boat" maintenance items - bellows, risers, couplings, etc. Some of them you can't even get except on Ebay!! Then see if you can find someone willing to work on it if you aren't going to do it yourself.

 

[Gary H NC]

Re: Useage Cost

The only way to own a Cobra is to buy a factory manual and learn to work on it.Very few shops know how to fix them correctly.Some shops won't touch them. A Volvo or Merc drive is the way to go.
Take it from a former Cobra owner..
The Cobra was a solid drive if taken very good care of.

About fuel mileage i quit keeping track of mine..its a V-6 crossflow...GAS HOG..it would pull a house though..

 

[Frugal Floater]

Re: Useage Cost

Not sure if you have "Fuel Perks" where you live at your grocery store, but if you do, use them. Our grocery store in western PA (Giant Eagle) gives you 10 cents off per gallon of gas for every $50 you spend and that includes prescriptions, groceries, and gift cards to stores I would spend money at anyway. Have not paid a dime for gas in the last 2 years on my 18" boat.

 

[cberry2000]

Re: Useage Cost

Well after 410 miles and looking at over 6 boats we picked one out. The original posted above was nice but with the Cobra concerns and finding one a little cleaner it became second choice. We placed a deposit on a super clean 21" Mariah cuddy cabin today that has the 305 Merc. Many extras like sink, porta potti, stove, etc. It is a beutiful boat and the wife saw it and said "this is it". We will bepicking up the boat next weekend after the owner gets the title. Super excited. hope we can afford the fuel now.