Wish I had a diesel?

[Siochair]

With the price of petrol being so high these days and no sign of the cost per litre getting back to a level that doesn't make your eye's water any time soon (if ever) - does anyone ever wish they had bought a diesel instead?

[Cypman]

It's not just the cost of petrol but its poor availability away from the South Coast. Whilst diesel is available in most small harbours our nearest harbourside petrol pump is in Bangor. Transporting Jerry Cans full of fuel from an adjacent petrol station for that thirsty 300hp outboard is hard work!!

[biffer]

[HUMBER P4VWL]

That should be a "smug" smiley face biffer!

[two stroke mick]

I thought I would never say this but I am glad that I have a small rib. as an aside
what would you class as small, med, large ribs
sub 5.3 small
5.3 - 5.8 med
5.8 plus large

[dubrus]

i have a medium rib in your classes, personally anything over 6.5m is large rib territory to me but i guess that is a personal thing.

however i have a 100HP 4 stroke on my 5.6 and what it uses is a LOT less than the 75hp 2 stroke i had before it, can't complain there at all.

diesels tend to be found in 6m plus ribs but cost a fair few quid more that an indentical outboard model. given the average boater is 50 hours per year apparantly it would take a long long time to recoup the cost difference let alone work out cheaper.

be interested to know the break points for diesel on intital cost versus hours ran to recoup that excess over an outboard on same hull size.

with that said-when sun is shining and weather is spot on-who cares what it uses!

cheers

[biffer]

i'm not going to go on about this one, i'll just say, it's cheaper to run my cabin rib than my sr4 with a 40hp on

[GordyP]

No. There's nothing like the sound and feeling of two 2 stroke outboards pushing you along. It may mean this seasons cruising speed will lower by a few knots to see what difference it makes.

[Cypman]

Cruising around the Irish Sea with Brian in his beautiful Scorpion 8.75m with a 315hp inboard Yamaha diesel we use circa 30ltrs an hour at 30kts, i.e. 1 ltr per NM.
It's not just the economy, it is primarily the ready availability of the fuel.
Of course, initial engine cost is a major factor. I guess Brian's installation is now over £30k new whilst a 300hp O/B is around £20K.

[HUMBER P4VWL]

Originally Posted by two stroke mick

I thought I would never say this but I am glad that I have a small rib. as an aside
what would you class as small, med, large ribs
sub 5.3 small
5.3 - 5.8 med
5.8 plus large

that's a narrow spread. Ribs range from around 4-12m plus.

So perhaps sub 5.5, small
5.5 to sub 7, med
7 plus, large

All very arbitary though.

IMHO once you get over 6m, they seem to drink a lot more fuel due to the beam, weight (boat and passengers) and consequential engine all getting larger! Hence diesels only make sense on over 6m boats (providing you put enough hours on each season to make up the cost difference)

Bit like cars, diesel engines generally weigh more (though less recently) and have more torque than petrol. Therefore they work better in cars of a larger nature. They used to be in trucks, then 4X4s and now down to the Golf bracket of cars. Any smaller than that and on current technology a light petrol is probably better.