Before anyone passes judgement. ...I have a most beloved 30 hp yamaha on the back of my sail boat and never leave port without twice as much petroleum as I suspect I'll need.

So ....clearly. ...I rely on motor even if I prefer sail.

BUT

bloke I met today traveling the world on a motor cruiser...just fuel up ....7k euro...

Does this every month....ffs....would you truly try and travel the sea without sail power ?
His clearly crazy....which I'm sure was his impression of me as he viewed my boat


Can anyone explain why anyone would prefer a motor boat over a sail boat????

Jeeze....I just couldn't put up with the constant noise !!!!

[ Can anyone explain why anyone would prefer a motor boat over a sail boat???? ]
Easy............He has money to burn and he cant stand silence.

Hi ChopesBro

What kind of sail boat do you have as 30 hp is a fairly large outboard

Regards Don

My last yacht took me from Adelaide around Tassie up to lizard island FNQ a couple of times with a approx fuel burnof less than 1000 litres. I like motor boats but like them better when the motors are off!

Reality bites - if I had invested the money I spent on the rig and the supporting structures on my last cat I would have had enough money to buy fuel to take me wherever I wanted to go forever. Most sail boats motor twice as far as they sail.
But since when did reality have anything to do with sailing?
Its a similar argument as the mono verses multi argument. If you want to travel fast, get a multi, but if you love the feel of power and motion under sail, get a mono.

When bringing my Lotus 9.2 up from Lake Macquarie to Bundaberg, due to the EAC and lack of wind we had to motor all the way except for about 3 hours.

My little 15 hp Yanmar managed to get us here averaging about 5 knots. If it had been a 30 foot motor boat I am sure it would have needed 2 or 3 times the horsepower and used 2 or 3 times the amount of fuel to average the same speed.

I have done several long coastal passages in Queensland and to make my daily destinations I have always had to motor or motor sail more than sail only. I will not sacrifice my scheduled destination for the sake of purism. However I just wish a few times that I could encounter conditions that allow me to sail all day.

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cisco said..

When bringing my Lotus 9.2 up from Lake Macquarie to Bundaberg, due to the EAC and lack of wind we had to motor all the way except for about 3 hours.

My little 15 hp Yanmar managed to get us here averaging about 5 knots. If it had been a 30 foot motor boat I am sure it would have needed 2 or 3 times the horsepower and used 2 or 3 times the amount of fuel to average the same speed.

I have done several long coastal passages in Queensland and to make my daily destinations I have always had to motor or motor sail more than sail only. I will not sacrifice my scheduled destination for the sake of purism. However I just wish a few times that I could encounter conditions that allow me to sail all day.

Lotus 9.2 - now that's a boat.

I cant figure that out myself, but each to there own

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ChopesBro said..
Before anyone passes judgement. ...I have a most beloved 30 hp yamaha on the back of my sail boat and never leave port without twice as much petroleum as I suspect I'll need.

So ....clearly. ...I rely on motor even if I prefer sail.

BUT

bloke I met today traveling the world on a motor cruiser...just fuel up ....7k euro...

Does this every month....ffs....would you truly try and travel the sea without sail power ?
His clearly crazy....which I'm sure was his impression of me as he viewed my boat


Can anyone explain why anyone would prefer a motor boat over a sail boat????

Jeeze....I just couldn't put up with the constant noise !!!!

"bloke I met today traveling the world on a motor cruiser." and you are traveling the world?

Ah motor boats, for when the ETA really matters more than the destination.

Running a sailing boat requires a certain amount of knowledge and skill. Power boats require turning the key on, no skill and a dangerously small amount of practice.

I think thats why generally (but not always - such as fishos) a certain kind of person drives a power boat because that's all they can do.

I'm pi$$ed off I have to use my motor as often as I do!
So many times since leaving Wirrina Cove SA, the wind is bang on the nose, I can't believe it!
Then, when it's not bang on the nose, it's 2 - 5 knots. My 14t cruiser with 8oz sails, can't do anything with that.

I'm so glad I have a reliable powerful motor. I have never and will never, use the term "stink boat" in anger - it would be hypocritical of me.
I rely on it so much - unfortunately.

I agree with Cisco, whereby I won't sacrifice my destination for purism.

BUT - I love it (and so does Now&Zen) when there is 15 - 20 knots of wind!

So, no, I love my sail boat and won't buy a motor boat

I especially never liked those giant twin engined Scarab motor cruisers. Until one time we were stuck hard on a sandbar at Box Head and the V8's of the helpful passing Scarabs skipper were very helpful getting us off

Last years trip to Lord Howe we motor sailed about 70 hours outbound. Inbound to Sydney we motored 30 or so hours. In 2014 we motored about 30 hours each way.
ETA does matter especially when not motoring means going backwards at 3+ knots.

The funny thing with me is if i am on a power boat the noise of the engine doesn't bother me at all but if i am on a sailing boat and there is no wind i have to run the engine and use it as a motor boat the engine noise annoys the hell out of me

Regards Don

There is an old sailor's ditty about the good ship Venus and one of the verses goes:-

On the good ship Venus,
By sh!t you should have seen us.

When the wind didn't blow,
And the ship wouldn't go,
It took Carter the Farter to start her.

I will leave Carter on the shore and depend on my Yanmar to fart when I need it.

I met a guy who has a cruiser and he reckons it is cheaper to run than his yacht was. It gets about 1 litre per hour and ten knots so 1 litre per nm. The problem with the yacht was maintenance on the rig and sails and you still end up motoring a lot. He goes all over bass straight and tassie and reckons the extra speed is an advantage too.
Not for me but he has thought it through.

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frant said...

"bloke I met today traveling the world on a motor cruiser." and you are traveling the world?

No, I'm based in French Polynesia, I do a lot of island hoping but atm have zero interest in circumnavigate. ( no $$$$)

[b]Donk107 said...
Hi ChopesBro

What kind of sail boat do you have as 30 hp is a fairly large outboard

Regards Don

Its a home brand boat. Made local, best I know around 1986 by a cousin of a local bloke named didier.

It's classic island style and indeed...the 30 hp is a giant plus.
I push hard at ten knots. Motor cruiser bloke can do 34 knots but travels mostly around ten knots as well.

I can see the idea about motor for a eta...but a eta is a very, very vague thing when in island time


Motor for me is purely a safety thing

Chalk me down as a purist, although the longest passages I've done in my own boat are about 150 miles. The motor does have to go on when there's no wind, but I donb't think I've ever motored more than 10-20 miles at a stretch. Personally I'll cancel a 60-90 mile passage instead of motoring it.

Yeah my best mate is a boat builder (a good one) who works on sailing and power yachts all day every day and he always says that if you wanted to do a circumnavigation or anything hardcore like that, you're better off with a power boat because on a sailboat, at the end, you'll more than likely need to swap out your whole rig and sails, and fuel would have been cheaper. I'm not sure I agree (although he knows a lot more about this stuff than I do) and when I owned my big cat, I DEFINITELY didn't want to hear it. But I suppose it's possible.

He suffers Tinnitus and cant stand the sound of the crickets at sea?

There's a story in this months Afloat about a couple who cruised the Kimberlies in a
large cruiser. The stats at the end of the article states they covered 900nm and
used 93000 ltrs of fuel. Yes......that's ninety three thousand litres.

Funny thing there was an article in The Cruising Helmsman a few years back, a couple had gone from a 50ft steel yacht to a 50ft steel motor boat.

Now the motor boat wasn't your average gin palace that did 20 knots @ 200lph but a sensible displacement boat with twin Gardner Diesels that cruised around at 9-10 knots and probably using around 20lph

They had cruised both boats extensively (a few thousand miles over 10 years or so) and found that the price of the diesel was actually less than the price of sails, sail repairs, rigging, ropes etc. Plus they could get into better anchorages, slip at more places, fit under more bridges, and get places quicker when there was no wind!!

Yes you can't turn off the iron topsail but a couple of well insulated slow revving diesels aren't exactly noisy, in fact are often quieter than a small yacht diesel and what noise there is is much more pleasant!!

Maybe it's just me but I believe it is just much more romantic to ask a woman to come sailing on your yacht, than it is to ask a woman to come out on your motor boat, also on a sailing vessel there is always something to do, whereas on a motor cruiser it's more a case of set and forget

I had one boat next to me he had a stern thruster fitted asked them to top up the port fuel tank 2500 litres later
I couldn't afford that

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samsturdy said..

There's a story in this months Afloat about a couple who cruised the Kimberlies in a
large cruiser. The stats at the end of the article states they covered 900nm and
used 93000 ltrs of fuel. Yes......that's ninety three thousand litres.

on boadicea, Reg Grundys boat we used 20000 litres per day. Here to europe. 1 million bucks.

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Bruski068 said..
Maybe it's just me but I believe it is just much more romantic to ask a woman to come sailing on your yacht, than it is to ask a woman to come out on your motor boat, also on a sailing vessel there is always something to do, whereas on a motor cruiser it's more a case of set and forget

I agree. But the ones with red nail polish who smoke and drink do seem to like the big wanky power boats and sometimes they're the kind of woman one wants

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Chris 249 said..
Chalk me down as a purist, although the longest passages I've done in my own boat are about 150 miles. The motor does have to go on when there's no wind, but I donb't think I've ever motored more than 10-20 miles at a stretch. Personally I'll cancel a 60-90 mile passage instead of motoring it.

hear hear chris. im the same , but once extended cruising comes in and i wanna get A to B that might be different.

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samsturdy said..

There's a story in this months Afloat about a couple who cruised the Kimberlies in a
large cruiser. The stats at the end of the article states they covered 900nm and
used 93000 ltrs of fuel. Yes......that's ninety three thousand litres.

Comparing extremes with extremes, his big gas guzzler might have been more economical than a maxi with exotic tape drive sails and a dozen crew beating up on coffee grinders.

A sane displacement power boat running a Gardiner will be cheaper to run than a sail boat with the same accommodation, but it's all about destination not about the journey. My current boat has a tiny fuel tank so I either sail or I stay at home. So I sail. Happily.

Well I have a foot in both camps owning a motor sailer I plan to carry 200 litres of fuel for my trip to Tassy, 80 in the fuel tanks and the rest in 20 litre cans. I don't intend to loiter crossing bass strait waiting for a favorable wind. Rule of thumb seems to be 2/3's of the time motor sailing and 1/3 sailing, so this is what i expect making the passage but in cruising mode in the waters around Bruny Is, etc then it will be the other way round, 2/3's sailing. That's the plan....;)

I'd happily cruise the world in one of these rather than sail.




9.5ltrs per hour at 7kts, 3600nm range.