hottoddie
Well-Known Member
- Jan 11, 2012
- 2,224
- Boat Info
- 1986 Sea Ray 390 EC
Garmin 4212 Chartplotter
Garmin 24 HD Radar
Garmin 546s Plotter
- Engines
- 454 Crusaders
Sunday late afternoon I was returning to our slip in a no wake zone @ 8 mph/1300 rpm and I was curios how the boat would handle on one engine so I pulled back the port throttle to idle and shifted it into neutral. To my surprise the boat did not pull hard to port and only needed a minor wheel adjustment to starboard to keep a straight course. Also the boat also responded to the helm much better than I thought it would.
The interesting part was that as I was watching the Garmin GFS10 fuel flow info on my 4212. At 1300 rpm the boat was doing 8 knots @ 1.3 mpg. When I shut down the port engine the boat slowed to 6.4 mph and the fuel mileage went to 1.7 mpg. That's a pretty substantial increase. In today's world of $4 gas when more of us take our time and travel at hull speed to save fuel we are also putting more hours on our engines in order to get to our destinations. So if you can save even more fuel and reduce run time by running on one engine when it is safe to do so then maybe we should, I know I will.
The interesting part was that as I was watching the Garmin GFS10 fuel flow info on my 4212. At 1300 rpm the boat was doing 8 knots @ 1.3 mpg. When I shut down the port engine the boat slowed to 6.4 mph and the fuel mileage went to 1.7 mpg. That's a pretty substantial increase. In today's world of $4 gas when more of us take our time and travel at hull speed to save fuel we are also putting more hours on our engines in order to get to our destinations. So if you can save even more fuel and reduce run time by running on one engine when it is safe to do so then maybe we should, I know I will.