[Airslot]

Here's another real world fuel calculation. I can run 35 miles offshore in teh morning on a nice day conservatively getting 3.3 mpg.

Burned 10.6 gallons

Troll for 6 hours @3 gph = 18 gallons trolling.

Lets say the weather turned bad and I've got to slog back 40 miles (trolled offshore some?) at worst case 2.5 mpg. That would take 16 gallons to get home.

So, a real world fishing trip, leaving in nice weather & returning in rough seas after tolling all day would burn 10.6+18+16 =44.6 gallons used.

Keep in mind that those numbers are very conservative, as I usually cruise around 3.5 mpg, and trolling doesn't burn but 2.5 gph. For a trolling trip I'm pushing the fuel window. If we ride out and chunk all day, we can cut out 18 gallons and have plenty of fuel left.

Now, give me a new motor (opti, etec, suzi 4 squeeze) and I can add at least .5 mpg running and cut fuel burn by 1.5 gph trolling. Then I'd have plenty of range. One of the reasons I've stayed w/ a small boat is that I don't wan to burn more than 45 gallons for a day's fishing, ever.

How that for some rambling off topic in a thread started with what purpose? ;D

Airslot