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phantom_iv View Drop Down
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    Posted: 02 Feb 06 at 12:00am
 
Originally posted by Ian99

One of those orange Jennaeau plastic things with a tiller driven 20hp 4-stroke is capable of 20+knots, will plane easily 4-up and can tow any sailing dinghy in all likely conditions.
 
 
Except they weigh about six tonnes, slow as anything, and are as badly build as you can make a lump of plastic. Horrible bits of kit in my experience, but horses for courses I guess.
 
Depending on how big your boats are, have you considered investing in a couple of paddles   
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Post Options Post Options   Quote Chris Noble Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 02 Feb 06 at 12:15am
theres only one thing worse than dodgy plastic fantastic dinghies, and thats even dodgier plastic fantastic safety boats, well worth avoiding in my experience, guaranteed to do nothing but damage your boats
Competitive Boat Insurance From Noble Marine

FOR SALE:

I14 2 Masts 2 poles 3 Booms, Foils Kites/Mains/Jibs too many to list.
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Post Options Post Options   Quote m_liddell Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 02 Feb 06 at 12:21am

Originally posted by Ian99

The easiest way to get the fuel bill down is to bin the 2 stroke outboards - they are impressively inefficient, particularly the larger ones!

At sunsail we had a 90hp 2 stroke which could get through 25litres in a morning on safety. We had get get by without it since the fuel cost was too much.

I agree with others that those plastic fantastic safety boats are awful. Avoid at all costs!



Edited by m_liddell
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Post Options Post Options   Quote phantom_iv Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 02 Feb 06 at 12:33am
Originally posted by m_liddell

Originally posted by Ian99

The easiest way to get the fuel bill down is to bin the 2 stroke outboards - they are impressively inefficient, particularly the larger ones!


At sunsail we had a 90hp 2 stroke which could get through 25litres in a morning on safety. We had get get by without it since the fuel cost was too much.




I agree completely about the larger 2 strokes - they can drink fuel like its going out of fasion. Some of the smaller ones aren't too bad, but I'd be wary of anything bigger than 25hp - I've run a 25 hp 2 stroke every day for five days on one 25l tank before - it really depends how you drive it. The other question you need to ask is could you get away with a smaller boat? A ~3.5m rib with a 25 will probably do most things required of it, especially if you're sailing on a lake - do you really
need a fleet of 6m behemoths?

edit: Plus they're pretty easy to paddle in light airs - saves you fuel and keeps you fit!


Edited by phantom_iv
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Post Options Post Options   Quote Bob Ashby Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 02 Feb 06 at 7:50am

Thanks Phat Buoy. We are in touch with Dave Wedge but it is useful to get as much info as possible about this subject and investigate all the potential problems. 

Interesting the way these forums go off subject!!  

The standard response these days always seems to be cant do it because of "insurance".

 We have a three plastic fantastics and they are quite decent boats on our large and exposed lake. The little tiller steer ones are great for windsurf recovery because they are low and clear in the front. Seem to be pretty durable though a problem to patchup if you put hol;es in them. Also have a medium sized one that skips along nicely at 22kts with a centre console on 25 hp. Comfortable to sit in unlike old dories which make my ankles seize up!l Carries weight well too with a crewand recovered sailors. A bit wet at times but not half as wet as on off the plane Searider 4.5 RIB.

Plenty of houses seem to have above ground LPG bulk tanks for heating..

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Post Options Post Options   Quote Shingle Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 02 Feb 06 at 8:28am

As said earlier our sea going boats have 3 suzuki 50 4 strokes and are used Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays. I'm sure our annual petrol bill is less than 3 grand, our boats have a mile and half run from the marina to get to the club race area. again check the VAT thing is being done, and keep a log for each boats' fuel use. Reciepts for fuel don't necessarily mean it's going in to the boat!

Good  Luck!

Drink Feck girls!
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Post Options Post Options   Quote Bob Ashby Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 02 Feb 06 at 8:49am

Dont get too hung up on our fuel bill size. We are a large club running about 10 power boats (not neccesarlly all at the same time)364 days year with sail training,power boat training, windsurfing, team racing not to mention dinghy sailing, club racing opens etc sometimes all at the same time! (we have two lakes available) .

Its a good piece of water for an inland club (and better than some coastal venues !) 

The size of the spend does make it look useful to investigate savings though.

Agree that 4 strokes are more economical than 2Ts but they do seem to suffer badly from scale build up and overheating in our hard fresh water environment. This is more expensive to rectify on a 4T than a 2T because of the greater complexity of the 4t.  Seems that soon there wont be much of a choice as I gather most 2ts will be phased out soon as they wont meet emission regs. An engine rebuild pays for quite a lot of petrol!

We have tried periodically flushing the engines through by running in a bucket of kettle descaler( at a dilute solution!) which seems to help with plenty of fizz occuring!.

 

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Post Options Post Options   Quote Stefan Lloyd Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 02 Feb 06 at 8:49am

Originally posted by jpbuzz591

but arent they going to put tax on red diesel soon i heard

Red diesel is, almost by definition, tax-free and there is no proposal to abolish that. There is however a proposal to stop use recreational use of marine red diesel. The arguments are still going on and it is unclear which way it will go. 

 



Edited by Stefan Lloyd
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Post Options Post Options   Quote jeffers Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 02 Feb 06 at 8:51am
At Hunts we recently swapped out aging fleet of 30HP 2 strokes for 3 new Honda 30 HP 4 strokes. The difference is amazing! They are not only much more fuel efficient than the old 2 strokes but so much quieter, they make the boats almost cicilised to drive. The biggest benefit has to be when instructing or rescuing when you are talking to the people in the boat/water. They can hear you without you having to shout.

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Post Options Post Options   Quote Bob Ashby Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 02 Feb 06 at 8:52am
Diesel is not really an option for us as we are on a reservoir site also used for fly fishing and pollution potentlal mitigates against!
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