The Easiest Way to Save Money
Increase Your Boat’s Efficiency and Spend WAY Less
“How much fuel will it burn?” is one of the most-asked questions at a marine dealer’s showroom. It certainly is a question we get tons of mail about. But you might not realize that the answer to that question is largely in your own hands: It’s in the way you handle the throttle. It’s also in the way you load or overload your boat and the way you trim it. There are more than a half-dozen contributing factors to an overindulgence at the fuel pump, so to give you the best tools to boat green and save gas, we wrote out some great tips to get your started on your way to affordable boating heaven.
Properly Trim
You’ll never have optimum fuel economy if you don’t use optimum trim. Trimming out reduces the wetted surface of the hull by raising the bow. How do you know if you’re trimmed for efficiency? Experts say to trim out until the prop ventilates a little (sucks air). Then bring it down a little, that is when you know you are in the sweet spot.
Towers & T-Tops
Fuel economy is improved by a combination of tactics that incrementally add up to less fuel burned. Canvas enclosed T-tops, hardtops, towers and Bimini tops all create aerodynamic drag, causing the engine to work harder to make the boat go any given speed. tested boats with the canvas up and the canvas down, and I’ve seen enclosures scrub as much as 3 mph off of a boat’s speed. Interestingly, some T-tops actually enhance efficiency because they act as a wing and create lift. But once you put canvas on, life’s a drag once again. Try your boat with canvas up and down, and with windshield open and closed, monitoring tach and speedo, to see what’s best.
Tint Your Windows
A HUGE amount of energy is wasted by heating and cooling your cabin. What is you could keep the temperature constant inside, whether it is the height of summer or the cool cold days of fall? Advanced marine window films are perfect for regulating temperature. They keep radiant heat inside in the cool weather, and help keep out the blazing sun at high season. This means less need for heaters and A/C, which means you use much less energy. Just like driving a car with the climate control blasting, your boat will be way less efficient the more systems you are using. Give your heater and A/C a break and save a ton of money on fuel in the process.
Less Throttle=Less Cost
Simple but true: Back off the throttle to burn less fuel. Naturally we don’t expect you to troll everywhere, but unless you’re in a tournament, are racing to make a bridge opening, or have that momentary need for speed that afflicts us all, slow down to save fuel without costing any real time.
