Fuel Usage on Your Bareboat Holiday

During your bareboat holiday, whether on a power boat or sail boat, fuel will be consumed by both the boat and dinghy.

Just like a rental car, your boat is full of fuel at the beginning of your charter and you top it up at the end.

Although you are required to pay for the fuel at the end of your holiday, there is a simple way to ensure this is kept under control.

Our number one tip is to go slow and enjoy the glorious views of the Whitsundays!

Excessive strain on the motors (high RPM) only burns additional fuel, it does not make much difference to your speed.

Keep your money in your pocket and help protect the environment

For the purpose of the below, we are assuming that there is no wind and therefore using the engines on both a power or sail option for the same amount of time.

On an average 7 night charter, the engines are used for roughly 28 hours (4 hours per day).

As seen in the graphs below, fuel usage is almost doubled when increasing the speed from 8 knots to 9-9.5 knots.

If we turn that into fuel consumption, that means that over a week:

• a sailing catamaran uses roughly an extra 90 litres per engine
• a power catamaran uses roughly an extra 190 litres per engine

Finally, lets look at an average journey – Nara Inlet to Whitehaven Beach is roughly 15 nautical miles.

This journey would take 1 hour and 40 minutes at 9 knots or 1 hour and 50 minutes at 8 knots.

Is the extra 10 minutes really worth paying double the amount of fuel?
We don’t think so and neither should you!

Remember – slow down, run your engines as advised by our Operations Team during your briefing and enjoy your holiday!