crazy kids

[ROLAND]

Stopped at a local gas station to fill up my car this evening and noticed this young kid gassing up this long black speed boat. We struck up a conversation and he told me that the boat had ( and I may be wrong about this but I think he said ) a 496 chevy engine.. I did notice it was a "dual prop" set up. When I asked him about top end he said with 4 adults she gets right at 70. Then the cost of fuel came up. He said he had filled it up this morning before he headed to the lake... said it had a 62 gallon tank and that it costs him 225.00 Said they were out on the river today for 4 1/2 hours and his tank was just about empty. Don't know about you but 225.00 for 4 + hours on the lake / river seems like an awfully expensive afternoon to me....factor in he was filling up again at the end of the day so he's looking at a one day fuel cost of approx. 450.00 Too steep for my blood... pretty boat though...

[cbavier]

Stopped at a local gas station to fill up my car this evening and noticed this young kid gassing up this long black speed boat. We struck up a conversation and he told me that the boat had ( and I may be wrong about this but I think he said ) a 496 chevy engine.. I did notice it was a "dual prop" set up. When I asked him about top end he said with 4 adults she gets right at 70. Then the cost of fuel came up. He said he had filled it up this morning before he headed to the lake... said it had a 62 gallon tank and that it costs him 225.00 Said they were out on the river today for 4 1/2 hours and his tank was just about empty. Don't know about you but 225.00 for 4 + hours on the lake / river seems like an awfully expensive afternoon to me....factor in he was filling up again at the end of the day so he's looking at a one day fuel cost of approx. 450.00 Too steep for my blood... pretty boat though...

I would say that he was running full throttle the whole 4 1/2 hours that he was on the river. My Four Winns Horizon 190 was a V-6 185 HP -27 Gallons. I could run through 7 or8 Gallons in 4 hours at WOT with only four people on board.

[LSVLance]

LOVE that 8.1 lt marine engine!!! They are perfect in a go fast boat. Flat smooth torque curve and gobs of power whenever you need it. My friend has TWO of them in his 32' Cobalt.

You've got to pay the price of admission if you want to enjoy the ride.

I wouldn't own a boat like that myself anymore, it's just not that much fun going fast 100% of the time. But it's fun riding in other peoples boats like that every now and then.

[GregF]

14 GPH for a performance boat is not unusual. I agree going fast is not that important for me. 60 gallons of gas will last me a couple months, going out several times a week.

[bassn386]

I think the boat burns a lot more than 14 gph with an 8.1 liter engine. My old Four Winns had the 5.7 liter GXI duo-prop. At 3,000 rpmand 4 bodies aboard it would burn about 11 gph, but at WOT of 5,500 rpm the burn rate went to 23 gph. Even though he spent 4.5 hours out there I don't think we was going WOT all the time.
Still breaking in the new motor so I don't have any good stats on fuel burn, but I do know that for the first 10 hours of up and down the rpm scale from 1k to 4k, I've consumed about 38 gallons. Some of that was just me, some with me and the Admiral and some with 8-10 folks aboard.

[captainjack]

Don't know how accurate the gauge is but mine at wot the gph gauge says 30gph. But I obviously don't run it that way often. But I had a boat with 1 496 an it have been possible to do but tough, the one I had with twin 496's easy! But he already lied about 70mph I never saw one get close to that with a bravo 3 60 mph more like it. My 2cents.

[Birdhunter]

The boat I traded in on my pontoon was a 2007 Glasstron GT205 With a 5.0 (carb.) Valvo Penta WOT (59 mph) she drank just over 20 gpm.

[GXPWeasel]

Don't know how accurate the gauge is but mine at wot the gph gauge says 30gph. But I obviously don't run it that way often. But I had a boat with 1 496 an it have been possible to do but tough, the one I had with twin 496's easy! But he already lied about 70mph I never saw one get close to that with a bravo 3 60 mph more like it. My 2cents.

I was thinking 70 sounded fast too, solely based on my experience lurking on Midwest boat party.com, for what he had. Like stated above though, you've gotta pay to play.

I know several people my age that wouldn't ever own any boat, as it's juat a huge waste of gas/money in their minds. They don't come out on my boat very often though, so I can see why they would say this.

[GregF]

I was assuming just a cruise speed, not WOT. I don't know many people who run WOT all the time. Personally I don't like the sound of WOT. It just sounds like tearing up the engine to me. I do it now and then, to blow the carbon out but about 75-80% sounds better and is a whole lot better on gas without really taking that much off of your speed. Drag is a log function. The faster you go, the more it costs to go a little faster.

[2875RLXIO]

This was one of my last performance boats. 2001 Cigarette 38' Top Gun. Twin Merc 500 EFI's (500 hp each). Twin 110 gallon tanks. It would run 85 MPH on GPS. I could burn the entire 220 gallons in a weekend running off the coast of SoCal. It would cost me over a grand to fill it up with todays prices. I sold it in 2005. It was a fun boat, but I am glad I don't have to put gas in it anymore

BTW: At WOT the formula would be gallons per mile, not miles per gallon. I did three 100 mile poker runs at WOT (5250 rpm's) and I would come back with about 75 gallons left.

[2875RLXIO]

This was the last boat I had before the pontoon became the primary boat. It was a little easier on gas than the Cigarette, but still would not be cheap today. It was a 2004 28' Skater with twin Merc 300X's. 122 MPH on GPS. I miss the fast boats at times, but the pontoon really can't be beat for hanging out with alot of friends. The first year I had the Pontoon I only used this boat twice the whole year. I could not justify it sitting in the garage not getting used so I sold it in 2006.

[Thommes]

you guys had a couple of nice boats.... crazy nice! Absolutely gorgeous both of em..

<insert drool emoticon here>

[2875RLXIO]

you guys had a couple of nice boats.... crazy nice! Absolutely gorgeous both of em..

<insert drool emoticon here>

Thanks, I was getting the itch a couple months ago and was looking at some nice used Cigs, but with the price of gas I can't justify buying one. If I did not have the lake house and pontoon I would probably pull the trigger and just go back to offshore boating though. Boats are addictive.

[dockholiday]

This was the last boat I had before the pontoon became the primary boat. It was a little easier on gas than the Cigarette, but still would not be cheap today. It was a 2004 28' Skater with twin Merc 300X's. 122 MPH on GPS. I miss the fast boats at times, but the pontoon really can't be beat for hanging out with alot of friends. The first year I had the Pontoon I only used this boat twice the whole year. I could not justify it sitting in the garage not getting used so I sold it in 2006.

Beautiful boats...........do you know what props those are on the 300 xs and what hp was the boat rated for.
doc

[2875RLXIO]

This was the last boat I had before the pontoon became the primary boat. It was a little easier on gas than the Cigarette, but still would not be cheap today. It was a 2004 28' Skater with twin Merc 300X's. 122 MPH on GPS. I miss the fast boats at times, but the pontoon really can't be beat for hanging out with alot of friends. The first year I had the Pontoon I only used this boat twice the whole year. I could not justify it sitting in the garage not getting used so I sold it in 2006.

Beautiful boats...........do you know what props those are on the 300 xs and what hp was the boat rated for.
doc

Those are Merc 15x34 3 blade lab finished cleavers. The X's are 300 hp each. I have seen a couple 28's with tripple 2.5's which are 280hp each. From what I have been told though a tripple set-up only gains about 7mph and the middle motor tends to have cooling issues. At 120 mph the boat feels very light. I am not sure how much faster I would want to go in that hull to tell you the truth.