how much would it cost to drive a motor boat around Australia?

Question

Assuming I was to drive a boat about 9 meters or 29 foot long with space for two people to sleep. Going at a sensible speed for the boat (you will also have to guess that) . How much would it cost in terms of boat fuel. Other estimations you may want to think about are kilometres per litre or miles per gallon of a typical boat of this size.

a good answer would include estimates for different types of fuel, the assumptions and proceeding calculations involved and a bad answer would just be a number which wont help

If I have failed to state something that you consider vital to the estimate please don't just say that I am being to vague. Simply use a sensible work around in your assumption and I shall be able to still use your hard work when I know what ever number I have left out.

Thanks very much for any efforts

Answer 1

Mate this question is very open ended.
Big fast powerful?
Small slow economical"
Petrol?
Diesel?
Single?
Twin?

I recently brought a 12m (38') Cougarcat from Bermagui (Southern NSW Coast) to Brisbane a distance of 600 NM. The vessel was powered by two TAMD63 6.3 Litre turbo Volvo Diesels. The vessel burned about 80 litres per hour. Used 2700 litres of fuel. At an average price of $1.65 per litre for diesel, it cost $4400 in fuel to do the trip.

This was a big relatively fast charter boat. Even at 29' There is a huge difference in fuel burn between a two cylinder diesel in a sail boat using 4 litres per hour and two petrol mercruisers using 120 litres per hour. So it is impossible to answer your question at all until you have some better data.

One thing to think about would be a Yacht. I must stress though, make sure you learn a lot about sailing both in a theoretical and practical sense before undertaking a journey of this magnitude. I have been driving rescue boats for almost 10 years, and I am still not ready to take on a journey like that one.