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Originally Posted by Brian
Fjordrafting,
Excellent article in this months issue of RIB Int. May I ask a couple of questions about your transit?
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Thank you very much!
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1. Are you Martin or Haavard?
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My name is Martin, Haavard is the reporter from a lokal newapaper who also made a film about the journey, whish was sent on national tv.
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2. For the 1167 mile journey, do you know how much fuel you used for that distance?
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There is a fuel-computer onboard, an the fuelconsumption is exactly 1l./nm pr. engine at best cruisin-speed, 42 knots and 4200rpm with the Hydromotive propellers, the best cruising-speed varies very much depending on propellers... If I use a racing-propeller with the same pitch, I get 6% higher revs. This is all at normal weather, less than 1m. waves.
On our leg up to Porterhead we hit 3 m. waves going right agains us all the time, after only half of the distance that day, we had to refuel.
At all times we had 50% more fuel than needed for the passage of that day on board when wee left harbour, and we still had to refuel at this leg!!
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3. I assume you carried deck fuel in 20 or 30 ltr. containers. How many did you carry with you in the boat?
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We did not carry any filled containers on board, exept from the leg Shetland-Norway, where we had four filled 20-l.containers in case of bad weather. When we left Shetland for Norway, the weather-report was so bad that Graham J. (Scorpion) recomended that we did not make the passage that day.
The weather-report was looking even worse the following days, and the boat performed so well and the direction of wind was at our favor, so we went for it. On our passage from Shetland to Norway, we carried twice as much fuel as needed, but if we had hit bad weather, it would not have been enough.
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4. Did you actually empty the main tank on any leg? And if yes, how was refueling at sea?
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Refueling at sea is ok if the waves are less than 1 m., we did empty our cans as fast as possible on the leg from Schetland and it was totally ok in good weather, 50 cm. waves.
The way we carried our fuel was by having 400l. in the main fueltank, and we had a gasbag made to fit between the consoles. That bag took more than 200l. and worked perfectly. We alwayts emptied the bag first.
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5. Did you do any heavily loaded test runs to measure fuel consumption before you set out on the journey, or did you gather this data as you progressed?
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I red two tests on these angines, I know a person who has the same setup and talked to him (
www.actionboat.dk), and the fuelconsuption is not much higher when the boat is loaded.
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6. At what revs did you achieve 40knots?
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4000!
When it comes to speed, the top speed varies much, depending on the propellers. With the Hydromotive counterrotating, four blad 24" we did make 59 knots at the best with the tide. Theese propellers give very good grip and were prefered for this jopurney, but with racing propellers with three blades 24" and both right hand rotating we onse had 64 knots with 6 people on board. This number would have been higherr with counterrotting propellers. (The reason for the setup with two right hand rotating propellers was that the gear ing the counterrotating lower unit broke, and we bought something temporarely). You probably know, but the gear on the counterrotating unit is weaker.
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I ask because fuel planning is vital to long distance off-shore cruising and I hope your answers can help other people.
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I which you all the best on your journey, one thing is for sure, 80% of the job of a long journey is the part you do at home before you leave.
Best regards
Martin
RIB Saffron
Codprawn old buddy,
