Engine hour gauge

[Seaquel]

Another question related to my prior post about fuel gauge error reading.....

Tracking engine hours and fuel consumption per hour becomes critical if we cannot rely upon our fuel gauge to determine actual available fuel. It appears that my engine hours are only tracked by whole hours since my hours passed from double digits (i.e., 99 hours) to triple digits (100+ hours). It would be helpful to track hours to the tenths, i.e., 154.8 hours (currently my gauge would read this as 154 hours). In this example, a difference of 0.8 hours represents nearly an hour of consumption, which could represent 4 to 8 gallons depending on one's style of cruising, sea conditions, etc. that ultimately drives fuel efficiency, which greatly affects the ability to determine available fuel (and also impacts the calculation to determine average fuel consumption per trip).

Question: is there a way to adjust the engine hour gauge on the Garmin to read decimals, i.e., tenths of a gallon?

Mark Leopold
Seaquel
R27

 

[knotflying]

Not sure if you can change the decimal point, but I would use my watch as I did in the plane. You won't have to worry about electronic failure if you use independent data. Quite frankly if you really want to plan properly you should estimate your fuel burn in advance of departure and know that you have enough fuel before you leave. On boats, weight is not as critical as it is on planes. I never leave without more that enough fuel to accomplish my trip.