Time to slow things down?

[scross]

Just doing some ballpark numbers and pondering.
We typically cruise 900 miles a season and put 75 hours on our C28 diesel engine. That’s an average cruising speed of 12 miles per hour. At 1.2 miles per gallon at that speed (with current diesel prices) we will burn 750 gallons (10 gph) or $5625 in fuel (@$7.5/gallon) for the season. Note that the majority of our cruising time is in BC where fuel is a tad more expensive. We also cruise heavily loaded so our gph burn is a tad higher too.
But, if we slow down to an average cruising speed of 8 mph, we get about 2 mpg. Yes, season total engine hours go from 75 to 112 hrs but total fuel used drops to 450 gallons (4.0 gph) and fuel costs drop to $3375. That’s actually pretty close to our actual fuel cost for the 2025 season.
That’s a fuel savings of $2250 for the season. Hmmm. I think we will be spending more time cruising at 8 mph this year!
Your thoughts?

 

[CaspersCruiser]

When I embark on my next loop section cruise, I will slow down for certain. I’m already doing that in my diesel tow vehicle. It is not my daily driver. I drive to our small farm 250 miles southwest of here (my wife’s childhood homeplace) and tow the boat with it. Diesel is 65% higher than this time last year. I keep records. And I know how to figure percentages!

 

[American Flyer]

We have always cruised at 1500 rpm, 45% power, 6.5 kts, 1.8 gph, 3.6 mpg, about 200 hrs and 1,300 miles per year costing about $2000. Of course there are about 10 minutes of 95% power every few hours to keep the turbo clean. We enjoy the journey as much as the destination. Yes, there are times it gets boring (colvos passage), but most of the time it is just relaxing.