With gas prices topping $1.52 a litre here in B.C., conserving gas is on everyone’s mind, especially cottagers. There is a general consensus among our neighbours that boat traffic on our lake is way down from previous years. Is it the high price of gas or the high price of real estate that is deterring recreational enthusiasts?

Lindsay, from DiscoverBoating.ca has some great advice on how to lower fuel consumption. Here are five things she recommends to help trim fuel costs:

1. Minimize the amount of time you idle on the dock. This also applies to motor vehicles. With fuel injection systems, cars don’t use as much gas getting started, so if you’re idling for more than one minute, it’s worth shutting off the engine.
2. Travel at slower speeds and accelerate gradually.
3. A well tuned engine uses less fuel.
4. The proper use of trim tabs reduce drag, especially while accelerating up to planing speeds. See Trimming Your Boat for more information.
5. Check your propeller. If your boat is slow “out of the hole,” or lacks top-end speed, you might have the wrong propeller.

If the high gas prices are driving down your fun take heart. According to Lindsay, the average boater uses the same amount of gasoline for an entire summer that it would take to fill an SUV three times.

Cheers,

Julie

PS Our new boat, Sea Ray 176 uses way less fuel than our old 2 stroke outboard engine. Having a newer engine, ideally with a three star rating, will definitely save gas.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 2nd, 2008 at 10:14 am and is filed under Boating. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.