Fuel consumption of 43' Cruiser

I am purchasing a 1967 43' Chris craft Corinthian with twin 427 Fords. What can I anticipate for fuel consumption? I think cruise will be 8 knots, but I would like that confirmed too. I am finding that information about this boat is hard to find, aside from the capacity of the fuel and water tanks.

Any sources of in formation about this boat, especially manuals about the structure and boat systems, would be appreciated. (I have found manuals on-line for the engines and transmission, but that's about all.)

 

Fuel consumption will start at HOLY S%$T and go up from there! Seriously, it will be quite high with big blocks and a 43 footer. Without more specifics on your boat, all I can tell you is on my 8500# 26' Chris Craft Corinthian with twin 350 Crusaders, 1.91:1 BW Velvet Drives, 17x16 (too small) props, I get about 1 NMPG. Cruise at 22 kt is 3200 RPM, 10 GPH per engine. 7 Kt (max hull speed) is about 1300 RPM, 3 GPH per engine, or 2000 RPM @ 5 GPH on one engine. Unfortunately her most efficient speed is wide (almost) open, 25 Kt at 4400 RPM, 11 GPH per engine. Hope this gives you an idea.

 

Often times older engines would dump gas. I greatly increased fuel efficiency on my 1965 owesn by switching to modern carbs that could be leaned to double fuel efficiency. I did loose a little power but not much.

 

Thanks for getting back, both of you. I'm preparing to refinish the hull as soon as it warms up and then we'll see. So the boat probably won't hit the water until mid summer. Just because I'm a tweaker by nature I'll pursue all the crackpot fuel efficiency technologies I can. Should be fun (?). For the record, I did find one listing of a similar Corinthian for sale, and in the listing the owner specified 10 gallons per hour per engine, but he didn't specify if that was at cruise, which he listed as 8 knots, or wide open, 18 knots. This does seem to square with Bill the Cat pretty well.

 

Search --------www.marinersmuseum.org--They have all the CC yacht information. Have your boat or hull # ready.

 

Definitely not WOT, that's probably more like 15 GPH per engine.