Arwen's meanderings

Hi everyone and welcome to my dinghy cruising blog about my John Welsford designed 'navigator' named Arwen. Built over three years, Arwen was launched in August 2007. She is a standing lug yawl 14' 6" in length. This blog records our dinghy cruising voyages together around the coastal waters of SW England.
Arwen has an associated YouTube channel so visit www.YouTube.com/c/plymouthwelshboy to find our most recent cruises and click subscribe.
On this blog you will find posts about dinghy cruising locations, accounts of our voyages, maintenance tips and 'How to's' ranging from rigging standing lug sails and building galley boxes to using 'anchor buddies' and creating 'pilotage notes'. I hope you find something that inspires you to get out on the water in your boat. Drop us a comment and happy sailing.
Steve and Arwen

Saturday, 21 April 2012

A new fuel bottle

Joel made me think last week about the way I hang out the back trying to use a funnel and a 5 litre jerrycan to fill an outboard. He suggested the need for a 1 litre bottle of some form....so I went out and found one. 1.5 litre Optimus ( a good make here in the UK) and at a very reduced price. Perfect! My outboard has an integral 1 litre tank - so this is a bottle that will fill the tank once and have half a tank left in reserve. Well done Joel - grand idea.

Steve

6 comments:

Joel Bergen said...

Nice bottle Steve. I wish we had something like that here. I think I will try using empty automobile oil bottles. There seems to be no end to the advantages of this idea. Fuel stays fresher longer in these small bottles. Easier to store them on the boat. Safer to refill the tank. Much less prone to spilling. No funnel required. Take as many or as few along as needed. Another type of bottle that might work are the squeeze drink bottles with the push-pull tops. Sure beats the jerry can!

momist said...

I like that very much. Steve, how long does your 1 litre tank last, average use?

steve said...

hi Guys. yep I think this will be the thing. Much easier to use I suspect - will let you know. How long does my tank last - good question because I'm not fully sure. At half throttle i can get from QAB across to Cawsand and return so I'm guessing about 5nm? Does that sound about right?

Steve

Joel Bergen said...

Sounds about right Steve. I've got a 4 stroke Suzuki 2.5hp on my Nav. According to Suzuki, it runs 55 minutes on its 1 liter tank at full throttle. Full throttle moves my Nav at 6 mph so that works out to over 22 mpg(!) and about 5.6 miles per tank. At half throttle it should be able to do 6 miles easily.

steve said...

yeah that sounds about right
i'm still looking for tohatsu data that gives me those kind of figures/estimates

steve

Seth said...

Joel, and others in the US:

http://www.rei.com/product/783963/msr-fuel-bottle-with-crp-cap-30-fl-oz