[Bushwacker]

Fr. Frank - I used to work with Larry! 2 different Seafari/140 Mercruiser rigs have made trips to the Abaco's with me, cruising at 20 kts (22-23mph) at about 5" vacuum with typical Bahama load (2 wks worth of beer & gear); both averaged around 5 mpg. This is pretty consistent with Seafari test that Boating Magazine did with Carl Moesly (11/69) - it's optimum cruise mph/mpg with a light load was 19/5.3 to 26.5/5.0. The same test showed running angle/mph changing from 2.5 deg/19 to .75 deg/25 mph to .5 deg/30+. Seems like the "sweet spot" for this hull is 20-25 mph, probably due to min wetted surface and most efficient running angle. I used to average 2.8 mpg on same trip running a 1975 Evinrude 115 (90 hp @ prop). Current E-tec set-up runs 5.2-5.3 mpg at 23-25 mph, based on I-command tach/flowmeter & gps spedo, with full fuel, bimini top up, 1 person on board.