Cruiser.. single/ twin engine?

[JohnS]

Hi everyone,Im a very new member(just signed up)I am heading at last towards a late retirement later this year and my partner and I intend buying a liveaboard to cruise the English canals and also around Europe.I have been looking at the multitude of boats types available and after also looking through the forum think a wide beam is most suitable.I have seen many cruisers some twin engine,which brings up the question does a twin use twice the amount of fuel and if so is it best to stay with a single,

[Paul C]

Not sure what kind of boat you are buying, which is suitable for English canals yet also capable of crossing the channel and visitng European waterways. The main issue being that for a canal, low(ish) draught and thus flattish bottom are the requirements; these give the worst type of boat handling in sea conditions.

 

Almost all boats on canals typically cruise on maybe 1/5 to 1/4 of their max power, the reserve being there for maneuvring, or more demanding river use. Therefore twin engines will be twice as underused, or one of them would be turned off. Hence, 99.9% of boats on the canals are single engine.

[nicknorman]

Hi everyone,Im a very new member(just signed up)I am heading at last towards a late retirement later this year and my partner and I intend buying a liveaboard to cruise the English canals and also around Europe.I have been looking at the multitude of boats types available and after also looking through the forum think a wide beam is most suitable.I have seen many cruisers some twin engine,which brings up the question does a twin use twice the amount of fuel and if so is it best to stay with a single,

A wide beam cruiser is probably not the best choice for English canals, but will be fine for rivers and continental waterways. Most (but not all) on this forum prefer the robustness of a steel boat, but each to his/her own.

 

A twin engine boat is likely to cost more to buy and run. It wouldn't use twice as much fuel as the equivalent single engined boat, but it will use more. There would however be double the maintenance costs.

 

The whole point of having 2 engines is to cater for the time when an engine fails, and the likely consequences. On canals, an engine failure is no big deal. However on tidal waters or the sea, it could give you a problem. Therefore the decision should take into account the time you intend to spend on these types of waters. For most of us on this forum, even if we do venture onto tidal waters on occasion, our exposure to this problem (bearing in mind Diesel engines are very reliable) is sufficiently low that we just rely on good maintenance to see us safe.

 

By the way, I would definitely avoid a petrol engined boat. Far too expensive to run!

[Naughty Cal]

A twin engines cruiser doesn't use twice as much fuel as the equivalent single engine boat.

 

We have a big single in our cruiser yet the boat we often cruise with has similar sized ( actually bigger with more cylinders but similar power output) he uses about half again as much fuel as we use.

 

Most owners of twin engines boats will run both engines even on the rivers and canals. It is often the case that one will heat the water and the other does the power steering and charges the domestic batteries. In practice you need both.