Carver Owners Forum

Considering a 2005 Carver 33 SS (Dual 8.1l) My wife and I are wondering what the average fuel usage for an average day at the lake for a family?

(I realize that an "average" day is completely subjective and varies from family to family, but just trying to get a ballpark.)


Thank you in advance for any help!!

Welcome to the forum......question first, do you currently have a boat ?
Impossible to ballpark that, distance travelled, speed travelling to anchorage .....could run anywhere from 25 to multiple hundreds of dollars a day.

Play around with this calculator link, it will give you an idea of boat fuel usage.....


https://www.boat-fuel-economy.com/fuel- ... calculator

Just a rough…very rough ballpark…up on plane, I doubt you will get 1 mpg, maybe .8 mpg. Now slow it down to hull speed, about 7-8 mph, and you will double that.
So, just going out a mile or two, anchoring and running your genset, you will spend $25. Go up from there.

Just to add to this, up on plane is easily $150+/hr.

Agreed. Too hard to say. Hull speed, my system says about 1.8 gallons an hour per engine. Way too many factors to say, wind, current, load.....

I had a Carver 33 SS 2006. After getting up on plane we would get .67 mile per gallon. Running at 11-12 miles per hour we would get about 2.1 miles per gallon. So those are two numbers to look at. I think you will find that running on plane actually distracts from enjoying the day, unless you are headed somewhere 20 or 30 miles away with little time to get there. I found we ran it faster when we first had it, but then Settled into a slower enjoyable ride, the longer we had the boat.

Helmsman wrote:I had a Carver 33 SS 2006. After getting up on plane we would get .67 mile per gallon. Running at 11-12 miles per hour we would get about 2.1 miles per gallon. So those are two numbers to look at. I think you will find that running on plane actually distracts from enjoying the day, unless you are headed somewhere 20 or 30 miles away with little time to get there. I found we ran it faster when we first had it, but then Settled into a slower enjoyable ride, the longer we had the boat.

Hull speed for that boat is in the 7-8 mph range. At 11-12, you’re just pushing a lot of water in front of the boat. Hull speed is even more fuel efficient.

buster53 wrote:Source of the post

Helmsman wrote:I had a Carver 33 SS 2006. After getting up on plane we would get .67 mile per gallon. Running at 11-12 miles per hour we would get about 2.1 miles per gallon. So those are two numbers to look at. I think you will find that running on plane actually distracts from enjoying the day, unless you are headed somewhere 20 or 30 miles away with little time to get there. I found we ran it faster when we first had it, but then Settled into a slower enjoyable ride, the longer we had the boat.

Hull speed for that boat is in the 7-8 mph range. At 11-12, you’re just pushing a lot of water in front of the boat. Hull speed is even more fuel efficient.

I think he meant 11-12 kph which is where I sit for hull speed. At 12mph the fuel consumption would be much higher.

buster53 wrote:Source of the post

Helmsman wrote:I had a Carver 33 SS 2006. After getting up on plane we would get .67 mile per gallon. Running at 11-12 miles per hour we would get about 2.1 miles per gallon. So those are two numbers to look at. I think you will find that running on plane actually distracts from enjoying the day, unless you are headed somewhere 20 or 30 miles away with little time to get there. I found we ran it faster when we first had it, but then Settled into a slower enjoyable ride, the longer we had the boat.

Hull speed for that boat is in the 7-8 mph range. At 11-12, you’re just pushing a lot of water in front of the boat. Hull speed is even more fuel efficient.

Buster, it has been a couple of years, so you are probably right. Thinking about it this morning after reading your comment, we would typically run around 9 or 10 mph most of the time, so that is the more likely speed for the stated lower fuel usage. At any rate, the fuel penalties for running hard can get quite dramatic.

This should help to determine what hull speed is for your boat. It is important to use waterline length, this is not LOA or what Carver put on the side of your boat. It is the actual length at the water line from front to back which is about 27' for a 33' Carver. https://www.frontrower.com/hull-speed-chart.html