by Adam LaRosa
They were built with the deck box space, storage space, freezers, ice maker, lighting, anchoring systems, and several other aspects critical to running 100-plus days a years 100 miles offshore, and fishing through the night along the continental shelf off the New York Bight. But with production boats come a lot of downsides – we all decided it was finally time to move into another class.
Fuel Efficiency
In the end, fuel efficiency was, and will probably always be, the No. 1 driver for pulling the trigger on a Carolina built boat. We all know fuel prices are now officially insane. So in today’s market if you are not primarily concerned with fuel efficiency you are either a billionaire oil man or you are not focused on what should be the main concern of any new boat owner.
Carolina boats are in a league of their own when it comes to fuel economy. You don’t have to look any further than the 60-foot Ritchie Howell we sea trialed that only needed CAT C18s to push her at a 32 knot cruise. As it turns out our 60-foot Ritchie Howell with CAT C18s fully loaded with 10 guys, 2,000 pounds of ice and a couple hundred pounds of bait, 50-plus rods and reels and granite countertops in the saloon and the master and crew staterooms, also cruises at 32 knots at 1,950 rpms. However, it moves even more efficiently at 1,850 rpms and with a 72 to 74 percent load on the engines she’ll move along at 29.5-30 knots, while burning 62-64 gallons an hour – again fully loaded with men and gear.
In the 17 canyons trips we’ve already done on her in the 30 days we’ve owned her - we are actually burning about 50 gallons less than our 48-foot Viking burned with 8V92s (and the Viking was only cruising at 25 knots while we are flying along at 30). Fuel prices are not going to come back to where they were 10 years ago, heck not even 5 years ago, but you can combat them with a focus on fuel efficiency. Carolina cold-molded boats are where to look and you owe it to yourself to do some quick math and see just how much money you save with these yachts. And they are only going to get better. The next generation of these boats will have IPS drive systems, which will have these boats cruising at 32 knots while burning only 42-45 gallons an hours – this will undoubtedly be an engine system we’ll be putting in our next boat. In fact, Ritchie Howell is building a 54-foot Express right now with the IPS system, which according to all the analysis done, is going to end up with amazing performance numbers.
Tumblehome
While the ride of a Carolina boat is legendary, and Ritchie Howell’s boats have proved to be one of the best, we also needed our Carolina boat to have features that would allow us to continue to fish the way we do 50 percent of the time – anchored up or drifting while chunking for tuna. As such, not only was the ride critical for us considering the many miles we travel in a year, but also aspects such as how the boat drifted and what it would be like fishing off the side of the boat while chunking. Accordingly, we needed a builder who would work with us on these details.
Fuel Efficiency
In the end, fuel efficiency was, and will probably always be, the No. 1 driver for pulling the trigger on a Carolina built boat. We all know fuel prices are now officially insane. So in today’s market if you are not primarily concerned with fuel efficiency you are either a billionaire oil man or you are not focused on what should be the main concern of any new boat owner.
Carolina boats are in a league of their own when it comes to fuel economy. You don’t have to look any further than the 60-foot Ritchie Howell we sea trialed that only needed CAT C18s to push her at a 32 knot cruise. As it turns out our 60-foot Ritchie Howell with CAT C18s fully loaded with 10 guys, 2,000 pounds of ice and a couple hundred pounds of bait, 50-plus rods and reels and granite countertops in the saloon and the master and crew staterooms, also cruises at 32 knots at 1,950 rpms. However, it moves even more efficiently at 1,850 rpms and with a 72 to 74 percent load on the engines she’ll move along at 29.5-30 knots, while burning 62-64 gallons an hour – again fully loaded with men and gear.
In the 17 canyons trips we’ve already done on her in the 30 days we’ve owned her - we are actually burning about 50 gallons less than our 48-foot Viking burned with 8V92s (and the Viking was only cruising at 25 knots while we are flying along at 30). Fuel prices are not going to come back to where they were 10 years ago, heck not even 5 years ago, but you can combat them with a focus on fuel efficiency. Carolina cold-molded boats are where to look and you owe it to yourself to do some quick math and see just how much money you save with these yachts. And they are only going to get better. The next generation of these boats will have IPS drive systems, which will have these boats cruising at 32 knots while burning only 42-45 gallons an hours – this will undoubtedly be an engine system we’ll be putting in our next boat. In fact, Ritchie Howell is building a 54-foot Express right now with the IPS system, which according to all the analysis done, is going to end up with amazing performance numbers.
Tumblehome
While the ride of a Carolina boat is legendary, and Ritchie Howell’s boats have proved to be one of the best, we also needed our Carolina boat to have features that would allow us to continue to fish the way we do 50 percent of the time – anchored up or drifting while chunking for tuna. As such, not only was the ride critical for us considering the many miles we travel in a year, but also aspects such as how the boat drifted and what it would be like fishing off the side of the boat while chunking. Accordingly, we needed a builder who would work with us on these details.
