MacGregorSailors.com

G'day all.I'm setting up the mac to live in for a couple of years while we travel and sail around oz.The mods section has been great and i'll be copying a lot of your ideas but how much load/weight can you put in a mac and whats the effect on performance.I've been working in road transport for the last 20yrs and know about axle/tyre limits but the last time i tried island hopping up north at dampier in a 14ft centre consul it drank fuel like a triple roadtrain(1litre/km) because i think i overloaded it.(4 adults 5kids and enough gear for 4 nights camping in 2 14 footers).Any advise on how many pounds or kilos would be great thanks

Hi Keith,

I found the biggest factor on fuel economy is speed. At WOT the etec 50 guzzles the fuel. But cruise along at 6 knots and the tank is almost full at the end of the weekend.
Cheers

Keep your RPMs down in or around 3000 + or - for moderate fuel consumption

The trailer cannot take it. Please upgrade to a 9000 pound trailer.

My boat with me in it and fully loaded is 7000 pounds and did not go below the waterline.

It can take a lot. My best gas milage was at 5.5 mph. Around 10 mpg pulling a 5 foot dink.

With a heavily loaded (crew of 6 with 7 days gear and food/water) we travelled 64 statute miles and consumed 11.9 gallons of gas (10% ethanol) mostly motoring at 3000-3500 rpm (7-9 smph).

Im guessing if we throttled back to 6 smph gas consumption would have gone down considerably.

read some of Duane Dunn's posts - search for duane * and check out his website- he has written extensively and basically done what you are looking for information on

On an X boat, once you load it that heavy, you have the risk of leakage into the boat if you have a less than perfect ballast tank stopper. You don't want to load the boat deeper than the top of that stop.