Just for clarification Enseneda to Turtle Bay is 300 NM and Turtle Bay to Cabo is about 500 NM--so a range of 550 is adequate for West Coast cruising from the Guatalma Border to the end of Icy Straits (in the inland passage slightly over 200 miles is all that is necessary)--but with 400 miles you can see many more interesting harbors.  The only factor which comes in on the trip along the West Coast which requires longer range is the weather--if a bar is closed then one may have to go on to the next port to get fuel.

Agree about the Caribbean--but the trip may be more complicated, for example from Houston, New Orleans or Penacola to Isla Mujeres Mexico is about 600 miles.  The much longer route around the edge of the gluf,  which requires stopping at Key West for fuel, requires only 300 miles range.

It is interesting that the PDQ 34 which went to the Western Caribbean ran on one engine alternately, to conserve fuel on the longest run.  if the fuel capacity of the PDQ is 184 gallons, and the average burn is 2.5 N miles a gallon, this would give a range of about 400 miles with 10% plus reserve.  There are some logs on the PDQ web site which give actual fuel use over long trips.

Bob Austin

Reply to Bob Austin:

Bob says that "it is interesting that the PDQ34 which went to the Western
Carribbean ran on one engine alternately, to conserve fuel on the longest
run". The idea that you will be using less fuel by running on one engine is
a myth and is not sustained by testing.

All our fuel data from many hundreds of boats indicates that running on one
engine does not actually conserve fuel. Running at the SAME SPEED on one
engine that you would be running at on two engines actually uses more fuel.
The reason for this is that you are dragging the un-powered propeller
through the water and this requires more horsepower/more fuel. It doesn't
matter whether the propeller if fixed or free wheeling, the result is you
use more fuel. Of course you use less fuel if you go slower and perhaps the
PDQ was just not able to go slow enough on two engines and hence the use of
one engine.

Data from one of our ocean going designs that used controllable pitch [CP]
propellers that were able to be fully feathered when not powered resulted in
approx  savings of10 to 20% in fuel over many thousands of miles. Another
advantage of the CP propellers is that by alternating engines you are always
servicing a cold engine and of course you halve your engine hours. Of course
both of these latter advantages also pertain to a fixed propeller system,
just not  the lesser fuel consumption.

Malcolm Tennant