This is a recent report from the owner of Manta 44 PowerCat hull #1 we are very excited about this news, in our running of the boat over the last six months, based on what remained in the fuel tank, we had our suspicions that fuel economy was better than the instruments indicated, this report confirms that we are getting better than 1.5 miles per gallon at fast cruising speeds. Hull #1 as is usual with the first hull is heavier than subsequent hulls, we feel we have reduced overall displacement by 1,500 lbs or more since then, so the later Manta's should be getting even better fuel economy. Pat Reischmann Pat, I have mentioned that I suspected we are getting better fuel usage than that indicated by the instantaneous consumption on the Volvo Digital Display. Yesterday we took some guests for a ride and I had a chance to test my suspicions. Conditions were ideal, calm water, light breeze, small tidal current, etc. We made an hour run in each direction, throttles set and not touched during the test runs. We were at cruise, 3000 apm, 15 TO 16 knots, light fuel load (120 gal/tank), 4 people, 70 degrees temp. I used the GPS clock on Maptec for an exact hour and recorded the gallons consummed during the hour from the Trip Gallons indicated on the digital display. All during the hour the instantanious consumption said about 7 gal/hour. We burned 5.3 gallons per engine! This run was against a small tidal current and 5 knots of breeze. We fueled by adding 55 gal. per tank (700 lbs + or -), and made the return run with the breeze and current. Fuel consumption was 5.4 gal/hour per engine while the instantanious reading showed about 7.6 gal/hour for each engine. I have verified the accuracy of the gal consumed as indicated on the display using a dipstick and the fuel dock meter. Further, we last fueled in Wilmington, N.C. then came up the ICW to home, a couple of pleasure trips around the Chesapeake consuming 42.7 gal/engine and 12.5 hours on the Trip Hours display for 3.4 gal/hr/engine for "average" boat usage. I don't go slow unless I have to!! One passage was very rough, so this should be pretty good cross section of usage! I plan to visit the Volvo folks at the boat show and ask a few questions about their instantaneous display! I am getting convinced we have an even better story to tell than our 8 knot story. I wonder what an hour at 8 knots might tell us?? Well, maybe 30 minutes times 2---! Dave ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- --- Check out the new AOL<http://pr.atwola.com/promoclk/1615326657x4311227241x4298082137/aol?redir= http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Eaol%2Ecom%2Fnewaol>. Most comprehensive set of free safety and security tools, free access to millions of high-quality videos from across the web, free AOL Mail and more.