Rosborough rf-246 "Blue Heron"

Fuel Chart (click to enlarge) The shakedown cruise was really in two parts. Part one was when Brian, my Canadian boat-loving friend, and I headed south from the Vero Beach City Marina with the purpose of developing a fuel consumption chart. The fuel chart to the left was the end product of our efforts. We ran the boat at various RPM's and noted the fuel flow rate and GPS speed for that RPM. The chart makes it clear that at a decent cruising speed (13 to 16 knots) with both Suzuki 115 hp outboard engines running, we could expect about 2 nautical miles per gallon. Fuel consumption is a bit more at 20 knots, the speed that feels the most comfortable in calm water. Top speed was about 25 knots with about 1.5 nautical miles per gallon fuel burn. Twin Suzuki 115 hp engines We also needed a "fuel remaining in tank" graph as the fuel gauge reads in percentage full, not gallons in tank. We accomplished this by filling the gas tank in 10-gallon increments and noting the...

Me and the rf-246 back at Vero Beach, FL The process of buying the Rosborough was painless enough. It started with a drive across the state of Florida during February, 2014, from Vero Beach (where I was living aboard a Ranger Tug 21ec) to St. Petersburg, Florida, to look at a used Ranger Tug 25 that had just come on the market. The price was right, but seeing the boat made me realize the Ranger Tug 25 wasn't the boat for me. Ranger Tug makes a great boat, but I came away thinking, "This boat is dark inside and lacking in living space. It feels like a cave inside, like being aboard a sailboat again." I was looking for something bright and airy inside. The broker had said that if the Ranger Tug purchase didn't work out, he had a nice Rosborough rf-246 that might be perfect for me. That started me thinking. I had looked closely at the rf-246 about 10 years ago and liked them, but they were beyond my price range then. Now, 10 years later, the 2008 model was just abou...