I fill up at half a tank. When I am at the dock, the gauge appears to be pretty accurate.
Why at half a tank, you might ask. With my Sunbeam Corsair, with a 135 Optimax, I had a 30 Gal tank, but I had Smartgauges, and the fuel flow was quite accurate. I used to run down to 20-22 gallons used, then head for the marina to fill up.
We got Upthesaukee Too, with a 58 gallon tank. When we got the boat, it had "some" gas in it. Looked like just under a half. We went out a few times, and decided to stop at West Alton to get gas on our way back to Parker's; gauge was just under a quarter tank. Gas at the time was up around $4 / gal. . It took 53 gallons. My wife gulped. We had a spell of nice weather, and used the boat quite a bit, and took it for a pretty good ride, and on the way home, we came to a stop in the middle of the lake to enjoy the day, and saw that it was again under a quarter tank. Had just enough time to make it to West Alton and filled up again. 49 gallons. Two $200 (roughly) fill ups in two weeks.
We got away from the gas dock, and my wife said we need to start filling up when we get down to half a tank; then it will only be $100 per fill-up. I told her that it didn't matter: filling up at 50 gallons every 2 weeks for $200 or every week or so at around 25 gallons for $100. She said that she didn't care...she just didn't want to see the $200 fill-ups. I said OK Admiral... because as we all know, a happy wife is a happy life.
