Well I don't want anyone to take this post as a bash on my Honda BF 250 because I still love it and the cost to run it is still the lowest of any outboard I have run or owned. If you look back at my prior posts I am trying to dial in a new set up, first time owning a Honda outboard. I have said that this is by far the lowest fuel consumption outboard I have owned, I now have to rephrase the comment. It is the lowest cost to run because the cost of the 87 octane gas I can run it on VS the Yamaha SHO that I owned required 89 or higher. Also when I owned a pro xs or ran a Evinrude you have the cost of oil.
What I have found out the hard way is that the Honda shines on fuel consumption at mid range speeds only!! For example I can run at 40 mph and only burn 7 to 8 gph. No outboard I have run could even get with in 3 gph of the Honda at 40mph.
However any bass boat I have owned burns between 22 and 23 gph at wot, but if the boat is going 72 to 73 miles per hour on 45 gal of gas you have a range of 145 miles at wot the entire time. Now with the Honda at 22.5 gph but only 67.5 mph range is now only 135 miles.
So now you ask why do I say I learned this the hard way?? I fished the 1000 Islands open this week and you will see a ZERO next to my name due to a dumb mistake that is all my fault, I ran out of gas with 9 minutes till check in and 4 miles short. I had a situation where I could not run in lake Ontario due to high winds so I changed up 1 hour into the tournament and did a lot of wot river running. I saw I had burned 48.6 gal out of a 50gal tank when I ran out of fuel 4 miles short of check in.