Click the map to drop your ramp pin
- Distance—
- Run time—
- Fuel needed—
Click the map to drop your start pin at the ramp. Then click each spot you plan to fish.
What this is actually for
Every other boat fuel calculator asks you to type in a distance. That’s the bit you don’t know. Nobody stands at the ramp thinking “right, 34 kilometres” — you think “we’re running down to Mornington and having a fish on the way back.”
So this one starts with a map. Pin the ramp, pin the spots, and it does the measuring. Then you’ve got a real number before you’ve spent anything.
Working out what to charge your mates
This is what it gets used for most. Three of you go out, the fuel comes to $70, and everyone reaches for their phone at the servo doing sums. Show them the screen instead. Same trip, same map, same number — nobody argues with the map.
Deciding whether the run is worth it
Some days it’s a choice between the close spot and the good spot. Pin both and you’ll see the difference in dollars in about ten seconds. Sometimes the far one is only twelve bucks more and you go. Sometimes it’s forty and you don’t.
Planning a long trip properly
A full day working your way down a coast isn’t one straight line. Pin every stop in the order you’ll fish them and you get the leg-by-leg distances on the map, the total, and the fuel for the lot. That’s the sort of trip where guessing gets expensive.
Boaters, not just fishos
It doesn’t care what you’re doing out there. Cruising, diving, running to an island for lunch, moving a boat between ramps — if it burns fuel between two points on the water, the maths is the same.
How it works out the cost
It adds up the straight-line distance between every pin you drop, in the order you drop them. Then:
Run time = total distance ÷ your cruise speed. Litres = run time × your burn rate, plus your reserve. Fuel cost = litres × price per litre.
Why you should pin your way home
Straight lines lie. If your run home goes around a point, a single line cuts straight through the land and tells you it’s shorter than it is. Drop a pin at the turn and the number comes out honest. That’s what the extra stops are for, and it’s the main reason a map beats typing a distance into a box.
Why the reserve matters
Twenty percent on top is the sensible default. It covers a headwind on the way home, a longer run to find fish, and time spent at trolling speed that the point-to-point distance never sees. The maritime rule of thirds is stricter again — a third out, a third back, a third in reserve. Nobody wants to be doing sums about fuel in a chop off Mount Martha.
The two numbers you need
Cruise speed is what you actually sit on, not what the boat will do flat out. Most trailer boats cruise 25–45 km/h.
Fuel burn is litres per hour at that speed. If you don’t know it, a rough guide for a petrol outboard is about 0.25 L/hr per horsepower at cruise and around 0.4 flat out. So a 90hp sits near 22 L/hr cruising and 36 if you pin it; a 150hp around 37 and 60. Diesel is generally lower. Your motor’s manual or a measured run over a known distance gives you the real number.
Set it once and the calculator remembers your boat, so next time you just drop pins.
Works anywhere in Australia
The map covers the whole country, so it works the same whether you’re launching at Sorrento, Pittwater, Scarborough, Hillarys, West Lakes or Bellerive. Use the jump menu to get to your patch, or hit My spot and it’ll drop the ramp pin where you’re standing.
Nautical marks — channels, beacons and buoys — sit over the top so you can see where you’re actually planning to run, not just a road map with blue bits.
Fuel prices vary between states and between metro and regional, so the price field is yours to change. The default is the Melbourne average from the ACCC’s weekly monitoring. Set it to what you actually paid and the numbers are right for you.
Fuel calculator FAQs
How do I work out what a fishing trip costs in fuel?
Pin the ramp and every spot you'll fish, and the calculator measures the distance for you. Then it's run time from your cruise speed, litres from your burn rate, and cost from the fuel price. You get a number before you leave, which is when it's useful.
How do I split the fuel cost with the people on board?
Take the total and divide it by however many of you went. A $70 trip three-up is about $23 each. Showing them the map and the number tends to end the discussion faster than doing it from memory at the servo.
How much fuel does a boat use per hour?
For a petrol outboard, a rough guide is about 0.25 litres per hour per horsepower at cruise and around 0.4 at full throttle. A 90hp burns roughly 22 L/hr cruising and 36 flat out; a 150hp around 37 and 60. Diesel is generally lower. The accurate figure is your own, measured over a known run.
How much reserve fuel should I carry?
The maritime rule of thirds is safest — a third out, a third back and a third in reserve. As a minimum, carry 20 percent on top of your out-and-back figure. Wind, chop and extra weight all push consumption up, and none of them warn you at the ramp.
Do I have to know the distance to my spot?
No — that's the point of the map. Most fuel calculators make you type a distance in, which is the one thing you don't know. Here you pin where you're going and it measures it, in kilometres and nautical miles.
Can I add more than one stop?
Yes. Pin as many spots as you like, in the order you'll fish them, and each leg gets its own distance on the map. Pin your way home around a point rather than through it and the total comes out honest.
What is the fuel price set to?
The Melbourne average from the ACCC's weekly fuel price monitoring. Change it to whatever you actually paid — the calculator uses your number and remembers it.
Why is my real fuel use higher than this?
Usually one of four things: you cruise faster than the speed you entered, you're running into wind or chop, you're carrying more weight, or you spend time trolling and idling that isn't in the point-to-point distance. That's what the reserve is for.
More from Reedy’s Rigs
- Live Fishing Window — barometer, biggest tides and the sessions worth chasing.
- Snapper Fishing Port Phillip & Westernport — rigs, baits, tides and both bays.
- Melbourne Snapper — when they arrive and where to fish month by month.
- Two Bays Snapper Challenge 2026 — nine days, both bays, boat package first prize.