Ya think?
Skippers of these "land yachts" feel your pain. An RV like this gets around 6-7 mpg, and holds 55 gallons of gasoline minimum. Tack on running the generator, and you can go through some gas in a hurry.
Any Freeper boaters care to comment? Any anecdotes? How are my fellow Freepers coping with this problem. - tom
Sure am glad I have a sailboat. I might use 10 gallons at most for the whole year going out just about every weekend.
I have an 18 foot bow rider with a 120 hp merc on it. The boat is very good on gas. We use it for fishing, tubing, and for cruising. We use it on the Hudson river up in the Catskill area.
As far as the marina goes, we wouldnt touch one. We trailer it to the public launch ramp abotu 20 mins away from the house- as do most people in this area. The lauch can get crowded on weekends, but most people are patient and wait in line. My family has thought abotu gettig a larger boat, but with gas prices and the expense of docking it for the summer, we are happy with the 18 foot for now.
I boat on the allegheny river in pittsburgh. We have a Mastercraft, ski boat. I lost my Malibu in the flood of 2004 and replaced it immediately. This is a heavily boated area. While the price of gas is up, I have not noticed any appreciable decline in usage.Interestingly to me is that what I see in boat sales is that the bigger ones are selling better. The exact opposite of what you have suggested and what I would expect. I fill mine up for $60-75, they fill those tubs up for $1,000+++. I would suggest that the problem or question is different than you suggest. There use to be 200 million people in the U. S. now there are 340 million. Everyone loves the water. Some can pay.
NC coast is seeing private boating access disappear as marinas sellout to developers who upscale the property with condos.
Same with the fishing piers They're being torn down in favor of condos.
Time to go sailing
Rent a private slip with elec and water for $900.00season from 4/1 to 11/30 in South Jersey. have a Johnson 88 special and always take two 6 gal. tanks with me . I can shop around because of that, and store fuel I buy at the lowest price in extra tanks.
Whoa, one of these? Had no idea what it was, so I had to look it up. Nice boat. Have always loved that style. But...sigh...I can see I'm gonna remain a landlubber for the foreseeable future! Thanks for the update.
I can assure you that this crisis has nothing to do with working class boating issues. Our Lund and Alumacraft 17 footers with Evinrude and Johnson outboards sip gas. In fact, it takes more fuel to haul them up north on the back of the truck than it does to spend a day slaughtering walleyes and northerns.
Sailboats, inboards and marina slips...pshaw!
Neither of my boats use a drop of gasoline. All I have to do is make sure the Marine battery is charged and I can run the trolling motor all day long.
Bass and walleyes fear me, which is at it should be.
L
Snook and reds are almost as good as grouper.
Take out a $75,000 loan in cash and dump the cash into the nearest body of water.
Then, when you want to actually go out on a boat ride, charter a boat and consider yourself lucky you don't actually own one of these moneypits.
Do what a lot of power boaters do ... park your boat in a slip and use it as a summer cottage. Sailed in the Med a few years back ... large power yachts would travel up to 300 miles to fuel in Gibraltar ... and save enough to make it worthwhile.
I guess I'll comment. Boo f'in Hoo. There's nothing sillier than a boat unless it's a nose ring. I wouldn't accept one as a gift unless I could put an ad in the paper to sell it the next day.
'Course that's just my opinion.
It would cost me about $170 to fill up my Grady at gas station prices. Closer to $200 at marina prices.
I didn't go out at all after Katrina last year...but with prices close to those levels now, I guess I'm going to have to plan shorter trips this year.
Ya think?
Skippers of these "land yachts" feel your pain. An RV like this gets around 6-7 mpg, and holds 55 gallons of gasoline minimum. Tack on running the generator, and you can go through some gas in a hurry.
I'm interested in your essay, but not sure how to comment.
If I'm understanding correctly though, fuel prices are not that high historically, once inflation is taken into account. 'Course, with Venezuela and Iran in the picture, they may be shortly.
So, I have the feeling that during the last 20 years or so, the problem is more that boats have been built heavier, wider, larger, and with lots more horsepower, rather than that fuel has gotten overy pricey. These days, for instance, Bimini is filled with weekend warriors, all of them owning 25-35 footers, deep vees, easily suitable for short ocean passages, even in fairly rough conditions, with from 400 to 600 horsepower outboard packages, and having minimum fuel cap'y of 200 gallons. And those are just the "small" boats, as you know. And a lot of 'em are "blue collar" boats. My plumber owns a 28' deep vee with 400 hp, aluminum tower, fancy outriggers, the whole deal.
Anyway, go back 25 years, and everyone (going offshore of the reef) had 20 footers, pretty much, and with a max of 200 hp, usually considerably less, and 60-80 gallon fuel cap'y. Lots less expensive to run, still good enough to cross the Stream.
Go back another 40 years, there weren't large outboards, only 4 stroke gas engines, boats were much narrower, cut through the water nicely, burned less gas. IMO, excessive beam isn't so seaworthy anyhow, better to make it longer than wider if you want more room.
I have noticed that waterfront land is getting too expensive to be used for marinas or boat yards. Those things are dwindling, the ones that remain will get very high prices for their services.
My opinion is though, that most municipalities will keep dock space available for charter boats and visiting yachtsmen, there's still money in it, plus they can rent space for stores, restaurants, etc. Same goes for hotels, they'll want those services for their guests, plus they get a share of the take.
So I'm not sure how the boating future is for the ordinary guy, but I think it'll be OK, most of 'em keep their boats on trailers anyway, while I think space will probably be provided for the commercial guys if only for the reason that it's in the interest of other businesses to have 'em around.
Interesting question anyhow - I'm a believer in the free market, but confess that I have mixed feelings about it all, just as I do when I see farms being developed for housing, or wilderness disappearing.
Bumps in boating costs create temporary ebbs in sales, but 5 months later...
If you can afford a Cabo 45, you can afford to fill the tanks - just a small drop in the bucket compared to all the other costs of ownership. But you may take a few less offshore trips each season.
Insurance and dockage costs have gone way up - that's what worries me more. And all boat yards suck, but that's nothing new...
Do you know what BOAT stands for? Bust Out Another Thousand - woohoo!
Why would anyone own a stinkpot? Sail is the only way to go! Maybe a hundred gallons or so of diesel for the whole season for the auxillary.