Posted on 01/02/2008 10:43:08 AM PST by Capt. Tom
I wrote the following on FR in April 2006
Another working man's boating disaster is on the way.
The economy is good; but the high prices of marina fuel, marina slips, boat insurance, maintenance, is going to kill boating for a lot of working people starting this coming season.
I see a repeat of the early 1990s, when I moved from the Boston area to Boston's south shore. I went to a local marina and asked to get on a waiting list for a boat slip, I knew it would take years to get in. I was laughed at, the marina operator told me he had a waiting list for slips equal to all the boats in the marina and I was wasting my time-two years later in a bad economy, they had several empty slips for the entire season.
I see this happening again. When the people in the marinas bail out for economic reasons, as I expect will start this season, many people on the waiting lists will find out they can't afford the slips,and the fuel prices either.
Non-boat owners can't relate to filling up a boat fuel tank and spending between $100 and in the case of big twin diesels in a sportfisherman a thousand dollars a fillup.
I brought a 45 Cabo, twin 800 hp diesels up from the Bahamas last spring with the owner onboard. He put $8,700 of diesel into the tanks. Now most working men don't have boats that big, and with that much horsepower,or that kind of money for fuel. I am talking about working class boaters who don't have a lot of money left over each week to pay those really high fuel bills that started last season.
Boats use a lot of fuel (1-3 mpg). If you have $3.00/gallon to deal with ashore, the boat owner has $3.30 - $3.80 to deal with in the marina.
It's not just the fuel, the rising slip fees are another factor. In my area now, they are from $100/foot to $175/foot for a boat in a slip for the season. Usually May thru Mid October.
Last season was the economic handwriting on the wall, but most boaters toughed it out. The reality of economics will take its toll this season.
I see ancedotes indicating the boating problem right now. The boat I use on charter has been in the water since the end of March; at a year round, ice free marina, that usually has 30 or so boats there this time of year. I counted 13 today. We will move out of this marina to our regular marina in mid May when it opens for the season.
I just don't see fuel prices going down. China and India need more fuel. The mideast is shaky. Hugo Chavez (Venezuela) is a lose cannon. - tom April 2006
I have seen empty Marina slips in my area for the 2007 season-for the first time many years.
I just fueled up with some heating oil and it is 80 cents a gallon higher than last year at this time.
If it holds and the price of diesel goes up 50 to 80 cents a gallon higher than 2007 in the Marinas, and the gasoline prices climb it will kill a lot of working class boaters.
What are your experiences? - tom
BUMP!
It’s Boat Show season here in the East now so your editorial is well timed.
I was thinking of going to the NY show but changed my mind and will probably head down to the Atlantic City show instead. I just read where recreational boat sales peaked in 1989 and now high fuel prices has even more people who were considering purchasing a boat for the first time are now looking for other ways to spend their free time. It is a serious problem facing the marine industry, for sure.
If you are a member of Boat US and get the monthly publication, check out their “Behind the buoy” editorial in this past month’s issue. It addresses the very questions you raise.
Too many people are ocean smashing bus drivers anyway.
The noise, smell, stink, and waste of their so-called “boats” are obnoxious to anyone who really appreciates boats and the water.
Those probably belonged to people who lost their shirts speculating in real estate.
And you'll see even more empty slips next season if the economy tanks.
I wouldn't plan on investing a huge chunk of money in any powerboat from now on, else there will come a time when one cannot afford the fuel for it and no one can either, which means you can't even unload it.
Buy a small powerboat or a sailboat, if a rowboat is too small.
Last fuel crisis slow displacement hulls became popular (so-called "trawler" yachts), because people still need big boats to feed their vanity.
I applaud going slow on the water, but does one really need a floating elephant?
I gave up going to boat shows decades ago.
They are overwhelmingly filled with fur-on-the-inside boats designed to appeal to people who don't know better.
I remember one salesman giving me a tour of one boat and praising its galley to me: generator powered microwave and refrigerator, etc.
Then I asked him where do you put a garbage pail, and he looked at me blankly.
I will look for it. I wonder if it can be found on the Net? - Tom
Boats on sale in ‘09....
In July, went from Salem MA to Bermuda and back on 30 gallons of diesel. Still got it (stabilized) if anyone needs it next summer.
My sailboat only goes where the winds take her. In case the need for getting home is extremely pressing. Then of course, I turn on the diesel say goodbye to the water. I'm leaving sanity, the peace of posidon and point her compass home.
This year is a buyers market for anything that floats. Next year nobody will have money enough to do anything but sail.
Today-
NEW YORK (AP) -- Oil prices soared to $100 a barrel Wednesday for the first time ever, reaching that milestone amid an unshakeable view that global demand for oil and petroleum products will continue to outstrip supplies.
We are currently building a 90’ sailing yacht and rebuilding a 50’ sailing yacht. Our service side of the operation has more work then we have space to do.
We aren’t a marina boatyard, so I guess that we aren’t a good barometer for this summer.
Some of the other yards in our area are seeing less work then usual though.
I’d like to get a 14’ aluminum boat with a 9.9 motor, for the camp on the lake.
Designers have tried to make them stupid and ugly looking too—but they can’t get away with too much because sailboaters have better sensibilities than stinkpotters.
Powerboats designed for the unwashed, on the other hand, are designed from the inside out: figure out the accomadations first, put a shell around it, stick as more horsepower in it than will reasonably fit, make it flat on the bottom, flat at the stern, put fur on the ceilings and overhead, carpet on the deck, point one end (so the driver will know which end is the front) and go.
—”I went to a local marina and asked to get on a waiting list for a boat slip, I knew it would take years to get in. “—
I’m on Puget Sound. I was told I’d never get in the local municipal marina as well. I paid my wait list fee anyway. Thirty days later I was in. That was two years ago.
By the end of last summer several “for sale” signs popped up. Muni slip vacancies are scooped up quickly because of price, but the neighboring private marinas have lots of 40’ slips available.
Still, boat mechanics seem to always have a back log, haul out yards are busy and when it’s sunny, you can float in line for an hour waiting to pay $3.30 a gallon for regular.
......(name of boat)
Burn Diesel Kill Fish
........Homer, AK
Cheers!
—”My sailboat only goes where the winds take her. “—
Here on Puget Sound, you could have your sails full and still be going backwards.
bump 4 bookmark
Here,south of Boston, the price was $3.85 for gasoline and $3.35 for diesel at the Marinas in Scituate.
I just fueled up the end of December, with heating oil for the house, and it was $3.20/gallon. The previous April it was $2.40/ gallon. That is an 80 cent per gallon increase. If that is directly reflected in Marina fuel sales diesel could go to $4.15 per gallon locally. - Tom
—”$3.85 for gasoline and $3.35 for diesel”—
For some reason those prices are reversed here.
Those prices were at Marinas in 2007, and not at the shore gas stations.
Right now I see local gas stations with diesel higher than gasoline. -Tom
This leads me to conclude diesel will be over $4 a gallon at Marinas in 2008
The local marina here averages 20 cents more per gallon than the street stations for Diesel and Reg. Not always though, rarely the marina is less.
This leads many with medium sized boats to buy street gas and haul it down to their boat. Since I frequently run down to just check on the boat, I decided I’d lug a 5 gallon can down and add it to the tank to offset the extra cost at the marina.
I noticed that I always seemed to get more than 5 gallons into the can. I’d always fill it to the fill line, but the street pumps would always reflect more, sometimes substantially more- than 5 gallons. From one miraculous pump I fit over 6 gallons in a 5 gallon can! For comparison I checked the marina pump. It was right on. Since marina fuel taxes are refundable in WA, it’s actually cheaper to buy fuel from the marina.
No, I did not start hauling gas from the Marina to my car.
Here the Marinas run about 50 cents a gallon higher. - Tom
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.