National statistics bare out that recreational boating substantially decline when fuel hit $5 per gallon and significantly increased recently when fuel approached $2 per gallon.
Ted
So did driving. So did buying vehicles. So did RVing. So did taking vacations by air when fares and add-ons startied jacking ticket prices up to cover the airline's fuel costs.
Of course people start cutting back when things get more expensive. Even my dog undertands that one.
But that doesn't change the fact that given all the expenses involved with owning a boat--- insurance, moorage, electricity, maintenance, repairs, upgrades, etc. etc. etc. fuel remains for MOST boaters a relatively small portion of that overall expense. The boaters who use their boats full-time or have boats that use a lot of fuel, sure, the higher price of fuel can be a whack in the wallet.
But most recreational cruising powerboaters don't use their boats full time. Most of them--- judging by the appearance of all the harbors in this regioin--- use their boats very rarely if at all. Mayby a few weekends a year, perhaps a longer vacation or two.
Like private planes at an airport, most boats just sit the vast majority of the year. It's been our observation that a powerboat doesn't use fuel when it's tied to a dock with nobody on it. Perhaps it's different where you live and boats are guzzling fuel 24/7/365. I wouldn't know.
But even while the boats here are just sitting the owners are paying insurance, moorage, and power costs. Their boats are accumulating bottom growth so at some point they'll have to be hauled and cleaned off and painted. And just sitting is not that great for a boat's systems so when they do crank up to go somewhere there's a good chance some stuff won't work and will have to be fixed. The cash register just keeps on ringing whether the boat goes anywhere or not (unless it's simply been abandoned.)
But this isn't what I find amusing. What I find amusing is the massive effort some people put into trying to figure out how to shave a 10th of a gph off their fuel consumption. Sorry, a 10th of a gallon saved every hour isn't going to make enouh of a difference to the overall expense of owning a boat to care about and if it does then perhaps that owner should be doing something else. Or start thinking about downsizing.
The exceptions, of course, are the folks who love this sort of excercise and would do it even if the oil companies were paying us to use their fuel. That's cool. I can't relate to that sort of anal mentality but if someone loves doing that sort of thing they should do what they love doing, right?
