| True, but the traditonally longer lifespans of diesel engines mean
that in many cases the same engine can remain in a vessel for the life
of the boat while gas engines will need more frequent rebuilds or
replacements. 8-10 years from now, the *second* gas engine might cost
as much as a diesel would have cost today. (This may not be as
universally true with some of the new lightweight, higher RPM diesels
that probably won't go 4000, 5000, 6000 hours or more before MOH).
Fuel costs are lower with a diesel, and resale values often
substantially higher. Try to sell a gas engine boat with 1200 hours on
it and you will get quite a bit more static re: "high hours, it's
going to need a rebuild soon so I'm deducting the price of that from
my offer" than if you are offering a diesel boat for sale with the
same number of hours on the meter. Still, I think gas makes sense for most small boats and for those
boaters that live in climates where it's frozen over a lot of the year
and boats accumulate far fewer than 100 engine hours per annum. Yesteday afternoon, I took a test run on a new boat that is just being
introduced to the market. 33 feet, 6.0 litre gas engines. It's also
available with diesels, but that option raises the price $50,000. At
33-feet it's still something of a toss-up, but for anything larger I
still feel that for most folks diesel would be a better choice. |
Chuck
May 15
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