Boaters changing behavior in response to fuel costs.

Splendid weather.

Our general destination was about 60 miles from Seattle. We encountered a "cruise in" sponsored by a large cruising club. I know several people associated with the group and we were bs-ing about things in general when one of the organizers mentioned, "We originally had close to 40 boat scheduled to make the Memorial Day Cruise, but as the date got closer more and more them dropped out. We wound up with 16 boats instead of 40. Almost everybody who dropped out mentioned fuel costs as either the main reason or one of the more important reasons for cancelling."

Interesting.

We stopped at Bainbride Island on the way back to Seattle today, (Bainbridge is just a few miles from Seattle), and Eagle Harbor was *jammed* until very late on Monday afternoon. Looks like people are going boating, but not going as far.

A possible upside may be that the casual, once-in-a-while, jerkaround boaters might not be out at all this year. The amount of goofball nonsense on the VHF, bogus Maydays, kids playing with the radio, and just plain clueless VHF operation seemed to be way, way down. Either the screwballs have migrated to text messagin one another or there are fewer of them on the water.

The black smoke set off the smoke alarm, the fire department showed up, and we finally wound up junking the stove. :-)

The increased cost of fuel has taken a bite out of a lot of folks who have no option oother than to commute for a living, many of whom live paycheck-to-paycheck. While it's easy to wonder what some of these folks are doing trying to own a boat in the first place, it's a fact that there are a lot of folks who only marginally afford boating and when their "have to" fuel expenses go way up they are forced to cut back on the "want to" items to make up the difference.

The only thing that has changed dramatically from previous years is the cost of fuel. People are still getting out, but staying closer to home in my observation.

My boat burned about 15 gallons round-trip, (but it took me the better part of a day each way)......but my boat wouldn't be suitable for a lot of folks who need to go fast for the sheer thrill of doing so or want to pull skiers, etc.

Folks as well off as you are don't need to worry about the cost of fuel and most won't. :-) The rest of us paupers out here either need to be lucky enough to own a very fuel efficient boat or face some tough decisions about how we'll spend our boating dollars.

When we make our long summer cruise up into Canada later this summer it will be interesting to see if there is a drop off from last year in the number of US boats in various anchorages and marinas. There were fewer in 2006 than there were in previous years, so my guess is there were be fewer in 2007 than in 2006 as

Every boater, power and sail, is directly or indirectly damaged by these high fuel costs. There is a certain critical mass of people interested in boating required to sustain the infrastructure of fuel docks, marinas, supply vendors, repair professionals, etc. Everybody depends on the same infrasturcture, whether an individual burns 60 gph, 20 gph, 2 gph, or sails.

Most eveybody else is somewhere in between. A high percentage will probably spend $100 per weekend to boat. Move that to $200, and there will be some dropouts. Move it to $300, and the crowd would begin to thin considerably. Every hundred bucks higher will accelerate the attrition rate. There's no cost level at which eveybody will instantly give up boating, but we only need to look around to see that at each increment of increased cost we lose a few more folks who cannot (or choose not to) afford it.

--Vic

Putting the screws to Big Oil can be an act of patriotism.

"We can't do nuttin', so let's keep on keeping on..."

I've been out boating seven times since the beginning of the season here this year. I'm keeping a very close eye on fuel consumption and operating so as to use as little as possible.

There were, however, many boats running up and down the river in the 17'~27' range, with the fishing spots on the Lake filled with boats of that size.

Gas on the river was going for $3.79 on average.

Unnecessary roughness, 15 yard penalty. Do not pass go.

Fuel burn was 270 gallons...100 gallons each way, and 70 gallons heading to and from the fishing grounds, and trolling for 8 hours.

Fuel costs were $960 ($3.57/gallon), the slip was $170 for two nights, and drinks, food, and provisions were under $200. Total=around $1400.

If I had gotten a hotel on Memorial Day weekend for two nights, it would have cost me $500, and a fishing charter would have been $900 for one day and $500 for the second day. We would have had to go out to breakfast, lunch, and dinner rather than bring our own food, which would have added another $300 to the tab for 3 days. Gas for the car ride would have run another $100. Total=$2300.

Boating and fishing on a liveaboard is still cheaper than a hotel, dining out, and hiring a fishing guide. I'm surprised that so many boaters who own large expensive live-aboards would cite "higher fuel costs" as the reason for cancelling a planned trip that involved travelling only 120 miles round-trip. An extra $1/gallon at the pump would have added less than $150 to their trip.

"Chuck Gould" <chuckgould.chuck@gmail.com> wrote in message

I think your numbers are a bit off.

Actually, when I go out on the head boats, I find a spot on deck that is not too crowded and then driftfish my own bait, rather than bottom fish. I usually get away with it.

Yellowtail are excellent.

If I make the trip to the east coast or the Keys, I'm hoping to get a large dolphin, wahoo, or tuna to bring enough back for the freezer.