Mirror Mirror on the wall....who's the cheapest bastard of them all?

[James McDougall]

ME!! That's who!? Here's how far I'm willing to go to not pay the extra $25 per tank convenience fee at the Marina where my boat is slipped.......

Anyone else go out of their way to refuse to pay the ridiculous premium they charge for gasoline?!?

 

[biffdotorg]

I hear ya. The marina on our previous lake was $6/gallon no matter how much it was anywhere else. Friday evening I pour my first Morgan/Diet and get out my shaker siphon.

If you don't know what a shaker siphon is, look it up on Amazon. It's one of those things that any of us could have invented.

 

[James McDougall]

I hear ya. The marina on our previous lake was $6/gallon no matter how much it was anywhere else. Friday evening I pour my first Morgan/Diet and get out my shaker siphon.

If you don't know what a shaker siphon is, look it up on Amazon. It's one of those things that any of us could have invented.

Dude, my shaker syphon is awesome. I love the thing....the Marina gladly provides a nice big cart as part of my docking fee.....I enjoy using their cart, to port my fuel, to then use the syphon.....it does about 2 gallons a minute I think.......and since the gas all sits on the cart, which is much higher than the boat, gravity does it's thing and I just crack open a beer!

 

[seanmclean]

Our Marina won't allow fueling in the slips. Gas dock or nothin'.

If they did, I'd be lugging gas cans down too. no shame!

 

[James McDougall]

I have no shame, I lug gas down there all the time.....those twin 250 Rotax engines are thirsty! As for your Marina rules, that's ridiculous.....I'd be hiding my gas cans! haha.....or better....won't let me fuel in the slip? no worries, park at the gas slip area and use your own fuel.....BAHAHAHA

 

[swatski]

In most marinas it is a complete no-no, for safety reasons.

--

 

[seanmclean]

I have no shame, I lug gas down there all the time.....those twin 250 Rotax engines are thirsty! As for your Marina rules, that's ridiculous.....I'd be hiding my gas cans! haha.....or better....won't let me fuel in the slip? no worries, park at the gas slip area and use your own fuel.....BAHAHAHA

Hmmm... I might have to reread the rules! Could be a good loophole, especially if I get there before the gas boy does.

 

[seanmclean]

I try to calm my annoyance at paying an extra buck a gallon at the marina by reminding myself that my truck is getting twice the fuel economy driving back and forth than it would if I was trailering.


It's gotta work out, right?

 

[zipper]

I am pretty tight with my wallet, we do wet slip, but can find non ethanol fuel at my marina 's gas dock. I prefer that to regular pump gas containing ethanol. Marina gas is not cheap @$3.99/gal last time I put it in. When I need to fill up cheaply, I drive 5 mins. to the ramp, and trailer 200 yds. to the gas station, fill up turn around and put back in the water. Our marina does not allow refueling on the docks at your slip, I would have to load all those cans onto the boat, go out onto the lake and put them in, and then bring the cans back to the car. All for insurance reasons. There is a convenience factor with marina gas.

 

[biffdotorg]

If I knew laws better, I would think the kids that come and mow lake cabin yards could make even more by lugging gas cans down to our boats and waverunners and filling them up as a service after mowing the lawn. Gas fill service is easy though, and a good reason to fire up the stereo and the first cocktail.

 

[Beachbummer]

My gas cans are fake, painted red. Recycled from concentrated cleaning products. Much more sturdy than the store containers. I'm not proud to admit it but in the cheap competition Im up there with you. I have home made fenders that are basically a pool noodle cut in half, with a home made cloth wrapping.

Cheap cheap cheap.

 

[James McDougall]

So let me clarify something too here.....I save a HUGE amount of money compared to the Marina because there is good cheap, tax free Reservation gas 3 miles from my house....while I obviously pay more than the people from the Band pay, It's perfectly legal for them to sell gas on their sovereign nation.....and It's far cheaper than in our normal province.....It's 100% worth the effort and I hand on heart save $25-$30 on each and every 40 gallons that go into my boat......that to me is a ridiculous amount of savings.

 

[Papa]

James, I do the same thing. No way will I pay those prices at the marina.
Papa

 

[giroux68]

I went thru the whole pulling the boat out and gassing up at costco. It took 1.5 hrs. But I have to get the trailer from the storage yard and walk from the ramp to the boat dock. If I could get help it would be worth the savings. Next fill up is on the water, baring Katrina like price spikes.

 

[Jgorm]

My boats still not working, but i hauled out 7x5gal tanks on my last river trip to fill the waverunner, Viking, and Jeep that live it there. Once the boat starts drinking had I'll up my game to 14x5gal and make the 30 minute drive to az to save a buck per gallon. Costco has plastic nato site cans for 14 bucks. Ezspout.com has the illegal parts to make them functional .

 

[seanmclean]

I went thru the whole pulling the boat out and gassing up at costco. It took 1.5 hrs. But I have to get the trailer from the storage yard and walk from the ramp to the boat dock. If I could get help it would be worth the savings. Next fill up is on the water, baring Katrina like price spikes.

Yup, I'm pulling my boat out at the end of this weekend for cleaning/maintenance and vacation next week. First place I go after I pull it, and last place I'll go before I put it back in is Costco (or Wawa).


Buck a gallon times 40-80 gallons.... yup.

 

[James McDougall]

My boats still not working, but i hauled out 7x5gal tanks on my last river trip to fill the waverunner, Viking, and Jeep that live it there. Once the boat starts drinking had I'll up my game to 14x5gal and make the 30 minute drive to az to save a buck per gallon. Costco has plastic nato site cans for 14 bucks. Ezspout.com has the illegal parts to make them functional .
View attachment 77514

Those are similar to the ones I bought......also at Costco......but they were on clearance. *TWO* for $20.00 of the ones in the original photo I showed.....standard sized 20L cans.....I don't care about that funnel to be honest, I much prefer leaving my cans on the cart which sits elevated on the dock, much higher than the boat and I use a shaker siphon....and crack open a beer while I wait in between cans.

 

[ripler]

I try to calm my annoyance at paying an extra buck a gallon at the marina by reminding myself that my truck is getting twice the fuel economy driving back and forth than it would if I was trailering.


It's gotta work out, right?

Not when your burning 80-100 gallons a weekend like I do, I'm glad I trailer.

 

[James McDougall]

Not when your burning 80-100 gallons a weekend like I do, I'm glad I trailer.

Yep...last night was a good example for me. It was the first time this season the wife let go do my own thing....I didn't have her....or the one year old or the six year old to worry about.....I burned 20 gallons in under half an hour....before deciding I was too cheap to keep pushing the boat like that haha....so I went back to the dock and chilled on the swim platform with some music and a couple of beers.....but It's really not hard to burn through a lot of fuel pretty quickly and we sacrifice a lot for our boat.....like most of us do....so if I can save now, it means going out a few more times towards the end of the season!

 

[seanmclean]

Not when your burning 80-100 gallons a weekend like I do, I'm glad I trailer.

I'm impressed! I think my worst weekend so far was 35-40 gallons, but we aren't doing a ton of watersports yet (water just getting warm enough).

For me, slip means I get out more. We're about 40 minutes each way from the river, so I'm not going to go through the hassle of trailering if I've only got a short weather window. I do pull it every few weeks though, so I'm going to run it pretty low before I pull it out and get a nice full tank of 'cheap' gas.