Will gas prices effect your summer boating/trip plans?

[JBehrens]

Was talking with my friends yesterday and the rising gas prices started to question some of our major boating trips this year. I'm on the younger side and don't have a ton of auxiliary income to burn out on the water, in the past paying $2.50-$3.50/gal was in budget and totally fine (I always look at it in smiles per gallon) but now we are starting to rethink trips and possibly have to reduce the amount the boat is ran on the water. The biggest hit will be on this years Lake Powell trip, normally traveling to mid lake (~60 miles up lake) with two boats and three jet skis the group would burn ~600 to 700 gallons of fuel on a 9 day trip which at $2.85/gallon (Page, Az last year) wasn't bad $1700 but this year if gas is around $6.50 to $8 a gallon $3900-5000 that significantly increases the cost of the trip to the point where we might have to limit ourselves to the lower portion of the lake to save on house boat gas. Transportation/towing of the boat on long trips is also going to increase quite a bit.

Curious to hear what other peoples situations of thoughts might be. Do you think you will need to modify trip plans to stay within budget?

(please, this post is not intended to be political, just looking at/talking about the current situation that we all have to deal with)

 

[marcham]

Probably won't do 150 mile trips just for sightseeing, maybe more fishing....

 

[jcyamaharider]

There will defiantly be a lot more cove action this year.

 

[adrianp89]

Not at all. Just means I need to increase my income.

 

[Ronnie]

Last season I made four round trips from north up river to Sacramento, about 100 miles on the water round trip. Most on wave runners but one long weekend with the boat. The boat burned a little more than 50 gallons. The Waverunners burned about 25 gallons. Gas was around 4 per gallon. So $200 per boat trip and $100 per waverunner. This excludes the gas for the tow vehicle usually close to a tank, 15 to 20 gallons. However It seems like I only go out every other weekend, so 12 times a season, up to 18 for those months I go out three times or stay out for more than a day at a time. So even As prices approach double of last season I would not consider boating less, towing the boat or Waverunners closer to the destination or changing the way I drive the boat or Waverunners.

why? This is a first world problem. I am worth every F’ing penny and I earned every F’ing penny! When boating stops being fun i will stop boating, not because it’s even more expensive than it already was.

lol it’s easy to say that now but I won’t be surprised if I start bitching the first few times I fuel the jets this year. Hopefully Costco ups the debit card / gallons I can pump per card swipe. What a terrible thing to hope for but if I can buy once and cry once I think the rest of the day will be better. My bank usually blocks the third or fourth consecutive transaction for gas and I need to verify by phone / text to continue.

here is what gas costs in my area tonight.

 

[Acard7]

Last season I made four round trips from north up river to Sacramento, about 100 miles on the water round trip. Most on wave runners but one long weekend with the boat. The boat burned a little more than 50 gallons. The Waverunners burned about 25 gallons. Gas was around 4 per gallon. So $200 per boat trip and $100 per waverunner. This excludes the gas for the tow vehicle usually close to a tank, 15 to 20 gallons. However It seems like I only go out every other weekend, so 12 times a season, up to 18 for those months I go out three times or stay out for more than a day at a time. So even As prices approach double of last season I would not consider boating less, towing the boat or Waverunners closer to the destination or changing the way I drive the boat or Waverunners.

why? This is a first world problem. I am worth every F’ing penny and I earned every F’ing penny! When boating stops being fun i will stop boating, not because it’s even more expensive than it already was.

lol it’s easy to say that now but I won’t be surprised if I start bitching the first few times I fuel the jets this year. Hopefully Costco ups the debit card / gallons I can pump per card swipe. What a terrible thing to hope for but if I can buy once and cry once I think the rest of the day will be better. My bank usually blocks the third or fourth consecutive transaction for gas and I need to verify by phone / text to continue.

here is what gas costs in my area tonight.

View attachment 173216

Dear gawd Ronnie, those prices make me wanna hurl

 

[PortTobacco II]

Yeah I have to admit gas and inflation of everything has slowed down my boating activity. I have definitely gone back to the my 5 gallon gas cans to fill up the boat instead getting gas on the water at the marina. I think my local marina is up to $6.50 (maybe higher).

 

[RNYCLV]

We will being staying closer to home. Traditionally we would hit upstate NY frequently, this year it will be smaller lakes and more coves.

 

[FSH 210 Sport]

Thankfully most of my day trips are ten minutes up the road… and my boat doesn’t burn very much fuel. I‘ll be taking a trip over to east river for two weeks this summer, going to try and make it to Garrison Dam on the Missouri River. From what I can tell, that is about 325 miles by water one way, at roughly 3 mpg thats going to be a bit pricey! At $4 a gallon that will be $1000 just in fuel to go up and back. Should be fun though!

 

[John McLaughlin]

I no longer do a lot of long distance boating my expense will be taking the grandkids tubing. As that does not happen that often it will not be a big deal. Nw where I might have to scale back is camping. mostl likely will stay within a 50 to 100 mile radius of home this summer.

 

[scokill]

We don’t burn a lot of gas. Do some surfing, some floating and hanging out, go to concert and dock etc. We average an outing per week in the summer and use 4-20g a trip probably average 10g. Fairly insignificant impact.

 

[2kwik4u]

Meh.....Gas could double and it wouldn't change my plans.

1. It's vacation time. I'm relaxing and getting away from stress and spending time with the people I enjoy. Gonna take more than $6/gal fuel to make me give that up. Time is far more precious than that cash IMO. I'll never get this summer back with the boys. Got one shot at it, it's worth all the time and effort I've got, and under that premise, the cash is a detail I'm not worried about.

2. I have a little boat. It's cheap to own and operate in general. Even if fuel doubles from $3 to $6/gal, I'm out $100 more for a weekend of fuel on the water with our typical usage. Same with the SUV (for now), a tank of fuel doubling in cost might be a 200% increase, but actual dollars is closer to $80 increase or so. Just not enough of a swing to make me change my habits.....Now if I was running a 255FSH sport E 60+mi offshore every weekend, yea, that might hit a bit harder.

 

[Dixemon]

Yes my families summer fun will stay the same, but my bank acount will rapidly decline. All the while and with them obvlious to the underlying cost , i will be imagining benjamines blowing from the jets like a rooster tail. Having a cold one and laughing about it in a twisted sense.

 

[biffdotorg]

Other than the extreme coastlines in California, I can't say that I have ever seen the nationwide average cost per gallon being so close to each other.

If a person fires up Gas Buddy and switch to map view, you will see that the nationwide average is between $3.65 and $3.89/gallon. Yes it's high, but it's not $7/gallon and it has been that price range for months while folks are screaming the sky is falling. Keep in mind, that is regular gas, but it gives you an idea of the average price of premium as well. Diesel is a whole different story.

So will high gas prices change my boating, no. Because if it stays under $4/gallon, it will have no impact on us.

 

[John McLaughlin]

Regular gas in Md and De is around 4.25 per gallon. I have seen diesel at 6.00 per gallon in Md

 

[Babin Farms]

Other than the extreme coastlines in California, I can't say that I have ever seen the nationwide average cost per gallon being so close to each other.

If a person fires up Gas Buddy and switch to map view, you will see that the nationwide average is between $3.65 and $3.89/gallon. Yes it's high, but it's not $7/gallon and it has been that price range for months while folks are screaming the sky is falling. Keep in mind, that is regular gas, but it gives you an idea of the average price of premium as well. Diesel is a whole different story.

So will high gas prices change my boating, no. Because if it stays under $4/gallon, it will have no impact on us.

We hit as new high here, $4.49/gal. If prices keep going up at this rate we'll still go boating but we'll be at the beach/sandbar a lot more and doing a lot less cruising.

 

[biffdotorg]

We hit as new high here, $4.49/gal. If prices keep going up at this rate we'll still go boating but we'll be at the beach/sandbar a lot more and doing a lot less cruising.

I will shut my mouth and consider us lucky then here in ND/MN. Filled my truck at $3.79 at Sams club today. Pretty average for us. Good thing beer has only gone up a couple bucks/case. As our kids have grown out of tubing age to drinking age. They enjoy chilling in a swim saddle as much as us now.

Time to start pricing those swim up seats again, now that I have a welder that can do aluminum.

 

[sunbyrned]

Not sure if this is the place to post this. I didn’t have a chance to change the oil and plugs in the fall, but I did fill it up with gas and put in my fuel stabilizer. Today, I changed the plugs and oil and discovered I had less than half a tank of gas. I can only assume someone siphoned it out. Curious if this happened to others.

 

[Crob83]

Not sure if this is the place to post this. I didn’t have a chance to change the oil and plugs in the fall, but I did fill it up with gas and put in my fuel stabilizer. Today, I changed the plugs and oil and discovered I had less than half a tank of gas. I can only assume someone siphoned it out. Curious if this happened to others.

Or the gas pump shut off and you thought it was full but it actually wasn't. Has happened to me a few times

 

[sunbyrned]

Or the gas pump shut off and you thought it was full but it actually wasn't. Has happened to me a few times

That could be. I didn’t think of that. Thanks!