On Mar 20, 4:08�am, Short Wave Sportfishing wrote:
On 19 Mar 2007 18:50:35 -0700, "Chuck Gould"

wrote:
The old saw that fuel
is so relatively inexpensive compared to the other aspects of boat
ownership that it shouldn't be a major consideration is a lot less
accurate than it once was.

OUTBOARDS RULE!!!! *:)

You know what's kind of interesting (not trying to get into the great
relative value debate) to me?

I'll bet I've seen at least 11 boats for sale on lawns that I've not
seen before. *And they are all in the smallish, inboard gas powered
24/28 foot category type boats - lot of Bayliners, one or two Stamas
and one with twin 454 Crusaders.

Being nosey as I am, I've stopped a couple of places and the common
issue seems to be gas milage on boats. *As in can't afford to run
them.

It looks like higher fuel prices are here to stay, and one of the more
heinous consequences is going to be the redefinition of most
powerboating as an elitist activity.

Wally and Wilma Sacklunch work pretty hard. She's on her feet all day
as a cashier at a local drugstore, and he drives a local bakery truck.
It's all they can do to bring home enough to make the mortgage
payments, keep up the notes on their F250 and Plymouth Voyager, feed
three kids, and stay close to current with the utility companies. They
had always dreamed of having a boat, and spending some quality family
time fishing, water skiing, beach camping, etc. A few years ago, they
refinanced their house, bought an older 25-foot express cruiser and
paid off their credit cards. Now the credit card balances have once
again risen to their previous highs, the house has stagnated or
slumped in value and can no longer serve as an ATM, and the boat has
to sit unused because it costs $800 to fuel it up for an active
weekend. That fictional couple represents a wide swath of the American
working class. While boating isn't supposed to be inexpensive, it's a
shame when owning even a humble boat becomes an impossible dream for
people who work so hard to earn a living.

It's easy enough to drive by all those boats for sale on the front
lawns of neighborhoods across the country and think, "They should have
made better choices." That's certainly one valid way to look at it. By
the same token, it's a shame that through no fault of their own the
economic dynamics shifted and left them without any reasonable
options.

It's easy enough to blame the oil companies and politicians (from both
parties) for the fact that boating is getting farther out of sight as
a recreational option for many families, but the boating industry has
to bear a large share of blame as well. It seems like every single
boat builder is chasing the same narrow spectrum of the market. Nobody
even thinks it's unusual when a new 30-foot powerboat sells for as
much as a new 3000 sq foot house in a decent or better neighborhood-
and that (IMO) represents a problem. By the time most of these boats
depreciate enough to be affordable by ordinary working class Americans
they're far too expensive to maintain (or, in many cases, fuel).