Chuck Gould wrote:

Everybody has a different level of dedication to the pastime, and
that's fine. There are a few people who feel that the last thing in
life they would ever give up would be boating, no matter what the
costs or other sacrifices required. On the other end of the scale
there are folks who might go out in a boat if somebody offered them a
ride, but certainly wouldn't pay for the experience.....

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.



Perhaps there's a category of boaters who can afford the petrol prices
but who simply don't want to bend over so the oil companies can shove it
up there.