Fuel costs going to put a crimp in offshore plans?
Speaking to two good buddies the past few weeks — both owners of biggish center consoles with offshore capabilities — and the reality of the gas crisis came home. One estimated he was facing $600+ fill ups on his 32′ Regulator, the other said he was doing that last summer and this season is going to be worse. Owners of smaller boats who can trailer them to the local Sunoco may get a bit of a break, it seems there is at least a $0.30 marina premium tacked onto fuel-dock gas, but neither of my friends can easily yank and haul their boats to the gas station.
Wow, makes you think twice about that long haul south of the islands for big fish. Wonder what Larry B will do with the newly repowered Skipjack? Makes the price of tuna climb a bit I would imagine.
May 1st, 2005 at 8:23 pm
I will burn 160-200 gallons on an overnight; 100-140 on a day trip. At 2$/gallon for diesel its not going to slow me down at all. My new engines should move me from 1 nmile/gallon to 1.3 to 1.5 nmiles/gallon.
In the scheme of the cost of an offshore trip - the difference between 1.50$/gallon and 2$/gallon is incremental. I figure a day trip offshore is 500$ and an overnight canyon trip is 1K - lots of $$$, but if you slip the cost among 3 people its not a whole lot more expensive than a day’s charter elsewhere.
Breakage is the real downside of offshore trips; a predictable 500$ a trip is managable; but when you break something and get into marina fixes at 94$/hr - that’s when it becomes super expensive.
Anyways; aren’t I going to get rich off my extremely generous CA incentive of 1,000 shares