Pontoon Boat & Deck Boat Forum

What would fuel prices have to become for you to stop boating? I have a 24 footer with a 454 and when I got it in '94, I could boat all weekend for $100. It has a 55 gallon tank. Today, it's more like $200/weekend and I use it less and less.

I sold my 16' Donzi last summer and in that I could burn through $125 worth of gas in one weekend and that was pretty much a 2 seater; certainly not a family boat.

So, on a pontoon, a gallon of gas can get me from the launch to our favorite sandbar where we could hang all day. No tubing on that one gallon, but certainly to the sandbar and back. Plenty of fun for all right there, so there's not a huge compromise.

Given that situation, gas could go to $100/gallon and my weekend expenses wouldn't rise significantly.

How do you figure it?

I have a boat that will do less than a gallon an hour if I am not going fast so all $10 a gallon gas would do is slow me down a bit. When it was $4 we sailed a bit on the old pontoon.

Even at 5 or 6 bucks a gal I could still boat all day since my 18 foot toon only has a 30hp 4 stroke, 6 hrs on the lake at various speeds I only use about 3-4 gals, however towing it with my motorhome at those fuel prices makes it expensive to just get to the lake.

That is when it is good to tie up behind the house.

I've owned a boat for 30 yrs (salt and fresh water) and always thought, if I have to worry about gas, maybe I shouldn't own a boat.

If we quit boating OBAMA wins. Full speed ahead!

At the lake it only takes me a gallon to go back and forth to the sand bar/watering hole. I would use maybe a couple of gallons to cruise around and fish. I've got a 3.0 I/O which is very economical and we cruise at 30-35mph so we get most anywhere on our lake pretty quick.

When it hit $4 gal it did cut down on the amount of boats at our lake. It must have been the towing to get to the lake. I know that we went to other lakes a lot less that summer and just mostly stayed close to home.

If it got real high, I would maybe cut back on the distances I run sometimes to fish.

The inability to crawl on the boat or death is all that will stop me. I WILL always boat

jimbo753 wrote:I've owned a boat for 30 yrs (salt and fresh water) and always thought, if I have to worry about gas, maybe I shouldn't own a boat.

That pretty much sums it up for me too.

Lake Billy Chinook is 15 miles away and has 400 feet of shore line. Being that big it rarely gets boring. Beats the much longer drives even if fuel cost weren't as big as an issue. A perfect day is some close friends, anchored in a cove with both tops up, bbq smoking and satellite radio tuned in. I too have a 3.0 and it seems like the fuel lasts forever. Fuel would have to get much higher to resort to bbq-ing on board in the drive way. After the initial investment, it's pretty cheap entertainment. My Harley gets almost 40 mpg too

What I noticed here a few years ago is the guys with several boats were out in the little boat. I did notice a few less "go fast" guys. Those twin 454s probably burn 15 gallons an hour or more, just chugging along at a leisurely 35.
There is a boat sitting up at the dealer with FOUR 250s hanging on the back and it is not that big a boat (looks like 25-30 feet)
I wonder how many nibbles he is getting on that. I also wonder how that sits in the water

chill'nthemost wrote:Lake Billy Chinook is 15 miles away and has 400 feet of shore line.

Not a very big lake is it?

Most of our boating (other than my bass boat) is leisurely cruising in and out of coves. If we have a big group of neighbors on board and are going any distance, most will volunteer some $$ for fuel.
When the kids & grandkids come down (mostly on holidays) we use a lot more fuel, but I chalk that up to recreation and really don't use all that much fuel. For the last 11 years it was in a Four Winns Horizon 240 and I could do a lot of tubing and crusing on way less than a 1/2 tank (about 20 gallons or so) on a 3 day weekend. I'm expecting the new Benny to be even more economical.
I'm thinking gas would have to get to about $5/gallon to have an impact on me.

Margaritaman

I think that soared right over chill'nthemost head "400 feet of shoreline". We call anything with 400 ft of shoreline a mud hole or small pond.