Is'nt that what credit cards are for? Put it on the plastic and worry about paying it off over the winter.

When my wife and I bought our first boat back in 1998 we would go out by the dam (on Cumberland) of a Friday or Saturday night and see 20 - 30 performance boats of various sizes pair off and go at it in races. After the stock market drop of 2000 the weekend entertainment started to drop off. With the dramatic rise in the price of fuel the last few years racing at the dam has pretty much come to a halt. Other than on poker run weekend performance boating on lake cumberland is a shadow of what it was a decade ago.

As the price of fuel climbs relative to wages fewer and fewer middle income wage earners will buy new performance boats and use the ones they already have less.

Of course the rise in fuel prices doesn't affect members on OSO one bit because we are all exceptional and above the norm

The high price of fuel has costed a boat manufacture a sale!
The high price of fuel has costed a trailer manufacture a sale!
The high price of fuel has costed a motor and outdrive company a sale!
And so on and so on.
Im now keeping my boat and will do so for a long time.
Its not that I dont want to suport all these manufactures, it's just with the high price of fuel the future resale's seem bleek at best.

The way if affects us is that we use the Seadoo more and the Nordic less. The Nordic gets used when we have a crowd of people going, or if we are going offshore, obviously.
As long as we are out on the water, that's all that matters to us.

BUT, that being said, the $ of gas is already hitting home for everyone. I imagine now is not a good time to be selling Bayliners, snowmoblies or anything else to that is a LUXURY item that sucks GAS.
It's the same reason I drive old beater cars, and leave my F-350 sitting in the driveway!
Dean

In the yearly budget of my Black Thunder fuel is the smallest $ of the budget. However I bought my Concept for most Boating road trips. Outboards are the way to go for fuel economy and speed.

Hey, they way I see it if we use less as a country OPEC just cuts production and were back to same high gas prices..So let the green people keep snickering at me when I'm fueling........

Yeah, no sh*t, Got us by the balls!

Today I ,ve paid $ 7,68 per gallon for regular fuel here in the Netherlands Europe .....yikes

I,m going to diesel right now ,I ve just bought 2 x 440 yanmar diesels and looking for a nice 40 ft hull only.
I give up speed for economy.

Our diesel is cheaper than gas overhere ,but still is $ 6,20 a gallon .

stirling

I always depend on the folks who want to "go boating". You know the ones that will pay $50 a ticket for a concert or spend $100 in booze every weekend but want to bring a 6 pack of generic beer in exchange for a day on the bay yelling "go faster!" The same ones that say "I'll help you clean the boat. Just give me a call". Yet the call goes to their voice message and you never hear back.

Well you are going out anyway. Yes. I am and without you.

The gas is the easy part it is the drinking and driving that will KILL you!