sailboat market and gas prices

[mintykat]

  Just curious if there's been any scuttlebut in the industry re a pickup in sailboat sales due to the absurd cost of gasoline? Or do people still  shell out the bucks for a powerboat to go one or two miles per gallon? Guess sailing is too difficult, even if cheaper.

[roland cobine]

 have to admit i thought about that too. last summer i found myself sailing rather than fishing because of gas., and my old duracraft just has a 40 horse on it. im sure that you are right. gas prices might make sailors out of a lot of people. i noticed that on the last few sundays on the lake a lot of power cruisers were just partying at anchor.

[Bob23]

Gas prices be danged, I still would rather be sailing! Of course it is nice to use about 5 gallons a year!
If I were to go power, it would be a small, semi-displacement hull driven by a 4 stroke. Of course, electric drives are very interesting if you don't have a long destination.
Bob23 on the hard, splicing line

[B.Hart]

The worst part now is towing to the lake, mayby I can fit one of my old sails to my JEEP!    HAPPY SAILING   BILL

[Gil Weiss]

In my opinion, gas prices might slow down powerboat sales but not have an increase on sailboat sales.
The trip each weekend to the boat - power or sail - is an increasing expense due to gas prices. This could jeopardize boating in general.

my 2 cents, Gil

[Rick Klages]

It's interesting to think that the cost of a season on a mooring might be cheaper than towing/trailering.  Leave the Tahoe in the driveway and use the relatively efficient old car.  Those with long drives to the water might think of closer if perhaps not as desirable destinations. Sailing off and on to a mooring can be done without using any fuel.  Just a little practice.

ick

[Paul]

All true.  But consider this.  How many people vacation by driving to their destination only to rent a house or condo by the beach/lake etc.?  Just imagine how expensive a "typical" vacation will be this year.

Now consider that most of us have the option of "camping out" on our boats.  Yes, we trailer the boat to the destination, but our room and board is on the water.  Still a bit more efficient, by comparison.

This coming from a family whose about to embark on a Disney vacation soon.  Yes, driving the whole way.  (The closest "nautical" thing will be the Pirates of the Caribbean ride.)   

[Lost Lake]

Paul,
We're doing the Disney thing also, Feb 4 - Feb 12. The off season is nice!
We're flying down, it's quite a haul from Wisconsin to drive, but next year I would like to bring the boat and sail to the Bahamas. I can leave the boat at my Dad's house and visit Disney for a couple days, then sail for a week or so.

I haven't checked the mileage I get pulling the boat as the truck wasn't broken in yet last year, and mileage has been going up very nicely as she settles in. I'm getting 18-22 mpg with my 6 cylinder truck depending how I drive, so the Florida trip will cost a few bucks, but it will be an adventure!

[tmorgan]

We bought a Sun Cat so we could trail it to other locations rather than sailing on our local lake all of the time.  Hours spent on the road is more of a limiting factor to me than gas prices.  Is it worth driving 13 hours to New England when the Chesapeake is 4 and NC coast is 5?

[rmonsma]

I live in Michigan and sail out of South Haven, Lake Michigan.  A friend of mine who is a member of the South Haven Yacht Club says that gasoline sales are down 40 - 50 % since gasoline shot up.  In my area we haven't seen a spike up in sailboat usage but have definitely seen a drop in power boat usage overall.  People are still going to their boats but usage is down.  Last summer I knew of a guy who made a trip from S. Haven to Chicago (about 80 miles) and back and spent $1,200 on fuel.  Granted it was a large boat but it would sure make me think twice.  Aren't you glad the wind is free!

Roger

[Salty19]

I don't think gas prices will impact sailboat sales.  Powerboaters would likely prefer just hanging out in a cove. We are a different "breed" than powerboaters.

A good friend has a very nice 40' Carver. If I'm not mistaken, it has a 200 gallon tank.  I could by one of my boats for 2 tanks of gas!!! (slight exageration, but only slight!)

[mintykat]

  That's right, Salty16, powerboaters tend to hang out more than sailboaters, which is ironic, since sailboats go much more slowly than powerboats. Though I guess the tortoise gets there in the end, while the hare just hangs at anchor getting sloshed.

[B.Hart]

  I agree with salty, SAILORS are not the same as a power boaters, but there is something about going across the water @ 70mph in a 16 foot bass boat. I believe sailing is a skill that takes intelligence, any one can push a throttle.   BILL

[Rick Klages]

Balancing the different forces: wind, current, hydrodynamic, aerodynamic drag and lift are more like flying a high performance thermal riding glider than say driving a car.  It's for good reason that glider is called a SAILPLANE!  Driving a powerboat is like driving a car.  Not knocking porche or Ferrari.  Just more interested in Glaser-Dirks or a Com-Pac. So take your pick, drive of fly, it's up to you.



ick

[curtisv]

Gas prices have little impact on my sailing.  Walk to the beach.  Row or swim to the mooring.  No motor on the boat so I couldn't use gas if I tried.

I've heard some anecdotes about powerboat sales in the town in CT I live in near Candlewood Lake.  When gas prices took a sharp increase in August quite a few years ago a bunch of boat dealers, at least two in our area, got caught with a lot of unsold inventory and went under.  I don't even remember what year that was but it was the summer that gas prices jumped to over $2/gal.

Where business interests dominate, powerboats are encouraged.  Boat dealers see them as more profitable since the margins on motors is good and the expensive annual maintanance and repairs can keep the shop going even if sales are down.  Marinas like the fact that they can charge good money to put boats on racks where space is tight and they want to maximize the profits from the space they have available.  Sad but that's true.  Fortunately some places have had the good sense to rein in on some of these business practices.

I spoke to a sailor in Mystic CT that regularly daysailed to Watch Hill RI, overnighted nearby and sailed back.  A friend of his in a large trawler would sometime make the same trip.  The trawler arrived first but with $300 less in his pocket after the round trip.

I've spoken to motorboat owners in CT that have said they aren't using their boat as much now that its costing $50-75 in gas every time they take it out.

Another local impact is they passed a 45 MPH speed limit on Candlewood Lake after averaging about a fatality a year for a number of years.  Then later they started to actually enforce it.  Its probably cut down on the number of twin 200HP setups being sold.  Occasionally I see a big foot cabin cruiser, maybe as much as 26 or 28 feet, in someone's yard or on the water and wonder why anyone would think that was an appropriate boat for a 17 mile long lake.  The dealer that sold those is one of the dealers that went under.

I haven't heard of any local impact on the boat industry that has been quite so dramatic as a few years ago.  It didn't seem to impact boating on Cape Cod where most powerboats are just going out to fish rather than seeing how fast and how many times they can zip across a lake apparently just for the sake of burning the fuel.  The local town by town bans on PWC on Cape Cod did have an impact somewhere but I don't know of any place that sold them near where I am so no businesses were impacted -- they were just starting to become a nuisance in some places when town officials (very wisely IMHO) put an end to it.

Curtis