2022 Fuel Price Discussion

One fuel dock in Newport Beach, CA is predicting $7/gal diesel by the end of March.

Previous history says it doesn't have nearly the impact on existing boat owners you might think, but it can have a huge impact of the purchase of boats. It could quickly hurt all builders.

Good thing we topped off the other day. That hurt enough.

Even floating cottages is some use. The real impact is when people stop buying.

I haven't been coastal during such times. I was on a lake and people were worried about finding gas but kept boating. Meanwhile new boat sales collapsed.

Problem is that these things seldom happen singularly and often rising fuel prices has been accompanied by other things like difficulty financing or other economic issues complicating things and making it difficult to tie all causes and effects together.

Just Paid 3.92 at Peterson Fuel barge, no tax and with a volume discount for 3300 gallons. They re not the cheapest but hard to get truck delivery here in Miami for bigger boats.

We re back to where we were a few years ago, around. 2010-2016.

it may scare a few buyers but overall the cost of fuel is far from being the biggest expense in the budget. With the 84 we were using about 10000 gallons a year / 400 hours a year. Looks like with the 116 we ll be using 13000 gallons a year. Even $2 more a gallon is not that much compared to insurance, dockage, crew and maintenance..

I ll definitely do more of the runs between here and the Exumas at hull speed... this way we won’t have to get fuel over there...

A bit off topic, but what is the approx. daily fuel burn to keep yachts such as Dilbar and Eclipse powered up under hotel load? I'm curious as to the limiting reagent that would ultimately force a fleeting vessel into a sanctioned or unsanctioned port.

With all this talk of gas pricing going "through the roof". I was curious how this would affect my budgets. For, FY21, my total fuel bill was less than 5% of the total ownership cost. Surprisingly, dockage is about 4x that number. The combination of Fuel & Dockage is much less than Crew costs.

While paying more at the pump isn't pleasant for anyone, I think think the true pain will come ripple affect in the industry.

I'm curious on how other owners fuel as a percentage of cost stack up

My educated guess is about 200-300 gallons/day

I m wondering as well although with a limited crew and no guests it s a lot less than with a full house.

we burn about 50/60 gallons a day on our little 110 on one of the two 45kw. 250-350 gpd is probably in the ballpark for a 300 footer.

what I am wondering is what kind of shorepower they use.

Our fuel is about 6% of all cash costs, so excluding depreciation. Now, our slip costs are less because we own our home slips, although do have monthly maintenance.

I'm of the belief existing boat owners will still boat, although some a little less movement or slower, but where fuel prices impact the boating industry are in new sales. Those thinking of buying are more scared of fuel prices than owners.

Newcomers as well as some others who are currently boatless may decide "not at this time." The overall economy will play a larger role.

Fuel prices are cyclical. This too will pass. Fuel is still a tiny percentage of ownership costs. That being said I sure am glad I switched from the Eastbay 49 (50gph) to the MJM (10 gph) for the trip back from FL this spring.