From $2.00 gas to $5.00 gas in 4 years

someone from the car industrie here - should add some nice cars with high pressure air engine

Great Lakes

I was just on Lake Michigan and Huron. Paid between $3.56-$4.25 for diesel. Alpena had a truck bunker me for $3.90.

An owner who I have been running bi-annually between Fort Lauderdale-New Jersey parked the boat for the summer in Lauderdale. The $4000 extra in insurance for hurricane season far out weighs the $12000 in fuel cost to take the boat north. I have been delivering this owner's boat for 10 years.

I sure hope big sailboats come back into vogue. I'm too old to flip burgers at McDonald's.

Actually I think the electric powered vehicle has a better chance in the long run, and likely some of this new battery technology will come to be a reality.

EEstor sounds promising
http://media.cleantech.com/2644/zenn-gearing-up-for-eestor-powered-car

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EEstor

Goldman Sachs, Credit Suisse, et al, are predicting $150 in the 2nd half.

Seems to me, something's going to have to give...

Ha!
No, on a serious note, as the U.S. consumer takes it in the shorts (and not too far behind, Europe as well), where do the Chinese send their exports to?
Call me crazy, but I wonder if there are similarities here to 1997 and the Asian currency crisis...not the same cause, since China's currency reserves are huge this time, but look what happened to the price of oil amid the economic slowdown in the region at the time.

I just find it difficult to imagine the strains on many countries' economies continuing/worsening without something going *pop*.

Hi,

Fresh off the press: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080521/ap_on_bi_ge/oil_prices;_ylt=As.Ct.g03yc.HXExA9hu7xhv24cA

In Sweden we will always be on this top list of tax on fuel, diesel is today $ 9.63 and gas a little less. Boat taps a lot more...

They announced this morning that London hit $9.00 gal. They also announced that truckers pulled a slowdown like what happened in New Jersey. Like to see more of that.
Since the oil companies want all of our money, let's give it to them. Buy nothing that is not absolutely necessary. No cars, boats, vacations, clothes, treats. If commerce comes to a halt the oil companies will have to answer to the rest of the ecconomic community. In the mean time save your money for next winter's heating oil. Let Macys, Harrods, GM, Honda, Disney, Time Warner, etc have a talk with Mobile, Shell, Exxon and BP.
And let's see more trucks puling off the road. Why should they deliver goods when they can't make money except for the oil companies.

I'd like a show of hands indicating that boats are 'not necessary'.

Boating isn't a matter of life or death...it's much more important than that.

recent local marina prices (about 30 miles inland from New York Harbor):
Fuel Prices on 05/24/2008
Diesel $4.999 Gal.
89 Octane Gasoline $4.479 Gal.

Hi,

Anyone who participates here and thinks or says Boats are not important should find another to place to post.

Let's throttle back a little here. NYCapt didn't mean any harm. Rather, his post is a good idea. We're being held over a barrel by big oil. The best way to express our discontent to the powers-that-be... is to hit 'em where it counts.

The economy is vulnerable. As an example, look at the economic slow-down immediately following 911, when people were frozen with fear and stopped buying goods. If we all band together, an embargo of sorts, we could bring about change.

Nobody wants to stop buying the items we desire, but if we postpone purchases, collectively, it could have a resounding effect. The internet, specifically forums, could be the vehicle to start a movement like this.

Just some thoughts...

I don't think the original poster said boats are unimportant any more than he said clothes are unimportant.

However, he makes a good point - buying things just because they're there for purchase is not intelligent long-term planning. Maintaining a high level of consumerism encourages "more of the same" from the companies that benefit most (and often unintentionally) from said consumerism.

If we "buy nothing that is not absolutely necessary... no cars, boats, vacations, clothes, treats" that doesn't mean those things are unimportant. It just means we should be buying only the things we need. If we have 30 pairs of Italian shoes in pristine condition, do we need 31? If we have 5 cars in the collection, do we need 6? If we have last year's BMW, do we need this year's to replace it? If we have 50' of boat, do we need the new 52' just because it's new? Can we go boating more locally, or can our vacations be taken nearby (for example, instead of flying to New Zealand this year, go check out the Maine coast).

The oil companies don't care as long as we keep buying things. We might not drive as many miles, but goods are still being delivered, plastics are still being produced, oil is still being consumed. When we slow down our consumption of goods, every industry feels the pinch, and it becomes much easier to hold the oil behemoths responsible when all eyes are upon them.

My apologies to NYCAP123, Carl, and to any others on this Forum if my comments were in any way inflammatory. In particular, I stand with Seafarer's comment above and his sensibility.

I currently own a very serviceable automobile but lust after something much sexier and will not be denied.....I suspect that there are yacht owners--in much more rarified air than I breathe--who are thinking, "Dammit, I worked hard to lust after XXXXYacht and I will not be denied." Kudos to them.

So, send a 'message' to the Evil Ones (full disclosure: I own some XOM) and (possibly) tilt at the windmills or.... "Full speed ahead and da*n the torpedoes." Buy that yacht.

The markets ALWAYS bear the truth, and the truth that I see from the burgeoning build list of especially large vessels on order would indicate that our best intentions here do not matter a whit, IMHO.