From last Saturday’s SNL “Weekend Update”:
AMY POEHLER: New York City is considering doubling its tax on cigarettes, so that a pack will now cost $9.95. New York smokers responded, “Oh my God, that’s an utterly outrageous price for cigarettes allrightwe’llpayit!”
I’m not sure what went wrong, but I clearly recall the Democratic congress claiming that oil prices would go down once they had the majority.
What happened. :rolleyes:
I don’t recall this. Cite please?
Yep - when you’ve got nieces, nephews, in-laws of all variety wanting to go fishing, crabbing, knee boarding, tubing, diving etc…etc…you’ve got to pony up every year to the water gods.
Incidentally, Posiedon doens’t take checks. 
Just keep that trolling motor out of here, or the mods will get 'cha! 
I admit I’m fairly ignorant with respect to the cost of owning, running, and maintaining a boat, but my impression was that in general, if you had a sailboat and a power boat with similar deck and cabin space, the sailboat would cost you a good bit more. So while the gas would be minimal, you’d be making it up somewhere else. Am I wrong?
Regardless, there’s nothing quite like the moment on a sailboat when you cut the engine and let the sails take over. Mmmmm.
Because of gas prices you’re not quite as right today as you’d have been, say, 3 years ago. It costs an outrageous amount of money to fill the tanks on my cruiser, something a sail boater doesn’t have to worry about, so whereas his true cost of ownership has remained relatively constant, mine has gone through the roof solely because of the gas prices. On the other hand, it does take an awful lot of man hours to maintain a sail boat in optimum condition, so I’m not really that envious.
Too funny
The Democrats do not control the Senate, which requires 60 votes to do anything radical. Maybe in January.
Not sure why you have to run special gas in a boat but aviation fuel is expensive and it does cut down on the flying. At $5/gallon I burn $45/hr in gas. a 4 hr round trip flight is $180 verses $4/gallon. That’s a $36 difference. The $100 hamburgers are getting expensive.
Having never owned or maintained a power boat, I honestly do not know.
Our extra expenses get into lines, sails, blown sails, more sails (hmm, I need a 110, a 135 and a 170), lost/bent whisker poles, etc.
However - all of that is for racing. If you are just cruising you can get by with less and with less investment. Of course, a big boat ends up with a big diesel engine - so you get double the pain - sails AND a Perkins to maintain. If you keep under ~30 feet you can just use an outboard engine and be OK for moving around.
The sound of silence, however, is precious. Then again, watching the big powerboats speed past me can make me envious on crossings.
Sailing is for the journey.
Powerboating is for the destination.
Both have their value.
Well, if you own a slip like I do those 30,40,60 foot sailboats are a lot more expensive to slip than a powerboat. I’m on a 22’ slip and my dockage is grandfathered from when we first purchased it in from the dockominium. But I’ve got a lot of neighbors who pay through the teeth to sail maybe 4,5 times a summer. It takes a lot to get out of the harbor with 60 foot ketch then set sail to cruise around. I go out most weekends with little hassle I much prefer power boating to sailing, my wife is about 50/50…But if evening comes you are 8-15 nautical miles from port and the wind dies to nothing…hope you’ve got enough diesel to get you home. Whereas, I can port at anytime of the day with relative ease.
While we’re on the subject, isn’t dock gas more expensive than at a roadside auto station? If so, why? Shouldn’t boaters be exempt from paying road taxes, like farmers are when buying fuel for tractors?
Sing it Musicat! Yes, it’s more expensive as to the reasons why, I’m sure I can ask my local legislators why, but it has always been that way - hopefully someone will come by who know s the specifics…I’m just a consumer bitching about the prices already and Memorial Day is a month away!
My WAG is that it’s more expensive because the people who run the gas station at the marina know they have you over a barrel.
If I’m driving my car down the road, I’ll pass gas stations every few miles at worst (and sometimes whole bunches of them within a few hundred feet of one another), displaying their prices prominently on huge signs. It makes it hard for anyone to run up the price.
How’s it look by comparison if you’re boating? It’s been many years since I’ve been on the water, but my recollection is that each marina would generally have one gas station, take it or leave it. And while there are probably some places where the marinas are cheek to jowl, creating some actual price competition, I don’t remember seeing a whole lot of those on the Chesapeake, which is the only boating venue I was familiar with.
There are a lot of marinas where I live, and they are decently competitive…they all have you over a barrel though. Great analogy BTW. Also, those of us with slips do get a price break from our home marina, usually 10 cents off. Also, people who do not have a slip and who launch and pull their boats when they want to go out, can always fill up at a proper gas station.
My marina’s in a cluster of four, three of which have gas docks, so they’re pretty competitive with each other, which helps, but it’s still at least a dollar more than on the road.
There happens to be a story about this very issue on the front page of today’s Providence Journal.
Now that I think about it, is there any way to get a refund from state & fed taxes if you fuel up at a taxed pump but can show that you use the fuel for non-road purposes? How do farmers do it?
Since dock gas is expensive and not close by, I usually take some 5-gal cans to the gas station, then return home, where the contents of the cans are used either for boats or lawn equipment, neither of which should be subject to road tax, right? Can I apply for a tax refund?
Slip owners/renters at my marina don’t get any discount on gas. However, we get free, unlimited shore power and water, so I make out better than folks at other marinas who do get a break on gas costs but have metered power and water.