JustUs2
New Member
With a lot of discussion over Gas or Diesel I was curious, for boats between 35 an 45 ft, how many are gas and how many are diesel?
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Plus here in NZ we pay a lot less for diesel that isn't used on the road.
I cringe when ever I see that Pascoe article reference posted again.............so, one more time, here goes the qualifier that most people never include in the gas vs. diesel discussion:
A school kid can do the math on the cost of fuel differential, the added range, lower consumption, and a reasonably experienced boat owner can guess at the difference in annual maintenance costs, but nobody ever seems to address either the shorter life span of gas engines and the cost to repower or the difference in the quality of investment when you choose diesel over gas.
While a diesel boat may cost more to acquire, it will also retain more of its value than a gas boat of the same model. That lower depreciation is never mentioned in the "diesel doesn't make sense for pleasure boat" articles.
My own situation is a case in point.......I buy good boats and tend to keep them a long time. I owned a 390EC with 7.4 Mercs for 9 years and during that time, I had to take several big hits on maintenance for replacing cast iron engine parts, water pumps, etc just to keep the boat functional and preserve its value. I've owned my diesel powered 450DA for 13+ years and my personal experience is that I am spending a fraction of the cost to maintain them than I spent maintaining the gas boat.
For Sea Ray boats, the gas vs. diesel issue is a big complex question that a buyer cannot answer with a one line poll or by reading a simplistic article posted on a website somewhere.
...any covered slips and my antenna would be striaght up!
Don