State of the pleasure boat cruising economy

Still busy in Cali. Catalina's Avalon Harbor is always full. Gas price at Catalina is $6.50/gallon. Two Harbors in Cat is packed on weekends, boats all over the place in Newport Beach, with all docks for restaurants and bars full 100% of the weekend. Long Beach harbor slips are full with a waiting list and so is Dana Point harbor which is a bit south of Newport. Newport has a few slips but thats because to park a 330 DA at Newport Dunes costs $1080/month! A few "deals" here and there though for as little as $750/month. Gas on the mainland docks is going for $4.49 to $4.79/gallon. All it tells me is what I already knew; there are a hell of alot of people here with waaayyyyyyyyyy more money than me. Living here makes you feel poor unless you're hauling in a mill $$ a year.
 
"...I was talking the MM regional VP and he told me they had there best June ever..."

That's his job.

My marina is full. Unfortunately, it is full on most weekends as well. I get out when I can but even a short day trip is going to cost a couple to three hundred dollars. I'm seeing a LOT more ramp activity though. Small go fasts to 26 foot pocket cruisers seem to be the niche now. That and more jet skis than ants at a picnic.

Reality is for the majority of the citizens this economy is going nowhere fast. The reason is simple. There are more voters than taxpayers.
 
I have been on the Great South Bay for the last 20 years so I have a good read on this economy vs. past years. I can’t ever remember when I could take my boat in the middle of the day to Fire Island on a holiday weekend and get a slip I did that this 4th of July. That is telling, yes marina are basically full but those boats aren’t leaving their slips like they used too . I am also seeing many more boats just driving out a mile or so and anchoring there for the day. This is much different then years past when Fire Island was full of boats, people were zipping around the bay and boating was much more affordable. Welcome to Obamonomics
 
I'm assuming I was going over a wake or a swell.. You can see the swells that were out there here between Greg's boat and mine...

DSC_0761.jpg
 
As others have said, I see quite a large difference in boat traffic over the last few years. The trend is definately down. On the mid-Hudson River in NY State, the river is nearly empty even on the weekends. I am out there most weekends on my bowrider pulling my kids on the tube so I can judge the traffic pattern with some accuracy. Notice I said with the bow rider, not my other gas hog with 454's burning 30/hr.

On a differnt tack, our marina is nearly full which is unusual over the last 10 years. There have always been 10-12+ slips for rent. Now, maybe 1 or 2 and they are going fast... Our marina has a park feel with land behind your boat. Basically more like camping than boating. BUT people want our place over others who are >50% empty. Why? People are using their boats as a floating condos and dont have money for fuel costs. They want a nice place to stay and enjoy the facilities... I wonder if that will be a trend in the upcoming years... I hope not, but I fewr it will....
 
Our July 4th was way down! Normally you can't hardly see breaks between the boats watching the fireworks, this yeare I think there were more police/coast guard boats than people in boats watching the fireworks.

Course, our marinas were still recovering from the spring flood (highest water on record) and a lot of boaters either can't get their boat out, or at this point are saying why. The season here is so short to begin with, to lose almost 2 months of water time is to much. Then we have the cost of gas on top of that.

I go out after work, and on weekends and the number of boats in all my normal boating areas are way down, more than I've ever seen before in all my life on the lake.

A little more obama economy and we'll get the rest of those tax dollars from those last few that are making it out there to put in everyone else's pockets.

-VtSeaRay
 
We ran over 100 miles this past weekend with 8 other cruisers down to a marina and Casino. The marina over night was unsually empty, the casino on the other hand was stuffed full.
 
Our marina seems to base their success on total "footage" billed for seasonals. This year, they have fewer boats, but more footage (seeming to buck the trend). That was near the beginning of the season. As June became July, I noticed that even the remaining slips were mostly being spoken for with NEW boaters. Yes, their boats are smaller than average (20-25') but it's good to see how many new people are getting into the boating lifestyle!

We just wrapped up two weekends of Bayfest 2011 and on both weekends the remaining transient wells (approx 300) were 90% full.

Even so, many of the seasonal boaters are staying at the dock and enjoying their "condo on the water". That's ok too.
 
dpvandy01 said:
We ran over 100 miles this past weekend with 8 other cruisers down to a marina and Casino. The marina over night was unsually empty, the casino on the other hand was stuffed full.
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Maybe they're all guys that got out of boating and now they have some extra money.:lol:
 
All this talk about the price of fuel but no one has complained about how much their boat cost. If people can't afford the price of fuel maybe they shouldn't have bought such a big boat. Does living within your means ring a bell?
 
gnephew511 said:
All this talk about the price of fuel but no one has complained about how much their boat cost. If people can't afford the price of fuel maybe they shouldn't have bought such a big boat. Does living within your means ring a bell?
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That's kind of a short sighted view of what's going on. Many boaters purchased their boats several years ago before the market tanked in 2008 and before gas prices shot through the roof. At the time they bought it they were living within their means. Some/Many of them are now stuck with a boat that they're underwater on (financially speaking, of course) and owe more than what the boat is worth. They can't sell it because they'll have to come up with the extra cash to get out of their loan because the rising costs of everything takes a bigger bite out of their budget.

There aren't a lot of boat buyers out there right now and part of that is due to the high gas prices and the soaring prices of food and most everything else. Your Gubmint may be telling you there's no inflation, but one only has to go shopping for food, clothing or other household goods to know that prices are climbing fast.

So the bottom line is many boaters are stuck with a boat they can't sell and as long as they're making the monthlies on it they're going to use it. They may sit at the dock more, or do shorter cruises, but at least being on the water gets them out of the house for a day or two now and they and removes them from all the crap that's in the newspapers and on TV lately. That in itself is worth paying up for.
 
Gofirstclass said:
That's kind of a short sighted view of what's going on. Many boaters purchased their boats several years ago before the market tanked in 2008 and before gas prices shot through the roof. At the time they bought it they were living within their means. Some/Many of them are now stuck with a boat that they're underwater on (financially speaking, of course) and owe more than what the boat is worth. They can't sell it because they'll have to come up with the extra cash to get out of their loan because the rising costs of everything takes a bigger bite out of their budget.

There aren't a lot of boat buyers out there right now and part of that is due to the high gas prices and the soaring prices of food and most everything else. Your Gubmint may be telling you there's no inflation, but one only has to go shopping for food, clothing or other household goods to know that prices are climbing fast.

So the bottom line is many boaters are stuck with a boat they can't sell and as long as they're making the monthlies on it they're going to use it. They may sit at the dock more, or do shorter cruises, but at least being on the water gets them out of the house for a day or two now and they and removes them from all the crap that's in the newspapers and on TV lately. That in itself is worth paying up for.
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That was probably the best summation I've read of life as we know it these days.
 
Gofirstclass said:
That's kind of a short sighted view of what's going on. Many boaters purchased their boats several years ago before the market tanked in 2008 and before gas prices shot through the roof. At the time they bought it they were living within their means. Some/Many of them are now stuck with a boat that they're underwater on (financially speaking, of course) and owe more than what the boat is worth. They can't sell it because they'll have to come up with the extra cash to get out of their loan because the rising costs of everything takes a bigger bite out of their budget.

There aren't a lot of boat buyers out there right now and part of that is due to the high gas prices and the soaring prices of food and most everything else. Your Gubmint may be telling you there's no inflation, but one only has to go shopping for food, clothing or other household goods to know that prices are climbing fast.

So the bottom line is many boaters are stuck with a boat they can't sell and as long as they're making the monthlies on it they're going to use it. They may sit at the dock more, or do shorter cruises, but at least being on the water gets them out of the house for a day or two now and they and removes them from all the crap that's in the newspapers and on TV lately. That in itself is worth paying up for.
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Very well said.

I'd like to add that after speaking with some folks who cruised for many years and used to pay $1-$2 p/g also paid about $2 p/f for transient slips. They were doing more trips during the season and it fitted the bill well. The same folks now have to pay double for almost everything. The further north you go, the more you pay (in some cases x3 or more). That makes them think twice before they're about to leave the slip. So, I for the past several years I see lots of boats just sitting in the slips and people make best out of being away from their creazy running lives during the week, and they enjoy company of their dockmates while using their boats as a summer houses. Marinas with nice setup having nice pools and facilities create very pleasant atmosphere for people to be at the docks. IMO, the mentality of "it's paid for and now I have no other expenses" kicks in and a lot of time it wins.

On more positive side, as others have pointed out, if there are several nice coves or beaches near by, then we see more boating activities.
 
Gofirstclass said:
There aren't a lot of boat buyers out there right now and part of that is due to the high gas prices and the soaring prices of food and most everything else. Your Gubmint may be telling you there's no inflation, but one only has to go shopping for food, clothing or other household goods to know that prices are climbing fast.
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And here lies the sugar in the tea. Everything from cloths to food is connected to fuel costs .If the idiots in DC would work on driving down the cost of fuel, then more folks would have more money to spend, it would also drive down the cost of just about everything. Fuel is a major economic factor. It doesn’t seem to be rocket science to me.
 
AKBASSKING said:
And here lies the sugar in the tea. Everything from cloths to food is connected to fuel costs .If the idiots in DC would work on driving down the cost of fuel, then more folks would have more money to spend, it would also drive down the cost of just about everything. Fuel is a major economic factor. It doesn’t seem to be rocket science to me.
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The problem is the people in charge know exactly what they are doing. They want high prices all around because it benefits them both personally and as a government.
There are two ways to lead 1: Take charge, assess, plan and progress. 2:The other is to run around stomping out fires. The second is the easiest as it looks like you are doing something, and it allows you to use your own ideas and plans to solve the "crisis". These problems we are having now- intentionally set fires (or if not intentionally set, at least with gas poured on top of already present fires) are intentionally here to allow the ruling party a much easier way to push their agenda thru without doing it the proper way, which is leadership style one- carefully evaluate and plan and sell your idea to the public (or board if a private company).
The high prices also cheapen our money which will make it cheaper in the future to pay back the obscene debt the government has run up and maybe even allow for more debt "until the crisis is over". It is to their benefit both as a government trying to pay it's bills and as a government trying to stay in power and continue it's change on America for high prices and other problems to continue.
 
Gunn said:
Was at a local marina just yesterday and had the same thoughts and so how empty it was with boats in slips. I'd say the marina was only 25% full, at best. I wondered what happened to them all. In years past, the marina was pretty full; no one took their boats out but at least they were in the slip.

Or maybe it could be that the marina piers are falling apart...
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CJ Martin said:
Let me guess - Dennis Point Mar...I mean St Mary's Yachting Center?

-CJ
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Yes Dennis Point Mar...err St. Mary's Yachting Cen...err "St. Marys Marina and Campground"! How'd you guess?! :smt001
 
Well All I can report on is Lake Michigan, which seems to be very quiet this year, even the Salmon aren't biting, I believe they are choosing to eat of the bottom like the rest of us are...But we've been on the water more this year now than last year total, of coarse we bought one of those boats that were seen Drag Racing in earlier pictures, it has been great, Fuel is a Huge concern this year because of the bigger boat, but our cruising is so much different than say... Garys.. we keep it to 10 knots or a little more, and have a great time. Now people on our Dock in Ellenwood Marina on White Lake, haven't moved their boats that much at all, matter of fact I'm seeing spiders take up residency on their lines, seeing that they're never untied...it's said, and it's not OBAMA's fault either, Speculators, now there's someone to fault for Gas and Fuel pricing..
But we shall push on, through this rough fuel price economy and have a great time doing it, because, you might as well get used to it now prices aren't going anywhere in the near future.
We just paid 3.99 gallon 800.00 and it brought me up to 3/4 full Yeah Baby.....The IRS isn't going to get my money this year, expense that through the company.. Yeah!!!!!!!!!
gARY YOU CERTAINLY KNOW HOW TO BURN THAT FUEL, AND WHY IS THAT BOW SO HIGH IN THE AIR...I KNOW YOU HAVE TABS....
 
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