Fuel costs

About this time of year, we haul out the log book and the receipts and add up what we spent on boat fuel during the past year. Our hope is that we'll be able to get a refund on the Connecticut road tax that we paid on marine fuel and up through 2010 we always did get a small check from the state.  Since fuel costs have risen so high (and the way the tax is calculated by the state), we didn't get a refund last year nor will we get one this year.

But we do the calculations anyway, just to see what we spent on fuel. and because going back and reading through the log book is fun when it's below freezing outside.

We've had Act Three for three full seasons so now we have some data to compare. We're just coastal cruisers and we notice that we use the boat a lot less than when we had the 32 ft. Chris Craft Sea Skiff. Back then, we'd go off to Shelter Island or Greenport for just a weekend. A day trip wasn't out of the question either.  But we don't do that much anymore. Act Three is bigger and more complex and uses more fuel. Because it's so nice inside, Frances (and Pooka, the boat cat) are able to live on the boat for at least some of the summer and that's good because we get more value out of it.

There's nothing wrong, we have found, with owning a floating cottage.

Because fuel cost have increased, we tend to take fewer trips and when we do, we stay longer.

In the three years we have owned Act Three, we have used 1,495 gallons of fuel at a cost of $4,329.  The average price per gallon over that period was $4.03. That average masks just how much fuel prices have increased. In 2010, our fuel costs averaged $3.17 a gallon. In 2011, our average fuel cost had risen to $4.25 and last summer we paid an average of $4.45 a gallon.

Some of those gas purchases reflect a $0.10 per gallon discount for having a SeaTow membership.

By way of comparison, our slip cost is approximately $3.300 per year. That's about $10,000 over three years when you add in the cost of electricity, which we only began paying last summer.

Keep in mind that we aren't "rich" but we have no intention of leaving boating. We've met too many nice people and had too much fun for that. But if a trip to Greenport and back costs almost $300, we just have to be careful how many times we do that.

Maybe fuel prices will be lower next summer. Somehow, that's probably wishful thinking since those prices always go up in the spring. We guess we'll just have to see.