Yesterday I had to do a Photoshoot on a 57 ft, million dollar plus Yacht at the Spit marina in Sydney. (yeah I know what your thinking but wasn't near as cushy as it sounds!)

I was admiring the amazing amount of similar and larger size ships and wondering what it cost to run these things. These boats have twin monster engines that move the things along at a good rate of knots and must really burn the fuel. I also noticed the panel for the generator with enough grunt to supply a normal house and the one next door and the panel for the house sized aircon and other amenities. I reckon the genny alone would use as much fuel in a day as what most people use driving to work in a week.

I then figured if you could afford the boat, the fuel wouldn't be a problem.

I was a little surprised when the owner of the boat I was photographing on lamented to me that they don't make as much use of the boat as they would like because a good day out on the thing cost them a couple of grand in fuel!!
She said they tried to cruise somewhere slowly and then spend a couple of days anchored before coming back to maximize their time and minimize their fuel costs. I could see from the car she was driving and the apartment her and her husband kept in the city center for the couple of nights a week they spent in town to save them going back to their country property, among lots of other well heeled things, that these people weren't exactly doing it tough.

On the way out of the marina I happened to notice the Diesel Pumps and the fact the price per Litre on the pump was $1.99.9 !!

I spose it's one thing to pay $1.40/L for 60 or 80L at a time for a car but to have to pay 2 Bux a liter for a thousand or several thousand liters at a time and being only for pleasure as against an expense in earning your living is a totally different thing even to the well heeled!
It would seem likely that rising fuel prices will hit leisure industry's like boating rather hard even if they do play in the big leagues with the rich and wealthy. Perhaps it won't be long before engines in these boats become an optional extra and you just enjoy them bobbing around tied up at the marina!

For god's sake, no one tell these boaties about SVO and Bio because with the amount they would use, the supply of free WVO will dry up for us in the know overnight!!

Just wait until this time next year, that yacht may become a houseboat.

I lament my fuel expenditures also. On the way up the coast this weekend I saw fuel going for as high as $1.56 a litre. Many stations were over $1.50. I used 80 litres, which at $1.50 a litre would be $120. - The fuel cost me about $28. Shucks, I might have to look into running WVO.

Yesterday i filled up my mrs little celica and cost $70 crap.... $1:56/l for the good stuff and Diesel was at $1.46/l. When i started making bio it was never to save a buck, but because "I could", the environment and it was bloody better for my engine than that ULSD crap they started to peddle, but after working the saving out for the first time in a long time... crap I'm bloody pleased I am making it as I run a 91 HDJ80 and at 13l/100 25cents a litre will do me...

And yes lets keep it quite I am now thinking that more and more people will start doing this for (what I think) the wrong idea "to save money"

Actually we should start a poll as I would really be interested to know why people on the forum started to make bio.. I suppose it was a hobby thing for me initially, however the way fuel prices are today I'd have to say saving money would be a biggy if I wasn't already making the stuff.

Environment
Hobby
Fuel quality
Save money

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HDJ80
Canberra

And I thought $1.59 was getting over the top, $1.99.9, is just a sign of things to come. The next explosion in prices may be lubricating oils. We drove nearly 3000 klms on our trip this year and it cost $13, because I wasn't game to rely on bio starting in the snowies so used diesel in the start tank. So $13 dollars was great.

We've got a 52 ft motorsailer yet have wind for our house batteries and inverter (inside lighting and power), solar for our radio's and navigation equipment, along with engine generation and he small diesel backup. Our last trip to Hobart and back cost us about $200 including mooring in Hobart and bio, again not quite game to run SVO in her yet but will next year after we re-plumb the fuel tanks. The old girl can get up to 10 knots under power, but prefers 7.5, under sail she lopes along.

My boss has one of those yachts, powered by twin Caterpilar diesels and twin fuel tanks of 1500 litres each. That's $6000 to fill up. He was looking at bio for it at one stage, but there is no way of being able to fill up. The Marinas are not interested, so don't worry, it's not going to catch on any time soon with the big boaties.

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Cheers
Bruce
http://oztayls.blogspot.com/

1976 W123 300D (3 litre 5-cyl NA diesel running on SVO since June 2006)
1982 W126 280SE (Sadly is For Sale)
1993 W124 300D (3 litre 6-cyl NA diesel - being converted to SVO)

HDJ80 - two words "Peak Oil".

I remember 1973 and sleeping overnight in the car, parked in line to buy 5 gallons of gasoline.

The only thing the Canberra Clowns have done is revamp the 'Liquid Fuels Emergency Act 1984' - that's rationing by the way, and HDJ80, I looked on the list of essential services - and your name wasn't on it.

I remember someone here or on info not giving me a serve before because I dare to admit that my primary reason for getting into the whole Veg thing was to save money.

I believe the "save the environment with veg" thing is bit of a lame duck. If we take what Bruce mentions, his bosses boat taking 3000L to fill, ( which is slightly less I believe than my brother in laws boat) the 2500 L a year I save in fossil fuel use in my car which is certainly more of a necessity than a pleasure boat, is rendered insignificant in both comparative and over all fuel usage and its resulting damage/ benefit to the environment.
To me, the " every little bit helps" argument of using veg is akin to championing people to urinate on bush fires to help put them out.... it just ain't enough to make any difference no matter how many people you can get to do it.

That said, while my motivation for using veg was cost saving, the environmental benefits are a nice feel good spin off. What people who are environmentally motivated seem to forget is, it doesn't matter why people are using veg, it plays perfectly into their motivations in that no matter why it is used, the environmental benefits ( whatever you perceive their impact to be) are still there. In marketing of all forms, THE single greatest and most powerful motivator for a product or service is for people to save money.
The environmental people would have their interests well served by pushing the cost saving benefits of veg at every opportunity.

No matter why people use veg, it's in everyone best interests be they cost saving or saving the planet!

I have been having a look at some ( very modest) boats with a view to running them on Veg. Unfortunately anything that would appeal to me which would be fast ( well faster than a 20Hp, 20Ft wooden fishing boat) and trailered, dosen't seem to be around. I'd like a V8 Diesel boat I could ski with but it seems anything that goes is huge ( and therefor out of my price range) or has some piddly little putt putt in it that does like 5 knots.
People promote the low fuel consumption of these things but I'd love something that I could run on 30L of veg an hour and really moved!

Ah well, I can still dream of the day when brother in law shows up wanting to know more about how veg works so he can afford to take his floating lounge room out of the marina and up the river again.
Maybe that day is closer than I think!

My gut feeling as to motiviation is that what we say and why we do it could be different. I would say I do it for the money, but the times I have had "free" fuel (ie someone else has paid for it) I have felt bad for burning fossil fuel, and have tried as much as possible to do it on biodiesel rather than fossil diesel. And I guess most of us have a shed, and a reason to be there..

__________________
cheers
Chris.
1990 landcruiser 80, 1HD-T two tank, copper pipe HE+ 20 plate FPHE, toyota solenoids and filters. 1978 300D, elsbett one tank system.

Currently $1.56 at Port Macquarie.

I always get a bit scared when asking about boats, instead of miles per gallon they tend to quote them in gallons per hour (or km per litre is litres per hour)

When you start to talk 100 litres per hour cruising I start to miss the point.

When running vehicles price point is always an issue, using oil gives a bit of a glow as an effective use of a "waste product".

Something else to do in the shed.

Geoff

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Telegraph Point NSW
Landcruiser GXL '96 - 80:20 blends
Pug HDi 1.6 307 - not game :-)
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Telepoint - Heat Exchange & Filter Bags

Peak Oil will just bring forward gas hydrate use. There is no energy crisis, just a clean energy crisis. I've come to realise that sadly, bio fuels are just too hard for governments to do.

__________________
Cheers
Bruce
http://oztayls.blogspot.com/

1976 W123 300D (3 litre 5-cyl NA diesel running on SVO since June 2006)
1982 W126 280SE (Sadly is For Sale)
1993 W124 300D (3 litre 6-cyl NA diesel - being converted to SVO)