Soaring Fuel Prices!

[Jody_Seal]

Fuel prices soaring here are a few way's to bear the brunt of the cost of boating:

Reducing boat fuel consumption can be accomplished by:

• Taking it a little easier on the throttle

• Pull the throttle back after a pass.

• Lighten up your boat. Go over it and throw out everything you don't really need. Then do it a again at least once a month. Excess weight drastically effects fuel consumption.

• When buying a new or used boat, make sure the engine is properly sized.

• Do not buy a carburated motor. They are much less efficient than the newer generation motors.

• Get on plane quickly. Don't keep slugging through the water with high resistance when the hull is fully in the water.

• Eliminate unnecessary idling.

• Make sure your boat is properly propped and your propeller is free of dings

• Follow the engine manufacturer's recommended maintenance schedule.

• Don't carry excess fuel and water. (Water weighs about 8 pounds per gallon and gasoline weighs about 6.3 pounds per gallon)

• Keep your hull clean - wash it.

• Invite some friends to go skiing with you and help spred out the fuel cost

• Avoid spilling gasoline.

• Use a funnel or a spout with an automatic stop device to prevent overfilling the gas tank.

• Transport and store gasoline out of direct sunlight in a cool, dry place.

Limit your number of ski passes.

Hope this helps you extend your ski sessions!

[Horton]

@Jody_Seal‌

I was sort of with you until you said to limit passes

[Jody_Seal]

@Horton well if you do 10 or 12 passes you might want to cut back to 8. I can only stay in my bindings for about 6 so my bindings save me fuel!

 

[crashman]

My boys won't let me end a ski session without finishing with a hot lap. That's kind of hard on the fuel too but so much fun.

[BlueSki]

@Jody_Seal‌, you make a good point about pulling back the throttle. No sense letting zero off rev the engine at the end of each pass when the skier drops. I find it is easier on the skier, at least this one, as well.

[6balls]

In a short MN season, the last thing I'd be worried about is the gas equation in terms of my skiing. Pay to play...I'd hate to think what the price per gallon would have to be for me to ration sets. Now, to ration my brother's 30 pass sets...Ok I might just have to limit him :)

[oldjeep]

One more fuel saving tip. No wake on entire lake means life at 4MPH. 3 hours of putting Saturday and the gauge was still on full.

[crashman]

@oldjeep‌ how is that on the liquor budget?

[oldjeep]

@crashman‌ I don't bring more than 3 beers regardless of the speed.

[Laz]

Whatever happened to Nautiques electric boat?

[behindpropellers]

Still think that gas is pretty cheap in the world of $50K+ ski boats.

 

 

[oldjeep]

@behindpropellers‌ I was kind of thinking the same thing. At the point where I pay nearly 60K for a toy that gets used at best for 5 months of the year, the difference between $2 gas and $4 gas isn't really part of the equation.

[GAJ0004]

Thanks to Giant Eagle Fuel Perks the first 90 gallons of gas for me each season is covered.

[rockdog]

@laz same as electric cars (although they do build some), stupid idea which is for advertising purposes only. Completely unsustainable having to use dirty electricity to charge for four days and get 10 mins of use out of.

[Than_Bogan]

I love high gas prices. Keeps the riff raff away! At $10 a gallon we'd have a private ski site on a public lake!

[oldjeep]

@rockdog I think you need to take a look at a Tesla ;)

[Than_Bogan]

@rockdog I mostly agree BUT ski boats are potentially a very different story, since most are inactive most of the time and stored in a fixed location in the sun. This makes solar recharge a possibility. If the battery life can be brought up into the 4+ hour range and one day of cloudy conditions is enough to recharge it to full, then I suddenly get VERY interested in an electric boat. I don't think we're there yet, but I think electric ski boats make MUCH more sense than electric cars.

[crashman]

There are lots of lakes in indiana that would make good ski lakes but allow "electric motors only". They dont say anything about speed or type of boat. You might be able to get some pretty good skiing in behind an electric nautique before they are able to introduce new legislation to prevent it!

[bowty]

@crashman There's a lake like that out by me...3000+ ft long and plenty wide. Ought to give Nautique a call and have them send me a prototype!

[Laz]

@rockdog I drive a Tesla and have solar panels. It works very very well. A ski boat has some unique challenges but seems worth pursuing. Has Nautique given up?

[rockdog]

@Laz and @Than_Bogan‌ it stands to reason solar is a great idea for ski boats given it's generally a summertime activity so I agree it would be worth pursuing. However I stand by my statement that electricity is not a great idea though. I believe we all must move away from coal, I certainly don't claim to be an expert on the subject but I know enough to understand that burning dirty coal is massively detrimental to the environment, there has to be a better way.

[Chuck_Dickey]

Heard the Nautique electric boat was working on better batteries. Maybe now the Tesla has passed along 200+ patents it will help everyone in the electric vehicle arena.

[Waternut]

My understanding of idling vs shutting motor off is that a V8 with fuel injection will burn about 8-10 seconds worth of fuel had it been idling. So if you're concerned about fuel savings, you may want to give that some consideration. Carbs will burn more on start up especially if you have to give it extra throttle while cranking.

 

When I've skied at trophy lakes, they always seemed to turn the motor off about 4-5 seconds before I was ready to go again.

[Waternut]

@rockdog I would say that the USA as a whole is not ready for electric cars but I highly disagree that it's a bad idea. It's more efficient and it's cheaper. How is that a bad thing?

 

Also...according to the EIA, coal makes only 39% of the US's electrical power. Sure it's the highest single source but certainly less than half of the entire electrical production so I don't think it's fair to say we are trading petroleum pollution for coal pollution.

 

Every week when I have to fill up my car, I dream about how awesome it would be to not have to deal with all the people who put $10 in their cars every other day while paying cash inside, playing the lottery, and buying cigarettes. If I had the option to pay just a little more to avoid that crap, I totally would! If I could avoid the pump completely and plug in my car in my garage, that would just be awesome!

[Moggie]

Here’s an idea…solar panels at the lake to generate electricity which is used to split the lake water into Hydrogen and Oxygen. Hydrogen is stored and used for your Hydrogen fuel cell ski boat. No anxiety about running out of battery and cardon zero. Hate to think how much such a system would cost, but hey in 30+ years you never know…

[Stevie Boy]

Here in the UK we run on LPG, because petrol prices are so high, I understand that the new PLINS gas injection substationaly, reduces the amount of horsepower lost, so the boat remains responsive, and gives plenty of power, because you buy LPG in bulk, Store it in a Large Tank and pump it into the boat when top up required, it comes out much cheaper, I do not know what LPG cost are in the USA.

[Laz]

I believe that even when the electricity is created by 100% coal, it is still cleaner to charge an electric car with that electricity than to burn a gas engine. However, electricity is rarely generated by 100% coal. In Ontario, we have (or are about) shut down all of our coal plants.

 

As for boats, I think that if Tesla and others can make a compelling mass market electric car, boats will follow soon. Or at least, they can run on clean biofuel.

 

Wait, I just had a brainstorm: For a dedicated ski lake, I wonder how much a battery would weigh and cost to power an 8 pass set? Imagine if you arrived at the lake, with your ski and a briefcase sized battery, got on the boat, plugged it in and skied. After your set, you yank the battery and recharge it while getting ready for the next set. The boat could be kept very light with just a small backup battery and motor. It would probably weigh less than a current ski boat.

 

Hmmm... A 240volt outlet, running at 80 amps (I have one in my garage) for 1 hour could completely charge a 19kwh battery. That can drive a Tesla 100km. Could that power an 8 pass set?. That's about $2.50 in electricity. Optimistically, at $180/kwh, 20kwh battery would cost $3600. I have no idea what a battery like that would weigh. My initial calculation is 80kg with a power density of 250 watt-hours/kg. That could be a problem.

[Stevie Boy]

French car makers Peugot are going to sell a car in 2016 with a engine that runs on diesel/air, small engine, driving compressor which in turn operates a hydraulic motor, car does 118 mph, and 0-60 in 8secs, they claim it will do approx 94 MPG.

Any boat manufacturers looking at this ?

[XR6Hurricane]

Gas may be more expensive than it should be but I don't understand the overall recent panic about prices. If you ask me they are relatively stagnant the last few years. Here in Chicago it's a good $0.80/gallon cheaper than it was in the summer of '08. I clearly remember $80 to top off my truck when it was empty and it took $61 to do it yesterday.