Gludy
regular
Reged: 19/08/2001
Posts: 6645
Loc: Brecon, Wales
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Despite the fact that I have refused to renew my subscription to MBY they keep sending me them! So I was surprised when the November issue dropped through my letter box this morning.
Anyway if I needed another reason to stop my subscription - which I do not, it is contained in the article on the inner back page from from Ray Bullman.
The basic theme of the article is that there may be some move towards slow displacment boats but "I feel the majority of us will reluctantly pay almost three times the current level of fuel costs and continue to cruise".
Whilst I accept that Mr. Bullman is fully entitled to his opinion, in my opinion, besides being totally out of contact with the reality for most boaters who simply could not afford to pay three times the price, Mr Bullman and the magazine actually do harm to the UK cruising power boat scene be encouraging a feeling that we will just swallow and it will be accepted.
With friends like this we do not need enemies. This encourages those who think they will simply raise many times the tax. If such an article was going to appear then it should have looked at the subject far deeper ... I am simply disgusted. but then this is what I have come to expect from MBY.
How out of touch with reality can a magazine be!!!! Or maybe MBY has no understanding whatsoever of the effects of such a fuel hike on the few hundred cruising power boats in Marinas like Swansea. as well as many other marinas and moorings dotted all around the country.
Paul
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tcm
regular
Reged: 11/01/2002
Posts: 20771
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hi paul
Whilst of course you know how i hate ever-rising taxes, there does seem to be some dreadful inevitability about taxes rising, and people doing nothing about it. What we need is a widescale revolt, and I am unsure about how to start one. So, if anyone has any decent ideas about how to start a revolt (non-peasant variety, please) i'd be happy to help out, but i am busy on saturdays cos the kids are at rubgy.
Meanwhile, i did a really ace piece about red diesel in the previous months's MBY, which lays out an indefatigable argument in favour of red diesel, and cheap boating in general. BUT no mention of it in the Gludy Chronicles of Impending Doom, sadly.
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Gludy
regular
Reged: 19/08/2001
Posts: 6645
Loc: Brecon, Wales
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hi
I have to say I did not see the piece you wrote .. sorry :-)
Between now and the date for red deisel dying for pleasure boats, there will be a general election. There really is everything to fight for.
I am just a bit fed up with the belly up style of resistance .... still tink the best way is as I have now outlined many times .....
Paul
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Moose
regular
Reged: 01/11/2001
Posts: 2063
Loc: West Sussex, Boat in Chicheste...
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Buy a cheap tanker c. £100,000. Paint it bright Red, this may cost a bit but it would look good, er ok it wouldn't but it would stand out. Pay some skippery type person to take it up the Thames and park it Nose into the HoP, of course it needs to be big enough to reach the other bank so nobody can get past, perhaps we could fill the hold with Sulphur or something so it smells really horrid. Am I nearly there?
http://www.phantom37.co.uk
Moose
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steverow
regular
Reged: 13/12/2002
Posts: 1273
Loc: Midlands UK. Boat South Wales
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Then scuttle it.
That'll make em sit up and listen.
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Robih
regular
Reged: 29/11/2002
Posts: 1258
Loc: Hampshire
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Gludy,
The real problem is that there is no political clout at all in this group. The voter numbers are too small to have the slightest effect on the election and there is also no material government economic argument to be had. The political message would have to be "we want to continue to give untaxed fuel to folk who have bought a £100k motorboat" - can you imagine the headline in "The Daily Mirror" the day after a Hampshire MP stands up and says that? Political suicide. I know it's not that simple, and there's a lot of folk in £10k cruisers that will also be hit, but the electorate will see boat owners burning large quantities of fuel as environmentally negative and also that "they can afford it anyway; I have to pay it for my car so why shouldn't they pay it for their motorboat" and the argument is indefensible.
I've just sold out of motorboating because I see diesel at three times the current price as inevitable - and I can't afford to keep boating at that price.
rob
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Gludy
regular
Reged: 19/08/2001
Posts: 6645
Loc: Brecon, Wales
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"I've just sold out of motorboating because I see diesel at three times the current price as inevitable - and I can't afford to keep boating at that price"
You will not be the first and the very fact you have done that shows how out of touch those who say we will carry on as before really are.
As regards all of your points, the fact is I agree with 90% of what you have said. This is why I do not see public protests as anything but negative.
The real arguments against it are practical ... I have outlined them so many time i will not repeat them here.
So how do you feel about those who say we will pay 300% to 400% more and just moan about it?
Paul
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Robih
regular
Reged: 29/11/2002
Posts: 1258
Loc: Hampshire
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"So how do you feel about those who say we will pay 300% to 400% more and just moan about it?"
I see these folk as passive and inactive for reasons I don't entirely understand. They must be pretty wealthy to be able to deal with this kind of cost increase to a leisure activity but more than that, being able to stand aside and accept that the capital value of their boat is probably going to take a hit shows that they must have capital wealth a fair way beyond mine. I sold out of my Targa 39 because the potential capital value loss will be approaching £30k (in my view) and I could do without that "own goal". I worry about folk buying boats on marine mortgages - negative equity comes to mind!
I have to say that I think the boating industry in the UK is being highly complacent about this whole issue - I have seen nothing from Sunseeker, Princess or Fairline but maybe that is because 90% of their output is exported so it's of little consequence to them. But I would expect the UK marina operators to be revising forecasts for the future as I see demand from the motorboat brigade to be softening in the medium term. In marinas like MDL's two Torbay marinas there is a greater than 50% occupancy by motor boats - and this change to my mind represents a significant risk to occupancy rates.
This whole equation comes down to bare facts - I keep my boat in Portsmouth and a round trip to Yarmouth in my Targa (now sold) for lunch will cost about £160 with diesel at £4/gallon. That's just darned silly, there's no other word for it.
Rob
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Gludy
regular
Reged: 19/08/2001
Posts: 6645
Loc: Brecon, Wales
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I do not believe they all can afford it ... its a sort of clinical denial.
As you say, you just have to look at the marginal cost of a trip you know and multiply it by 3 or 4 ... that makes it all silly. Trips just cannot be justified.
I agree with your analysis and I am sorry to learn you have left motor boating .... you are at least acting rationally :-)
Paul
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halcyon
regular
Reged: 20/04/2002
Posts: 2754
Loc: Cornwall
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Has anyone asked the fuel sellers if they are planning to carry on selling fuel?
After all increasing stock cost by 300/400% on a low profit item must have an impact on cash flow. Then if they want to sell both fuel options, the cost of new tanks, pumps and pipework, then there is the fuel stock level.
My other worry is that even at 400% price rise, will you be able to find some?
Brian
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