Welcome to the Lake Fun Blog. With gas prices shooting through the roof, you know that the on lake fill up spot is busy ordering a new set of higher of numbers to place on their pumps this summer. My guess is 6$-10$ per gallon on the water will be the norm throughout the year. During most elections both sides clamor about “taxing the rich to make them pay their fair share”. Over the past year the only thing that has been raised are gas prices and both sides agreed unanimously to tax Cash App and Venmo transactions over $600. Now let me ask you, who does this actually tax? Is it the richest people and corporations of the world, or the Uber drivers and Gig workers who are barely getting by?
As far as gas prices go I would say that there is plenty of oil in the world. We just have to pick which oil we choose to use. As I see it the left favors excess oil from Iran and Venezuala, and the right favors oil from Russia. I really do not care which party does what, with who, or where they get it from. The pain at the marina pump comes when they have to switch from one shoulder source to another. An example is Iran sanctions. The right gets in office and stops the flow or Iranian oil with sanctions, and this favors more oil flow from Russia. Then the left gets in office and begins to turn off the Russian Oil Flows in favor of Iran and Venezuela by lifting sanctions. The only problem is that the small time lake users around the world foot the bill during this switch over because there are always kinks that coming with switching a commodity source over on this large of a scale.
The first way to get better gas mileage on your boat is to remove weight. Over the years you probably carried different items on to your boat and left them under your seats, in storage, and anywhere on the boat. Go ahead and remove it. I bet if you take all non essential items off of your vessel you can easily remove 75-100 lbs of literal dead weight. A boat is very similar to an airplane and the less weight you are chugging around the local lake the less gas that you will use on each trip to the lake.
The second way is to use a propellor with a higher pitch. Maybe your old prop has a dent and ding from dragging it along the boat ramp or hitting a tree stump or loch ness monster in the lake. A higher pitch prop with basically allow your engine to run at lower RPMs at displacement speed. In simple terms your engine will use less gas cruising around, pulling the tube, or just taking that daily sunset cruise. So if it is time to swap your prop consider something with a higher pitch so you can save gas this summer while having lake fun.
The 3rd options does not actually save you actuall fuel, but it allows everyone involved in your Lake Fun to have some skin in the game. It also ties back in to my orignial tax rant about raising taxes on Paypal, Venmo, and Cash App users. My suggestion is to add some laminated QR codes to your boat for your payment app of choice. This will let people you ride with make donations to your gas fund while they are out having Lake Fun with you. If you simply ask for $10 you will probably get it. If someone is allowed to do it on their own free will you might actually end up with $50-$100 donation to your Lake Fun Gas Fund in the offering plate.
These are some simple ways you can keep the gas price from taking a big bite out of your lake fun this summer. Overall, the cost to implement these tips is very minimal. The prop would cost the most, and the QR codes and removing excess weight are free. It just takes time. So while the world puts the financial squeeze on the everyday Lake user you already have a plan to make this summer the best one ever.
Thanks again for reading the Lake Fun Blog. We hope to see you on the water soon.
