Many people who were planning to take their boats out this holiday weekend will remain docked simply because they can?t afford to fill up their gas tanks.
Boaters say they may even remain docked for the majority of the summer. With gas prices averaging around $4.45 a gallon, it costs many boaters more than $1,000 to fill their tanks.
Some families are altering their vacation plans, staying local or even hanging out on board their boats while they are docked. Brian Van Patten and his wife have nicknamed their boat a ?condo on the water.?
Oil prices have hit record highs recently, and with predictions that costs could rise again, some people don ?t feel like waiting to see if prices will ever fall. As of Thursday, local gas prices were at $4.72 a gallon.
People who used to routinely fill their boat tanks are altering their habits. Yanal Janakat says it is costing him $600 more to fill up this season than it did last year. ?We probably won?t go on long trips overnight,? he says. ?To go just down to Manhattan and back will probably cost us about $350, so we won?t do that too much this summer.?
Regardless of the increasing fuel prices, die-hard boaters say they?ll continue to hit the water.