Gas prices hurting marina fuel sales
REDONDO BEACH, Calif. — Despite prices of more than $3 a gallon at some fuel docks, boaters are expected to be out in force over Memorial Day weekend. But some will be stopping for gas before they get to marina, according to a story this morning in USA Today.
At Rocky Point fuel dock in King Harbor (Calif.), leisure boaters are buying 20-percent less fuel as a result of the higher prices, getting their gas from local service stations instead, the newspaper reported.
“It sucks,” fuel dock manager Tim Myers told the newspaper.
Miami boater Fane Lozman, who was quoted in the story, takes his gas cans to a local service station to fuel his 21-foot speedboat, saving 80 cents a gallon in the process. And he sees more and more people with trailered boats pulling up to the pumps, according to the newspaper.
Many of the nation’s 13,000 marinas are small, family operations that oftentimes pay higher transportation costs than roadside service stations, and require more staffing to make sure no gas spills and pollutes waterways. Those factors raise costs and prices, USA Today reported.
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