Power Boating Going the way of the Dinosaurs?

In most people's minds there is little doubt that we are all being taken for a ride when it comes to retail fuel prices at the pump. In the 7 years since importing my boat, I have watched the petrol prices grow from $1.05 - $1.10 up to $1.70 for premium unleaded petrol. In other words, the cost to run mt boat has increased nearly 60% in that time.

If you add to the increased costs associated with marine insurance for your boat (also going up) and perhaps storage fees at your marina, things are not so rosy. Increasing operational and maintenance costs for boats mean that boat owners start to use their vessels less and less as those costs rise. Naturally, there are price brackets which dictate what market segments can afford to own and run their boats. As costs rise, a number of brackets are eliminated, as boating is no longer viable for them.

The downturn in economies worldwide - particularly western nations where boating is a lifestyle expression, is killing boaters. Considered a luxury item, they are being sold off in cut-throat fashion. The massive price reductions across used boat markets thus affects the new boat sales market. Bargains are to be had everywhere, which makes it less appealing to pay more on the showroom floor.

Back to fuel costs. We know we are being taken for a ride. Prices at the bowser go up Friday morning (or even Thursday night). They come down on Tuesdays - if you're lucky. They go up on school holidays and back down again a few days after the kids return to class. Up when there's a public holiday and back down a day or two after we return to work. We're sold a lie by Governments reliant on oil company's political donations and various commissions who have no teeth to do anything.

Power boating is becomming even more expensive at a time when people are burdened with enormous real estate debts, declining income and job prosepcts and an ever-uncertain future. That is not good news for the boating industry per se and the power boat industry specifically. The fact is that marine engine manufacturers cannot improve technology and fuel consumption performance at a rate exceeding the rate of fuel price increases. 

If you're going to get into selling sailing boats, you need no further incentive. Stink boaters are going to lose the battle! They will be consigned to forever being land-lubbers or be forced to walk the plank and jump into a rag boat!!! Take a look at the boat sales websites. Not just in Australia, but the UK and United States too.

The biggest losers are the V8 driven boats. All of a sudden, no one wants them! Not even for free. The Aussie tradie who has done so well for himself over the past decade in a relentless construction boom, knows what how much it costs to run his Holden or Ford ute around from job to job each week. His 80 litre fuel tank is now well north of $100 to fuel. So in an instant he can calculate the cost of filling a 300, 400, 500, 1000 litre fuel tank on a boat. Scary. And scared off buying a new, or even used boat. Scared to even fuel the one he has now!

Boat owners with diesel engines will be less likely to want to sell. None of them will want a petrol boat, that much is certain. But being able to cruise more economically dollar-for-dollar will not entice them to sell in a down market with few sales prospects. Older and ageing vessels are a tricky proposition, with insurance companies more likely to want a marine survey conducted before they agree to insure a vessel. Who needs these cost burdens when they are struggling to maintain their budget as it is?

Where is the light at the end of the tunnel for the boating industry? Is there a remedy to fix the growing financial mess that might envelope and swallow it? How soon will the Chinese perfect the electric engine...and the electric boat? Granted, the first electric boats will be slow and have limited cruise range and time. But you can bet your V8 engines it will be the Chinese who come to the fore.

Anyone want a cruiser with twin V6's? Mine is for sale!!!

New Look, New Name Melbourne Summer Boat Show

The Boating Industry Association of Victoria (BIAV) is in preparations to kick off the 2012 Australian boat show circuit with the launch of the new look – new name Melbourne Summer Boat Show (MSBS) at Docklands, Melbourne.

Previously known as the Melbourne International Boat & Lifestyle Festival – MSBS will continue to be held at Melbourne’s premier waterside location, Docklands between 3-5 February, 2012.

The Melbourne Summer Boat Show is Melbourne’s only on-water event featuring a colourful display of yachts, power vessels, trailerable boats, personal water craft (PWC’s) and more.

Also on offer both on and off the water is a myriad of family oriented activities, demonstrations and come and try sessions.

“The Melbourne Summer Boat Show is a great day out for the family, as well as being a wonderful showcase of all Melbourne has to offer in regard to watercraft and watersports,” said BIAV General Manager, Clyde Batty.

“With the Show celebrating its 16^th year of operation, the public can enjoy a wide range of events such as waterskiing & Wake boarding, PWC demonstrations, Dragon Boat races, the Yamaha Supertank Fishing Show and the Australian Volunteer Coast Guard and Westpac helicopter rescue demos.”

Also on display at MSBS is Ralphy V, Tradeaboat’s Mariner Pacer 760 project boat, valued at $70,000 which visitors can go into the draw to win.

The Alma Doepel, an Australian built and operated three masted topsail schooner with over a 100 year history will also be open to the public at Shed 2, Victoria Harbour – allowing MSBS visitors to come and observe the restoration of this vessel.

In promoting the boating lifestyle as a family friendly activity, a variety of “Come & Try” sessions will be held on the water throughout the weekend. One of the great advantages to this show is that many show activities are free to the public with only a small charge to access the boats on the marina.

With a variety of boats, activities, ski & wakeboard displays and accessories, fishing and scuba gear there is something for everyone at the 2012 Melbourne Summer Boat Show.

What will provide the US (and the rest of the world) with the next Industrial Revolution? And will the boating industry survive it all?

I think this is an interesting question. The way I see it, humans as an evolutionary creature have stagnated somewhat. Being a Gen X'er, I listen to all the stories the Baby Boomers tell about how good the 60's and 70's were. Indeed, I wasn't around to witness what I believe to be the pinnacle of human achievement - man's first steps on the Moon. Since then money has become the new God (yes, I've watched the Zeitgeist Addendum a few times!). Other than continually improving on technology we already had back then - like the fledgling internet, we haven't achieved much more.

There is still poverty and human suffering. There is still war. There is still the requirement for the economic slave - the wage slave, to get up and go to work. To go and work and create the money to repay the debts, issued by banking organisations for money that never actually existed. Okay, I've lost you? You better go to YouTube and watch Zeitgeist Addeundum right now. But one point is that the western world and particularly the United States, has never been in more debt. The USA is lending so much money from China to buy Chinese products that it simply cannot repay those loans. Undoubtedly China know it. It's a case of 'in for a penny, in for a pound' now. There's no turning back because that snowball is too big to stop. 

To get out of the hole that has been dug at an ever-increasing speed, the US and indeed the rest of the world needs a new industrial revolution. The USA needs it to get out of debt and repay its loans - and feed and house its own populace (many of whom have in recent years lost their homes). To some extent we are working on it. But not fast enough. However, the climate change argument is bringing with it change. Mind you, we're still using obsolete technology; petrol engines, upon which most boats still rely. But cars are becoming more economical, emit fewer emmissions and we are slowly but surely manufacturing more efficient home appliances and the uptake of biodegradable materials is increasing. We're trying to recycle and trying hard to clean up.

But the problem is that our bond to fossil fuels is hard to break. As with almost everything, the dominance of a few wealthy individuals and politically powerful corporations means that we are stuck using obsolete technology, despite the fact inventions such as the Orbital Engine were created to move us forward. Put it simply, the next Industrial Revolution is being held back to suit the never-ending and boundaryless greed of the few who benefit from continued use of fossil fuels.

Think about it for a moment. For electric cars to be produced en masse, it would require re-engineering of production plants worldwide and on an unprecented scale. Think about all the idle productive capacity in places like Detroit and Ohio right now. Workers would have to be re-skilled - particularly those employed in the industries servicing fossil fuel mining and production. And car manufacturing. The batteries powering the vehicles would have to be improved continually and at a rapid rate to enable our economies to operate at the level they do now. So R&D efforts worldwide would also have to triple or quadruple.

Now I'd argue that all of this should have happened a lot earlier. That it should have been done by now and a lot faster, too. Not that the oil companies would agree with me - or that they ever will. When you're making billions of dollars a day, who gives a damn about what happens to the rest of the world, right? 'Hey, they can burn! Just keep them burning our oil!' So we're still filling our boats with petrol (and a few of us with diesel) and most of us are up to our eyeballs in debt. And that is the legacy that will be passed onto future generations.

What will become of our boats? Sailors need not worry as much about this. But anyone who knows boats knows that they are very, very different to cars! It only takes your first encounter berthing your baby to arrive at the last-minute realization they don't have brakes! But seriously, the resistance of water against a hull is enormous in terms of pressure. We really ask a lot of marine engines when we get that hull on the plane or push that displacement hull through the water. An engine pushing something relatively small on wheels is completely different to propelling a one-tonne or fifty tonne vessel through water. Spare a thought for those 1,000-foot-long 100,000 tonne container ships bringing in all those goods from China! (Imagine those batteries!!!)

Sure the first genuinely electric cars and boats would be slow. Slower than what we have now. But think back to the first Ford motor car and think of how far we have come in such a short space of time. And think of how much faster technology will improve because we already have the basis to improve on it - computing power, knowledge and awareness, none of which existed when the first Industrial Revolution took flight.

So electric is just one option. We've got hybrid and we're doing solar power, looking into hydro and all sorts of other technology. But it's not happening at a 'Revolution' speed and time is money - certainly in America, where you can count the debt growing in the millions of dollars per second that you read this article. The point is that it is Amercia that needs the Revoltion most. And the rest of the world needs America to find and create that Revolution. The sad thing is that it will most likely be China who kickstarts the next Industrial Revolution. It will be China, mass producing electric and other sorts of cars, boats and appliances and selling them to an America that has no cash and no future. All for the sake of keeping a few Texans and a few more Arabs very happy. Zeitgeist it is.

Oh, I forgot! It can't be done right? Funny that. We developed technology that blast us through the stratosphere and put human beings on alien landscape we call the moon. That was July 20, 1969. And what have we done since?

Are Australians too lazy and do they actually care?

We were known as 'the lucky country.' Our people generally considered laid-back, friendly and relaxed. But I'm starting to wonder whether Australia and Australians generally have changed - and not for the better. I'll talk generally here, but what I have to say relates very much to the boating industry in this country.

It was touted proudly when I was in High School that we were heading towards becoming a service economy - that manufacturing was a foregone conclusion, dead and buried. And now that eventuality has increasingly become a reality, it really makes you wonder how it could all go so horribly wrong! So let's look at this so-called 'service' economy and see how it's faring.

Firstly we were gifted the marvellous 'privatisation.' Ah, what a wondrous joy. We have privatised hospitals. We have have a privatised transport system. We have privatised water, electricity and gas. Everything once under the responsibility of Government sold off in the blink (wink) of an eye, a back-room handshake and the exchange of unimaginable volumes of money. And what benefit has this delivered the average tax-paying individual?

Well, we have a transport system that is dilapidated and outdated. It breaks down daily and routinely, rarely runs on schedule, is always over-budget, under-performing, lacking accountability and quite frankly absolutely pathetic. Our hospitals are facing problems, too. They're becoming expensive, overcrowded, understaffed and under-resourced. Needless to say that electricity, gas and water are growing more expensive by the day and in return you are forced to settle for less. Less service, less resources, less accountability and less ability to complain to anyone about it. The most marvellous aspect is that we now have Governments that do not even want to govern.

"Doesn't matter, mate - relax. I'll finish the job off for ya next week. I'm busy at the moment."

If you want a real winner of an example of our 'service' economy, look no further than the Australian banking industry. There is genuinely so little competition, that four major banks can copy each other and basically rip off their own customers to the tune of billions of dollars annually. And hilariously, they exclaim the cost of banking must be borne by the end consumer - you. Since when does 'covering the cost' equate to billions of dollars profit - little of which ends up in the pockets of small shareholders?

So now that we've flogged off the bulk of our manufacturing and associated productive capabilities to China and India, we're left with services. So now everyone's an accountant, lawyer, doctor, banker, marketer, lawn mower, chef, plumber, electrician or builder. The first four don't know how to service their cars, can't tie their shoe laces, or change tap washers. But it's the last three that have frustrated me enough to type this article. And my recent experiences with them have further got me asking whether our attitudes toward business and each other generally are reflected also in the Australian boating industry and the broader society within Australia.

Firstly, the builder. This guy is known by all the locals, which is not necessarily a good thing. He seems an affable, likable fellow. He's not cheap, but heck - we'll give him a go. Well, we've got a job that was started nearly a year ago. It's still going to this day. There's no end in sight and really, no rush on his behalf to complete the job for which he has received a decent deposit. I've heard worse stories than this.

Our family business recently sold and when the new owners moved to bigger premises, my father decided to rent out the factory which he retained ownership of. We've now contacted no fewer than six (6) electricians to quote on the installation of new metres and wiring. One admitted he had too much work to even look at the job. Two have not bothered to return phone calls, despite promising to do so. And the last three have not even attended appointments to quote or even call to reschedule or say they would be late. A friend of mine has had the almost identical problems calling in plumbers.

Yes, this is the era of the 'service' economy, ladies and gentleman. And look what marvels it has delivered us. A nation where you struggle to get service, get crap service, are offered service at a rip-off price and are absolutely astonished when you do occasionally get great service. It's no surprise when a tradesman doesn't return a phone call or does not attend an appointment as promised. Its seems they can excuse themselves by saying they have too much work. For many, they are at liberty to pick and choose which of the more profitable jobs to do and which to ignore. A nice luxury to enjoy when things are going well and people are happy to max out their credit cards and exhaust their lines of credit.

But what of the attitude of not returning phone calls? Not bothering to answer e-mail queries? Not going out of your way to provide a quote, even in busy times? What a lot of these clowns don't understand - and there's many in the boating industry too, is that it's the small things like this that important people (customers), remember and tell other people. It's not hard to return a phone call, to provide a quote or to call and let someone know you're on your way and might be late. In an over-inflated, over-heated market it's those small things that will set you apart and provide you with a point of difference from the lazy clowns I'm griping about.

The boating industry is no different. Sure, it has endured tough times recently and so business sentiments have been lower. But that's no excuse at the best of times to not offer a professional service, or provide any at all. But I've often made enquiries to find that no one returns the call. E-mails that have gone ignored. Had to ring and chase products. Then had to ring again a week later. And even just trying to help people within the industry to promote their businesses and promote the Australian boating industry. The general sense is that it is difficult to get someone who actually cares. It seems many people don't 'give a stuff.' It's not the typical 'she'll be right, mate.' That's what we Australians were typically known for. Now it's "I don't give a sh**. Tell someone who cares."

Is it because there is more pressure on people these days? Maybe. Take a look out on the roads. Analyse people's attitude towards each other in their daily rush to get somewhere. Is it because of the grab for the mighty dollar? Has this overridden our sense of duty to treat each other with respect? To provide basic courtesy and offer consistent and professional service? It's really got me wondering whether the end result is worth it for people. I for one, don't like what I'm seeing. But change it seems, may also be a long way off.