Big old' fuel bill

mattie

Fueled up this evening over at Desmond's in Port Huron Mich. Asked the gas jockey about his biggest tab this season so far. He floored me with.......$20,000.00 in diesel. Some fella was heading back up to Traverse City area with his 130' boat. Took 2,1/2 hrs with the high speed pump. Holy!

TonyWalker

Mattie, If I was ever to hesitate about the bill for the Salt Shaker, I just got over that problem!  lol

Tony

Salt Shaker 342

pepmyster

Holy Moly!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

brianluck

Imagine the tip the fuel guy should have received

raybo3

I guess if you can afford a 130 boat then you can afford the fuel for it.......

Black_Diamond

I Agree with Raybo...That 130' yacht was probably in the $5-10 million when new, at least, so what's $20k.  Like buying a Ferrari and then complaining about the mpg, you're in the wrong situation if that's your complaint!

212rowboat

most self made wealthy folks would balk at a bill like that, pay it, and then complain about it.. folks who come into money w/o effort would likely brag about it... people are strange..

I had a boss who collected vehicles.. we were working in south Georgia for a couple of weeks and he was coming down to check out the final product.... he shows up in a brand new Ford Lightning, which was peculiar because he already had one, a year older... It turns out he had a blow out on his 'older' one on the way down, and ended up going to the dealer to replace the bent rim- and they had none in stock.. He offered to buy a set off a new truck, instead of waiting.. they balked.. so, he bought the entire truck and had his shipped back to his home 400+ miles away..

I reckon' having cha-ching like that is nice... as hard as I've worked for the little I've earned, and the crap I've done to get it... well, I'll complain about that dudes $20k bill for him... His fuel top-off dang near cost more than my boat.

mattie

raybo3 said:

I guess if you can afford a 130 boat then you can afford the fuel for it.......

"Just when you think you're at the top of your game - you find out you're not even in the game!"

raybo3

Mattie not true. You are in the game. You are just in your means and from reading your posts sounds like you really love your Rinker. So you have something that you really love and enjoy. Lots of people can not say the same thing........ So game on bro.............

Black_Diamond

Good point Raybo! You are 'in' when it works for you. Always someone with bigger/better. As I tell my son, if it's your boat it's as good as anyones. Any any boat is a good boat.

Babyboomer

And I thought my $400. was bad

Michael T

There's a guy who used to live down the river from me when his trucking company was a pretty good size. In the last 20 years it has grown to a mega company, as has his house on the St.Lawrence River near Ivy Lea and all of his toys. His waterfront "house" has a huge retractable breakwater that is about 300 feet long. His name is Tomlinson. At one time one of his boats "My Way" was the fastest catamaran in the world. He won the unlimited shoot-out at the Lake of the Ozarks a few years back. He was going to enter again last year but crashed his boat which prompted a former racer to come out of retirement to finally get a chance to win, which he did. Now to get back on topic. Tomlinson's twin helicopter turbines run on super pure highest rated jet fuel. His personal jet fuel tanker followes his "boat" wherever it goes for fill-ups. Want to guess what that costs? It's a different world for some. I'll show mattie's post to the Admiral. It might help me next time she sees a fuel fill-up bill of $700 - at least I'm hoping! MT

brianluck

And I complain every time I put another $100 in lol

Lifes Good

fuel and the cost are nothing but buying memories for you and your family. cant replace the memories and stories!!!

hey another way to look at the $20k. thats probably 4000 gallons. so he probably gets around a half mile to the gallon at best which is a range around 2000 miles. lets also take a guess that it could take 4 years to burn all his fuel doing an avg. 500 miles per year. unless crossing the big pond! i bet on average each of us might spend $2000+ or four+ fill ups per year (express cruisers). so we are spending $8000~$10000 at the same rate he is spending $20k. thats nearly half!! dont get me wrong he is spending more but thats still alot of cash for us that punch rivits everyday.... however i bet we get 10 times the fun with family and friends and better memories!

LG

212rowboat

this may take a few sentences to explain-

I had a friend who was a minor league baseball player, and was in-line to play majors, but never got that call.. he ran a wholesale fish distributorship instead, years after.. his brother, on the other hand, didn't pursue baseball but his own interest instead- he was a captain...

His brother was, at one time, the first officer and then captain of the second largest yacht in the world.  His life really sucked... he would sail from the Med to the Carib, or maybe to the North East (somewhere around the Hamptons, iirc), and maybe the owner would entertain on board- maybe he wouldn't, but this guy had to have the boat ready to go at any point just in case.. Like I said, his life must have really sucked, huh? :-)

He was made captain because the owner threw a tantrum one day because of some unreasonable something or another... he started looking for another job that same moment, too.. his description of the owner was that he was a sad little man, who would sleep until early afternoon everyday of his life, was vicious to people, had no friends, and his family (where his wealth originated) had little to do with him... according to this guy, his family had little to do with him more so because they were the same way rather than that they had alienated him....

He found employment as a captain of another boat.. this guy had something or another to do with Sysco, and was also ultra wealthy.. my buddies brother reported that he loved working for this guy.. he entertained on board his yacht constantly- he still sailed the circuit behind this guy, following him around or leading him there in the case he wanted to use his 'boat' for drinks or dinner with friends- but the atmosphere was totally different... here are two tales this guy told, that explain just how well he had it:

he was to attend a dinner in this guys honor while in the Med (can't remember specifically where), and arrived in his dress uniform a few hours early, as instructed.. he and the owner sat down and had a beer- not a wine, or a champagne, but a beer.. The owner was a huge wine aficionado.. he had received several cases of an extremely rare vintage that equated out to over $1k a 750ml, and intended to serve it to his guests.. The head of the event slyly told the capatain to graciously accept the glass, though the captain said he had no real taste for wine, and wouldn't know a good one from one out of a box or jug.. but, he took it anyway...

apparently, the owner inquired... and when the drink was served, everyone drank vintage from crystal, except the captain- who drank a Budweiser from his stemmed glass- and the owner was quick to point out to the entire guest list (who apparently consisted of some pretty important folks, either self styled or in actuality)..  He was the sticky point of a joke, but it was in good nature and inclusive- making or allowing folks to approach him afterward- which they did, and all were better off for it..

another time, and this could have gone south: they pulled into some port with a grand hotel atop the cliffs.. there was a beach below, that was very private because of the rocks.. there was an elevator shaft where guests could float right down (or up) from the hotel to the beach.. there were decks built into the rocks at points, where folks would have private dinners overlooking the ocean.. apparently, the rich's playgrounds are pretty dang nice..

there were locals diving from the cliffs, at some ridiculous height... our guy the captain decided he was going to do just that... he inquired and was told that he wouldn't be able to do so because it was so dangerous, and that the locals who -did- do it were paid, for the entertainment of the guests.. he said "nah, I'm going to do it"... The owner found out through the grapevine and approached him, forbidding him from doing it.. He said he would be forced to release him from his contract, and that no insurance would cover him in the case of injury... supposedly, he responded "who knows if an opportunity like this will present itself again, and you only live once".. he was basically calling the owners (hopefully) bluff..

there was a drinks and hors de vours party aboard the yacht near the base of the cliffs when this guy did it.. he says he walked up to the edge, and would have changed his mind except for having made such a big deal of it... it wasn't like it was his first high dive, but he said it was his highest by far... this is several hours after the conversation with the owner..

he dives...

he is swiftly scooped up, and told the owner wants to speak with him immediately.. he though "oh crap, he wasn't bluffing'... they tendered him out to the yacht, and he found himself in front of the entire crew and guest, with the owner standing in the middle of them all commanding attention- all had on a t-shirt that spoke something to the point "We watched Capt (whatever his name was) Dive from the (whatever the cliffs namesake was).. the shirt the captain handed him was to the tune "I'm Capt (name), and I dove the cliffs of (name)"...

last I heard, and this was over ten years ago, he was still with that owner and either that boat or a new one..


some folks toss money around in haste and waste- like the owner he first captained for- and never enjoy life, though it is in front of them on a silver platter.. Some (more often self made, in my opinion) wealthy people drink every last drop of life, and use their wealth to bolster than enjoyment... I reckon there are all grades in between, but I've not met them on my travels.. yet, I guess...

$20k in fuel? two things: I hope he uses it soon, because diesel doesn't age well like it once did, and, if he is using it like the second owner from above, he is enriching -many- lives, and not just his own + the fuel jockey guy with a tale to tell.. :-) ..  

 

Michael T

 

Black_Diamond

With rare exception, no one runs gas turbines for casual use, especially on a displacement hull (does you no good), and they are huge fuel hogs - let alone the smell!  Something like that is just a pair of big turbocharged diesels: CATS, MAN, etc.

JoeStang

Cool stories drew, nice to hear there are some cool people with a ton of money out there. I dont have any dreams of being ultra rich (altho the Powerball is mine to lose ), but I'd like to think that if I did have money exploding out of my pockets I'd use to to enrich the lives of my friends & family.

212rowboat

Mr. Diamond, that boat in Mr. T's post could be running electric motors its so dang big.. like, nuclear generated power cells.. dang thing is huge!!!

I saw a hatteras about that size one time, from the hull side.. I was diving off radio island in Beaufort NC, and drifted out into the channel via some butt kicking low side current.. I heard it coming, felt it maybe is better descript.. it went right over top of me, about 40' up or so.. I got a good look at it later from along side.. there were some attractive ladies having cocktails on the fan tail later that eve.. I was paying attention at that point.. :-)