Money is a BIG factor this year, and gas prices are doin the hurtin. I'm not surprised, and here in OS we are gonna do some money pinching this year.
Regatta organizers, cinch your belts...
sea ya
tami
Half full or half empty? Time to get some word out to those people that would normally be pouring that expensive gasoline into a motorboat or jetski (perhaps we can be choosy!) and grow the fleet.
I'm just speaking personally here, but I'm going to be attending MORE regattas this year than last, and I'm going to be buying a home later in the year and relocating further south!
Money grows on trees. Didn't you know?
![[Linked Image]](http://img3.photobucket.com/albums/v12/sademie/th_orly_owl.jpg)
The 20's and 100's falling from the palm trees overhanging the pool are clogging the filter. 
Dang it, I knew I planted the wrong kind of tree!!!
Do you have an extra one of those money trees for me?
![[Linked Image]](http://static.flickr.com/24/56733884_8a9876603c.jpg)
![[Linked Image]](http://www.florida3s.com/forum/images/smilies/eek.gif)
<img src="http:/
To get this thread back on track, yes gas prices suck, but when you do the math the increased cost of the road trip is not much more than the cost of a pizza, I won't let that stop my travels.
But I do agree turnouts will be less, in our other hobby (BMX Racing) the attendance is down, some blame the hurricanes and some even say it hasn't been the same since 9-11.
Gasoline prices, Home heating costs, Auto Industry, last one out of Michigan turn out the lights.
It all depends on priorities & support from the family. I find that sailing is still cheap, yet I don't travel like I used too.
I'm still going sailing, I dont care what gas costs. I could be $10/gallon, I'm still going sailing and if a regatta is fun/interesting/competitive gas is less than the steak dinner and the margaritas I'm going to eat/drink
What will be fun is watching all those Chevy Suburbans sit on the lot and seeing all you guys pull your i20 down the highway with a Toyota Prius.
What are the odds that the Prius waranty covers towing?
Even better... Do you think they build a trailer hitch for a Prius?
Even better... Do you think they build a trailer hitch for a Prius?
I pulled a Hobie 16 with an old Toyota Tercel and it has about the smallest 4 cylinder you can get. You can get a hitch for anything nowadays.
Doug Snell
Hobie 17
ww.tcdyc.com
Towed my first H16 with a '78 Corolla! I'm currently using a Toyota Tacoma for towing. Plan on driving it until the doors fall off or Toyota offers a Prius-like drive train in a small truck!
If you slow down from 80 mph and just drive 70, you probably won't notice the difference at the pump.
Used to pull a trailer with a Prindle 16 stacked on top of a Prindle 18 (Totaal 290 kg and alot heavier then a I-20 that way) WITH me 1993 Toyota Starlet. I would easily do 70 mph and still get a mileage of 50 per gallon. At one time I tested how fast my car would go with this setup and I ended at 135 km/h = 85 mph on flat ground. I did this fro about 80 km and couldn't detect any extra fuel consumption. I'm sure that was more consumed but it was so small that I couldn't see at at the pump over the basic 50/gallon that I get when toweing at 70 mph. The covered distance was too short fot that.
Toyota Prius pulling an I-20 ? No problemo !
Wouter
Ok, now I`m confused. If I could get 50miles/gallon in ANY car I`ve ever owned (ok, my small Opel diesel ute could almost manage it) without towing anything, I`d be really impressed.
50 miles = 80,5km.
1 US Gallon = 3,785litres.
1 British Gallon = 4,546litres.
This translates to a fuel consumption of 5,7litres/100km, my diesel did 6,2l/100km on a very good day. My current 2.0litre petrol engined car gets about 10l/100km without towing, most new cars beat that but only by a small margin, say 7-8l/100km.
I know you have no hills to tow up, Wouter, but are your figures even remotely possible ? 
As far as I know a gallon is 4.2 liters, maybe that is a Texas gallon ? I don't when you Anglo-Saxons convert to a decimal system anyway !
Anyway I intended to say 12 km/liter, that is what I get when towing the stacked trailer at 100-110 km/h.
Seems like I made another math error as well.
Anyway :
100/5.7 = 17.5 km/liter. My best score up till now is 17.15 km/1 liter = 5.9 liter/100km. So I wasn't far off despite my math mistake. But on average over a whole year (all weather conditions etc) I get 15.7 km/liter or so (=6.4 lite/100 km).
Without the big rig in tow I get 15 km/liter in the winter and 16:1 in the summer. And no I don't drive like an old lady. Toyota starlets are just very efficient cars. With a 1.3 liter 4 cylinder engine it accellerates quite well as well. Top speed without tow = 160 km/hour or a 100 mph. All very decent specs for any car.
The secret of the Toyota starlet ? It is lightweight ! Only 840 kg (= 1850 lbs) for the whole car while still packing a 75 hp engine. Nearly 1 hp per 10 kg and let me tell you that alot of modern cars don't have better ratios.
Yep, I'm all going for lightweight these days. Lightweight boat, lightweight car, lightweight women !
Wouter
We need Mike Dobbs to post a photo of him towing his Tornado on a tilt trailer behind his Mini--looks like an ant carrying a watermelon.
Wow, those are still very good fuel consumption stats in my book, especially while towing.
"Yep, I'm all going for lightweight these days. Lightweight boat, lightweight car, lightweight women !"
Wouter, when you`re done with the car you can send it off to me. The boat too. Oh, and that crewmember that appears in some of your pics would also do nicely
Anyway I intended to say 12 km/liter, that is what I get when towing the stacked trailer at 100-110 km/h.
I just looked up that a gallon is 3.78 liters The speed of 100 km/hr. is about 62 miles per hour. That 3.78 liters will take you 45 km. (45 km./gal.) or 28 miles per gal.
Those numbers don't sound unrealistic. Your 15 km./liter is 35 miles per gallon. Also reasonable. I drive a 240D MB that I get 31 miles per gallon at highway speed of 65 miles per hour. That is 105 kph.
Conversions are always a problem. In Canada they use the Imperial gallon which is about 5 liters. In weight, there is the metric ton. the English ton and the American ton They are 2204 lbs., 2240 lbs., and 2000lbs. respectively.
Howard
I tow a Tiger or two with a Commodore. It has a 350 chev and will drag just about anything. The challenge is finding a servo in time
The photo was taken during a recent trip to perth. We had just driven 20 hours and was filling up for fuel on the Aussie Bite at around 7:00 am. (from memory)
My experience from a *lot* of towing is that the weight on long trips is not the issue. Moreso, the windage and lack of aero it the bit that causes the dramas. My car will do 17 l/100km at 100 km/h but increases to about 20 at 110 km/h and increases exponentially from there.
Tiger Mike
We don't often pull boats very far with it, but Mary and I have a 1990 Honda Civic that gets 49 mpg around town. We used to go to regattas in the early 80s with a VW Rabbit PU with a cap and it got 60mpg. But pulling the Hobie 18 it was hard to get it in high gear unless drafting behind a truck.
Going north to our summer home last spring, Mary was pulling 3 Waves with the Honda Odyssy and got 30 mpg.
The RV gets 10 mpg diesel fuel no matter what it is pulling.
Not enought to warrant staying away from a regatta.
Rick
Ditto Rick, We're changing from a Blazer (ultimate gas hog) to a mini-van this year to increase mileage by about 30%. Planning on 10 regattas, two of which are 7 1/2 hours one way from our home. We're also planning on dragging some newbies along to the closer events. The sailors with a passion will still show up, it's all relative to what you want to spend your money on. Is it fuel or dish network?
Flatlander, rip all the seats out of the mini-van and you can sleep in the back, Thats what us good Dutchman do to save money on Hotel costs. I've been doing that for years whenever I traveled to Round the Bay or the Steeplechase in Ohio.
I miss the Round the Bay race, 
Mike did a great job. 
Wished someone on that side of MI/OH would have picked it up.