Should you track a camper by miles or the number of nights spent in it? Miles for maintenance
Nights show camper commitment and use.
When I bought my first sea kayak it cost $30 a day to rent a sea kayak from “Sea Kayak Carolina”. The used kayak and paddle I bought cost $650. My vest an Astral PFD on sale for $70. Paddle float, pump and sponge about $75 though they didn’t come with the rental package of kayak, paddle, and PFD. This total came to $795. I divided 795 by 30 which comes to 26.5 days of renting. After I paddled 27 days total, I considered I had paid for this equipment. The rest of my paddling was then free.
Another way to consider the cost was after I sold a boat. In most cases all my paddling was free, and I actually made a profit on average of about $150 per boat. The only new boat I have ever bought was a blemished fiberglass Mohawk Blazer canoe for $180 in the early 70s at the factory in Longwood, FL. I still have it. I suspect I could get my original purchase price and break even today without much problem. So, my milage cost on the boats I have sold has been in the black.
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Paddle powered boating is one of the investment effective way to enjoy the water. If you’re looking for a bang-for-your-buck to get you out to enjoy nature, it offers a great return on your money, but there are better options. For example, all you need for hiking is a pair of shoes. A bicycle gives you a mechanical advantage to go further, faster, and adding gear or updating features is cost effective. Adding up the cost of your equipment and comparing it to the miles paddled is just a way to verify and justify the investment.
A better approach might be to view it in terms of how far your investment can keep giving, and the cost of operating per mile. Shoes wear out, bicycle parts parts wear out and you’ll need new tires after so many miles. With a paddle boat, you can paddle 100 feet from the shore and sit, or you can set off for a destination that is actually below the horizon. There is
really no difference in the depreciation of your boat or paddle for going 1 mile or 50 miles, and there is no additional cost, regardless of the distance you travel - that is the real return on your investment. The only true depreciation is the abrasion of seat fabric or PFD and exposure to UV from being in the sun.
That highlights the importance of evaluating the initial investment to make sure it fills you needs, butveven if you buy the gear, it’s available for friends to use. All you can essentially do is confirm that you can get a big bang for the buck investing in a kayak. The good news is you’ll find thst the more you use it. The greater the return. Hard to beat.
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Well…no.
Paddling cost is zero if you live next to the water. However few of us only paddle the water at home.
For example, Tuesday the Canoe Club is going to DeLeon State Park to paddle the spring to the lake and back and have lunch at the diner where you cook your own pancakes on the flat top on your table. That’s 126 miles away. Round trip that 18 gallons in my pick up. At $3.82/ gal that’s $68. There is also o&m cost on truck, we will leave that out. Admission to the park, $5, unless you have an annual pass $80. Lunch at the diner$$, more than I’m going to pay to do a thing I do at home.
Either way that free paddle cost over$73.
It gets worse if you count the paddle we led last weekend. It was a 3 mile group paddle, drifters mostly. It was in Melbourne Beach. Fuel, DEF, camping fees, meals, depreciation on truck and trailer. It just adds up.
It isn’t really an investment valued in dollars. It’s an investment in mental health.
PS…that thing about free if you live on water is full of surprises too. Project next week is to take the kayak dock out and clean barnacles off and do some maintenance on it.
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Indeed, the cost to paddle isn’t free. That isn’t the same as the cost of the boat.
I get 32 miles a gallon with boat on top of car and 35 without it. Our cost of gas runs currently at $2.99 to 3.29 here in SC where I live. A 126-mile round trip would cost me at the current high cost of 3.29 would come to $12.96. Let’s say there is a head wind and driving interstate speeds cut my milage with boat down to 30 miles a gallon at $3.30 a gallon the cost for that trip would be $13.86. I bought this car with the cost of gas and ease of loading a boat on top of the car in mind. Cost of paddling really depends on your choices.
Most of my paddling locations don’t require an entry or launch fee. I can get an annual senior state park pass for $35. I also have the golden age NP lifetime pass that cost $25 dollars when I purchased it. I do pay full price for overnight camping, but there again I often camp free at the places I do camp. I pay $10 a day parking but camp free at the foothills trail campsites on Lake Jocassee. Camping on the beach on Capers Island requires a free permit. Camping on the Enoree River in the National Forest is also free with permit. I do realize some of these options are age and location dependent, so it is hard to make an overall statement on the cost of paddling. However, those cost can actually be reasonable again depending on the choices we make.
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I don’t pay to launch, avoid parking fees, don’t like toll roads. It’s great if you live on the water, but driving to your launch point is a part of most every adventure.
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A dollar a mile.
A penny for your thoughts.
Considering exchange rates
there’s times mind goes overwrought.
But with a nickel full of nonsense,
expending paddle strokes with grin,
I’ll give no quarter to my doubts,
for soon enough we all cash in.
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Considering the just cost of the boat I think I’m down to about $0.04/mile.
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