Walter Staples has a beautiful boat, perfect for cruising and entertaining -- except that it has two engines and can burn 30 gallons of gas an hour.

Over at the Fort Washington Marina Ramp, bass fisherman Bob Stanger docks his bass boat. A much smaller craft than Staples', it still burns 15 gallons an hour. As Stanger puts it, "At... $60 an hour, it hurts your pocket quick."

Both men say that while they're not even close to thinking about giving up boating, they have made adjustments. Stanger fishes closer to the launching ramp, and Staples has given up his twice-yearly long distance cruises. As Staples stated, "Now you consider shorter trips... [to] burn less gas."

Rising gasoline prices are oppressive enough to keep drivers off the road; the cost to run a pleasure boat requiring a large tank full of diesel fuel can be prohibitive. The current national average for diesel prices hit $4.79 a gallon today, and some boaters have responded by docking their crafts for the foreseeable future.

Many others are just leaving their thirsty boats tied up and turned off as gas prices at marinas inch toward $5 a gallon. Dominique Rogers works the gas dock at the Fort Washington Marina, and says, "Nobody wants to ride a boat no more...its a dying thing."

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