1964 Time Article about Miami Nassau race

[John Jackson]

Check out this link. I never saw this article before on the site, unless I just missed it. It is about three of Bertram's boats comming in 1,2 &3 in 1964:
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/artic ... 27,00.html

[Rawleigh]

Good read, thanks John!!

[Mikey]

$9,000 to $75,000. Don't you wish?

[CaptPatrick]

Mikey,

Considering that $1.00 in 2006 had about the same buying power as 16 cents in 1964, that $9,000 to $75,000 range would be today's equivilent of about $56,000 to $470,000 today. Not much change after accounting for inflation... (The 360 Moppie is priced around $416,000 today)

"A dollar just ain't what is used to be."

Br,

Patrick

[Capt. DQ]

Ditto on what Rawleigh said.

DQ

[Mikey]

Patrick,
Remember Grandfather in the '50's saying a good boat will cost you about $100 a foot.
Hee Hee

[John Jackson]

How about this: How many gallons of fuel could you get then for the same amount of money. Then take that number of gallons and multiply it by the price of fuel today and see what the number would be. In other words how many gallons of fuel is a boat today worth versus how many gallons was it worth in 1964? That might be an interesting comparison.

[CaptPatrick]

John,

If my feable memory serves me at all, I seem to remember '65 fuel price, (automotive regular leaded), at about 35 cents a gallon in Houston. Around 50 cents a gallon in '70...

Using 16 cents on the dollar, that'd be about $2.18 - $2.30 today. Price in town a few days ago was $2.79, (regular unleaded), so a bit more inflation by the oil industry. But still in about the same ball park....

We always remember how cheap things seemed 40 years ago, but seldom remember how little money we made. My first job out of the Navy, ('65), was paying me about $1.85 an hour or $74 bucks a week. Today I wouldn't even get outa' bed for $15 a day.



It's all inflation & funny money... And, ya' can't take it with ya' when go to the final destination.

Money isn't the root of all evil, but the lack of it certainly comes close...

Br,

Patrick

[Tony Meola]

Capt. Pat

I started working in my fathers gas station when I was 15. That was 41 years ago. It was a sunoco station and 190 blend the cheapest at the time was $.19 per gallon. I think 250 at the time was around $.30 and then once they allowed us to sell 260 blend at 103 octane it was around $.35 . Tony Meola

[mike ohlstein]

Patrick,

You forget that regular gas was 96 or 98 octane back then, and you could get 101 or 103. Today, 104 CAM2 is about seven or eight bucks.

I seem to remember that when I got my first mini-bike in 1968 or 1969, gas was about 37 cents. In fact....until recently, I believe that the price of a gallon of gas (in NY) has almost always been about the same price as a pack of smokes. That changed with the 'vice tax'.....

[John Jackson]

I have heard that in 1961 a 31 Bert was somewhere between twelve and twenty grand. I think that my father bought our three bedroom house in 1963 for around ten grand and I think a good salary at the time was around $7,500 a year. If you do the math it took more work to get a gallon of gas than it does today and a 31 Bertram costs more than what a starter house did in a subdivision. I might be a little off on the numbers but I think that Patrick's point is right on the, er, money.

[Rawleigh]

My '66 was bought for @$17,600. I have the original bill of sale somewhere.

[In Memory Walter K]

Bought my first house in 1963 for $19,500, my 31 Bertram in 1977 for $17,500.

[Mikey]

For all those remembering gas prices in the sixties, remember gas wars???
Thirteen cents a gallon. I had a '56 VW Beetle with 36 H.P. and a dollar got you change with a fill up. With that fill up I could go to the Beach (100 miles) for the weekend and back and have enough to get to work for several days.
Thirty-six horse power! Acceleration was not in its vocabulary.
Worst of all, no radio!

[John Jackson]

Let's say that the boat cost $17,600 and that diesel was 30 cents a gallon. That means that the boat then was worth 58,666 gallons. Today, diesel is around $3.00 a gallon. 58,666 gallons would cost $175,999.99 at that price. I guess that the boat in good shape is worth about the same amount of fuel that it was in the early sixties.

[nic]

John,

Thanks for the link, very interesting read and good information on the speed of the early boats.

Walter,

I think you had your priorities all wrong, but you got it sorted anyway.


Patrick,

I learned "the want of money is the root of all evil" and for anyone interested:

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/List_of_misquotations

Spending all day on the boat tomorrow, and if you read that link you'll agree it's not a day too soon!.

Nic