Fuel Prices in Aust.

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BruceK

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Today we refueled at Baileys, Darling Harbour Sydney. $1.44 per litre, earlier this year it was $1.66. Obviously the result of the oil price freefall, despite the AUD doing something similar.
Most fuel stations on dry land are around the same, Baileys typically price that way, unlike some marine places which add 20-25c per/L. I bought diesel for my car at $1.40, less another 4c, happy with that.
Lighter note, recently heard Russia called "a militarized gas station"
 
Baileys is the way to go. Filled up there after the Sydney boat show at$1.59 when my local marina was asking $1.84 !!
 
Before I left Sydney I filled up at D'Albora the Spit, pump price was pretty high ( I think $1.69 )but got 6c a litre of even thou I only took 600 lts
Went up to Baileys with John on Flemingo and sure the price was a lot lower, hope it keeps coming down . With the Aus dollar falling it is going to dampen the fuel price fall.
Will top up again in Hobart (where is the cheapest fuel) before I come north again.
 
FWIW, Baileys is Western Australia based, takes a while for your card details to go via their WA base. Best thing is they supply ferries etc and have a big throughput,even there I often see a slug of water in filters after a refuel, not yesterday though, so far. You need a Baileys card you get after some online tuition and testing, on safe procedures, really it`s just a way to shift spill etc liability onto you.
 
Paid $1.51 a litre just this am, down at our marina. So we can duck out at some stage over Xmas-New Year period. Coulda been worse I guess. Still no nibbles of substance re the sale. Under pressure to reduce price. Why is it I always end up paying top dollar when I am buying, but always end up getting screwed when I sell..?
 
Why is it I always end up paying top dollar when I am buying, but always end up getting screwed when I sell..?

I have a good mate in Kong Kong who is a sales whizz, now I know why he likes his job so much.:socool:
 
Diesel on the water at Baileys in "Darling Harbour" on Sydney Harbour, $1.40 a litre, today. $1.20 at my local servo (gas station) 2 days back. $1.90 at Brooklyn on the Hawkesbury river/Broken Bay, just N of Sydney 3 weeks ago, too pricey, not enough competition.
 
I'll likely get some fuel during early March. Best place i know of is Raby Bay Marina. Today diesel is 130.9. I need to register for their newsletters - in Dec they had an additional 6 c /l discount for 'subscribers'.

Not sure how much to get yet. My plans for winter cruising are now a bit up in the air. I blew-out a knee a couple of weeks ago. Ruptured ACL and a few other bits of damage. I'm hoping for a reconstruction operation in late March. Then start the long rehab process, and for that I may need to be closer to home than I had planned.
 
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Fueled up in Kettering this afternoon. $1.41 a Lt.
Took 1600 lts ready for my trip back north.
Thought it was a bit expensive but a 24 hr/credit card facility so I suppose one pays a premium.
No berth in Kettering so have ended our cruise back at Royal Tasmanian Yacht Club.
Now for the clean up before heading north.
 
Brian and Benn, the Raby 10c margin for on water fuel seems fairer. I`m sure it costs more to do it, but Baileys don`t employ much staff, like no one at all yesterday. But, the wharf is well fendered and the receipt printer was working.
Took me a while to realize the port engine kill cable had not returned to the correct position after I shut down at the fuel wharf. Meanwhile I got some good experience running and maneuvering on one. We had just picked the boat up after a/f and 1st propspeed application(and a new straight port propshaft). I`d forgot how fresh a/f boosts speed.
Unfortunate knee injury Brian. We hear of sports people bouncing back after reconstruction, but they might be younger than some of us, certainly me, hope it goes well.
 
Thanks Bruce
I dont want to give up skiing just yet so will put a lot of effort into the pre- and post-op physio which seems to be the key now that the surgical side has become fairly routine. I'd gone 11 days without a fall, then on the last day just before lunch got a ski caught on something under the snow, and that ski did not release when I fell. Unfortunate, but such is life. I'm just not looking forward to the 2 weeks on crutches - crutches and stairs scare the s&*t out of me.

Robbie Sommers runs the Raby Bay Marina, and also the Peter Hansen Yachtbrokers shop there. He makes a point of two things: first the marina maintenance is kept in tip top condition. But as they dont have a lot of berths the maintenance levy for berth owners is fairly high unfortunately. Secondly he aims to have the best fuel prices on the water, and seems to me he does at that.
 
Just checked the bowser here at RTYC and at 1.56c/lt I am glad I fueled up in Kettering
 
So I realise this is an old thread but its still quite valid.

We are in the process of converting our engine to run on 100% waste vege oil, I realise many people will scoff at this and thats ok, its not for everyone. However when we looked into this (and have done around a years research including conversations with Ex Head of Development for Mercedes and VW on straight plant oil engines, we are actually surprised at how simple the conversion is and how pain free it is.

The other side effect is we are now able to buy fuel and have it shipped to anywhere in Australia for $0.95 per litre. This fuel is supplied at a guaranteed quality so its not like we have to
a) collect an oil ourselves
b) pay through the nose to potentially stale marina diesel

If anyone is interested in looking at this for there own boat we went through an Australian company Bioconversions to get this done.

bio-conversions-apac

If anybody is interested.
 
Veggie oil

Hi There, I run my fish truck on veg oil have done for about a year now . There's
Been no problems do go thru a few extra filers thou not a major. We got our conversion kit from Golden Systems USA . I also have the 24v and larger heat exchanger for the fishing boat but haven't got on to that yet. I filter my oil down to 2 micron but they say 10 is ok.
Rgds Mike
 
So I realise this is an old thread but its still quite valid.

We are in the process of converting our engine to run on 100% waste vege oil, I realise many people will scoff at this and thats ok, its not for everyone. However when we looked into this (and have done around a years research including conversations with Ex Head of Development for Mercedes and VW on straight plant oil engines, we are actually surprised at how simple the conversion is and how pain free it is.

The other side effect is we are now able to buy fuel and have it shipped to anywhere in Australia for $0.95 per litre. This fuel is supplied at a guaranteed quality so its not like we have to
a) collect an oil ourselves
b) pay through the nose to potentially stale marina diesel

If anyone is interested in looking at this for there own boat we went through an Australian company Bioconversions to get this done.

bio-conversions-apac

If anybody is interested.

I took a quick look at their website. I lost count of the spelling errors, they are everywhere. Its a very unprofessional effort with regard to the text although they do have lots of pretty pictures. Now, that may not reflect on the quality of their products but it makes me wary that its a backyard/fly-by-night outfit.
 
There is a note on the website it was created for free. I`d guess it is a struggling start up and hope the website doesn`t reflect the product.
Wonder if the OP has any connection to it, apart from a customer?
Are modifications required to use the fuel? Does it work well? At $1.42/L last time, I`d need to be sure of quality, if things go wrong it`s not like parking the car at the side of the road and calling road service.
 
I've got a few friends and relatives who run their cars on vegie oil. Its a fairly simple treatment process, especially in warmer climates. Below about 15C (60F) it usually needs to be diluted with diesel.

Another concern is the shelf life in a boat where a tank of fuel may go unused for months at a time. It depends on what oils are used (rapeseed oil extends the shelf life), but many suggest using it within 2 months, especially in warm weather.

I'd maybe consider it if I had a boat using plenty of diesel, but on a small little diesel it doesn't seem to be worth either the cost or the effort.
 
Yes that's right Auscan I'm located in southern NZ and I dilute in winter only about 20percent .Im only working a 1 solenoid system that means when I'm starting or shouting down the diesel tank is returning to the veggie tank not problems with this provide you remember to switch over once the engines up to operating temp.
 
Waste veggie oil? Will it make my boat smell like French fries?
 
Struggling Start Up

There is a note on the website it was created for free. I`d guess it is a struggling start up and hope the website doesn`t reflect the product.
Wonder if the OP has any connection to it, apart from a customer?
Are modifications required to use the fuel? Does it work well? At $1.42/L last time, I`d need to be sure of quality, if things go wrong it's not like parking the car at the side of the road and calling road service.

Hi Bruce

Its actually a friend of mine who has started this business, but is using my vessel as the test case. So while i'm sure the spelling mistake are there the guy doing this is a diesel genius.

To answer your questions

Yes simple mods are required, essentially the oil needs to be heated above 70 degress c before entering the injection pump and you need to be able to switch fuel while running (ie start up on diesel, run on veg, shut down on diesel). nothing overly hard about these mods but won't work without them very well.
Does it work, apparently in 2006 7% of germany's commercial diesel use was actually straight canola oil, (which is a hell of a lot of engines running of plant oil) so given those numbers I would say yes it does, plus there a thousands of youtube videos showing the conversions and talking about there experiences etc.
Price, yeah its a big difference in cost. we have 16,000L of capacity so for us saving 10c a litre is a big deal. Bio Conversions say they will supply oil at a guaranteed standard to anywhere in Australia for $0.95+gst so for us this is a major factor to converting, also when we head north we will be organising a container load of fuel when we reach Asia which we have had quoted at $0.40USD per litre at the wharf.
Quality If every you have a problem with the oil system you can simply switch back to diesel (just like a petrol/LPG car) so its not like choosing only one fuel type. Also because Australia only has low sulfur diesel the oil actually has higher lubricating properties than diesel so can actually extend life of the engine.

After doing the amount of research we have done we ended up choosing a bioltec kit over some of the others out there (Elsbett, Greascar, Plantdrive, ATG etc) as the bioltec has a long track record in the european commercial market and is the same kit used in this North Sea Trawler
In terms of colder climates, you can use this fuel down to around 0 celsius without to much drama, you just have to heat the oil to increase its viscosity, which is quite simple using oil/water heat exchangers. The conversion kit itself is a computer that monitors engine load, heat and fuel density and is programmed to only use waste oil when it is suitable (ie none on start up, idle, very low load and shut down) that said from what we have seen it's normal to achieve around 90% oil time and 10% diesel run time. I've attached the spec sheet of the kit we are using so you can read some of the details for yourself.

Because we knew we were going to convert to oil when we choose our engine we went for a mechanically injected motor so we could have greater tolerances with fuel (filtered to 1 micron is good enough, versus achieving a specific fuel standard for a common rail motor).

This type of conversion isn't for everyone and does require a leap of faith. But it's been our experience that its really not that big a leap and you don't need to rely on faith, as the Germans and Americans have been running this type of tech for years and have found all of the teething problems so they can be easily avoided.

Happy Boating
Damien
 
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