Carla Frisbie of Westerly relaxes while her husband, Rick Frisbie, not pictured, looks over a boat at the Rhode Island Convention Center.

The Providence Journal / Glenn Osmundson

PROVIDENCE — Octavio Silva works in the men’s clothing industry and bought his first boat last month at the age of 57 — a 23-foot Grady White outboard for $9,000. As most boat owners know, the joy was not without some pain.

“I had to trailer it home [to New Bedford] from Portland, Maine,” he said. “Took me all friggin’ day.”

At $3 a gallon for gasoline, he figures it will cost him $600 to fill his boat’s two 100-gallon gas tanks.

His facial muscles seem to spasm as he says this.

How many miles to the gallon will his new boat get? “I don’t know.”

He attempts a smile.

The annual docking fee? “You’re looking at about $2,500.”

No, he’s looking at the $2,500 dock fee, which is why he hasn’t decided yet where he’s going to put his new boat come spring.

So, now that his boating dreams are utterly fulfilled, what was Silva doing at the Rhode Island Convention Center yesterday, roaming the exhibition halls of the Providence Boat Show?

“Window shopping,” said the afflicted man. “Looking for a bargain.”

He had plenty of company.

The economy may be headed for the drink while gasoline prices continue to climb but there were plenty of people floating on fantasy.

Perhaps not as many, however, as in previous years, said Shawn Rogan, who sells boat financing and insurance for Sterling Associates, a regular exhibitor at the show.

Overall boat sales are down, said Rogan. And although fewer people appeared to be attending this year’s show, “I heard some of the salesmen saying those here are quality people who were going to buy” as opposed to just look.

In good years and in bad, “the average guy keeps his boat two or three years,” said Rogan. “Then he moves up. He wants a bigger boat. It’s that fiberglass addiction. The guy next to him gets a bigger boat and suddenly he needs a bigger boat, too.”

Machismo: a staple of powerboat sales.

Dave and Connie Gray, of Coventry, were in the early stages of the boating disease.

In September their only child, Nicole, graduated from college and Dave’s perennial dream of cruising around Narragansett Bay took a major step toward reality.

Noontime yesterday found them huddled around a corner from a 24-foot SeaRay that Dave took a liking to, quietly negotiating their next step.

“He’s been wanting one forever,” said Connie, the comptroller at Graycer Screw Products, in Bellingham, Mass. Dave is the company’s vice president.

“The daughter’s done with college so we figured it was our time now,” said Dave.

Basset Boat Co. of Warwick was selling the SeaRay for $62,000. Connie confessed she liked the larger Wellcraft with twin 250-horsepower Evinrudes, selling for $109,000.

“I’m afraid that’s too much boat for us,” said Dave. Neither has owned a boat before.

The Grays eventually migrated back to the SeaRay, where the Basset salesman invited them to visit the company’s Warwick showroom later this week to talk more about a deal.

“The way the economy is going, I’m sure they will give you whatever they can to get you into one,” said Dave. In that respect “it’s a good time to buy.”

Dave Gray said he wasn’t worried about gasoline prices.

“I got enough friends who would love to go out [boating]. They’ll chip in.”

tmooney@projo.com