WHY WE HAVE BOATS

By Bert W. Quay, AMS #204 ©2001

If ever beauty and function entwined, the combination was expressed as a boat.

BOATS ARE FUN . . . AND I WANT ONE!

Somewhere in every skipper and mate is an adventurer, a voyager, an explorer, an escapee, a rebel, a bum, a romantic, or a dreamer who is fascinated by the sea, and wants to go boating.

Just wanting a boat is almost as good as actually having it, and just having it is almost as good as actually playing with it. Which is just fine, since nothing is so delicious as actually being boat-horny.

Boats are magic to people who love them. For many of us, there's no reason to wonder why we want to own a boat-- we got hooked at an early age by a story, some pictures, a good experience afloat. And that was enough to fascinate us forever with boats, the sea, and fishing, sailing, or cruising. But many more of us get introduced to the sport as adults, and dive in with the enthusiasm of the new believer who's trying to make up for lost time.

However and whenever we get hooked, even the most ordinary day on the water confirms that having a boat and going out to play with it makes us happier than most anything else. It's that simple.

You don't have to have any better reason for owning a boat than wanting it. And you don't have to understand yourself or explain to anyone else the why of wanting it! I don't want to analyze the magic out of boats and boating. Or to reduce the joy of wanting a boat to mere logic. But, for somebody contemplating a big purchase, it doesn't hurt to develop some consciousness about why you want to have a boat. The extra bit of awareness can sharpen your focus and guide your choice.

WHATCHA GONNA DO WITH IT?

In the obvious, concrete sense, people always buy their boat with a specific activity in mind - to go cruising, fishing, or sailing, in some particular area. "Who don't know dat!" But what we like or hope to do with the boat is not always a single, simple, or realistic thing.

What a man is going to do with the boat is the stuff of dreams -more so than realities. Investing our dreams into a boat is a dangerous endeavor. In our dreams, we want to have it all and to do it all. That raises our expectations and opens the door to increased disappointment when the dream boat is less than perfectly suited for the actualities of our life.

Real life is imperfect, so are we, and so is the boat. But the boat seldom fails our dreams. In truth, people are the ones who fail their own dreams. And the boat is the easiest scapegoat.

Based on usage patterns a year or so after purchase, what people say they're going to do with the boat when they're looking for it is very different from what they actually do with it after they buy it. It's not unusual that owners cruise their sportfish boats more than they fish them. It's not unusual that sailors motor their boats more than they sail them. It's not unusual that owners weekend their sport-style dayboats, and fish a little from them too. It's not unusual that skippers harbor-hop their long-range trawlers or motoryachts.

Single-purpose racing sailboats or sportfishing boats are the thorough-breds of our sport. They set the direction and style of the entire fleet by virtue of their no-compromise design and high-tech construction. Almost nobody does anything with them except for the one thing that they were developed to do. And like a sports car, those high-performance boats return the purest pleasure for our single-purpose time aboard.

But, the vast majority of skippers want a multi-purpose boat, something that's neither a sportscar nor a cargo van. Most of us hope to enjoy a variety of activities afloat, so we look for something like the "sports-utility vehicle" concept in a boat.

The instant we expect to have a mix of different fun on the boat, we are going to want a range of different features in the boat, which is the instant that we need some rationality in sorting out our realistic priorities and how we meet them.

BOAT'N TIME

Realists usually have a bad name among salesmen and dreamers. I'm not trying to burst any bubbles here just for fun. But I see a good number of people who are disappointed with their boat because they didn't make time to use it enough, the kids didn't like it, their friends didn't like it, they didn't like their kids or friends onboard, it's too far away from home.

Time has a sinister relationship to our enjoyment of the boat. When we dream of the boat, we also dream of having more time to use. And our enjoyment depends then on how realistic or disciplined we are about making enough time. Realize that a short time frame always means short trips, which ought to have an effect on the type or size boat you choose. Coming to the boat four or five times a year for a one-night visit is not going to make you happy with the boat. But that's your fault. So think carefully in advance about how many competing activities you and the family have for the weekends.

WHO IS THE BOAT REALLY FOR?

Many buyers have rationalized the purchase of a boat with the belief that it will offer the family and friends more quality time together. Even if that's real, it won't last very long. Truth is, kids grow up, wives develop other interests, and shore friends don't do well on boats. You can't force or trick them into wanting the boat nearly as much as you do. Get the news now --they'll have other plans when you can get free to go to the boat. Even naming the boat "Family Time" won't work for anybody but you.

Wanting a boat to entertain a variety of other people is a self-defeating motive. If you want a boat, get it for yourself and your wife, if she's really willing. But don't fool yourself about the overnight guests. Not many people like their city friends after a couple weekends together in the close quarters of a boat. And vice-versa. Instead of turning land-lubbers into miserable, one-time guests or ex-friends by inviting them down to the boat, experienced owners happily make a new set of "boating friends" at the marina or club.

Buying a boat that's arranged to sleep, feed, and entertain the now-vanished kids or rare adult guests doesn't make much practical sense. But that doesn't come to people until they realize that they're paying to propel that "empty nautical nest" along mile after mile with just the captain and mate aboard. "Needing room" for the kids and friends is the worst reason for choosing a boat big enough to sleeps 6 or 8. After all, haven't we gotten over the VW and phone booth stuffing stage of our lives?

GET REAL EARLY

I don't want to take the fun or light out of wanting a boat. But boats don't have to be relegated to the fantasy realm where nothing every actually happens. Boats are real, and your boat dreams can come true. So, the earlier you get real about them, the happier you'll ultimately be with your choice.

The more thinking you can do early in the game about what you realistically expect from the boat, the better your choice will be. You can even get a purchase consultant involved as a professional source of the experience that you don't yet have yourself.

Believe me, there's enough real joy in owning a good boat that you'll have little use for fantasies anymore.

THE FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH

Some folks see boats only as toys and boating only as a game. But our sport can go much deeper than that. To the extent that we make the boat merely an extension of our lives ashore lives, we have missed our opportunity for something much better. And owning a boat is a mistake for us, no matter which one we choose or how much we spend.

Let's recognize that "needing" has nothing to do with boats. We don't need a boat in the same way that we need the survival necessities of life. But what we almost desperately need in our high-speed lives is the rejuvenation that we accomplish with the boat. We need the recreation to balance our work and re-build our sanity. For the lucky few, boats are recreational vehicles of choice. And boating is the leisure activity of choice. Because they restore our energy and youth better than anything else in the world.

The deepest reason we go fishing, sailing, cruising, or riding around is that we need to do something to re-charge our batteries, because we need the fun and laughter, we need the change of pace and focus, we need something to be enthusiastic about, and because we need something that gives us a community of like-minded friends of our own choosing. In short, we have a boat because we need something to relieve the stress of our crazy, high-speed lives.

When the boat is "away," both geographically and emotionally, then it serves as a refuge from the pressures of work-life. In terms of the benefit we get from the boat, it matters very little that on any given weekend we didn't catch fish, that we didn't make it to the anchorage, that the wind didn't blow hard enough or from a favorable direction to sail, that we didn't see what we expected along our course, or even that we didn't go out at all. What matters is that we came to the boat and rejuvenated ourselves onboard.

People get so uptight in their normal lives, that I have to remind them on survey day that boating is better when it's mostly about playing - and playing with the toy they want most. Our rejuvenation is better when we treat our boats as toys, not tools or treasures. When we don't get so intense about perfecting either the game or the toy that we stress the fun out of our time afloat - just like we do our lives ashore.

So, for many of us, the boat is the closest we'll ever come to a fountain of youth. Being aboard makes us feel like a kid again. And nothing is so free and easy as being a child. That respite revitalizes us, makes us new and young and strong again for the weekday wars in the city.

SYMBOLS OF FREEDOM and ADVENTURE

A boat is more a symbol of our present lifestyle and future hopes than any other possession or ordinary play-thing. I don't mean as a success trophy being flaunted by a commercial personality to our material society. I don't mean as a symbol of conspicuously excessive consumption that speaks volumes about the shallowness of the owner's values.

Real enthusiasts love their boat, not only because it's a toy to play with, but more because it has meaning as a private symbol of the really important personal values of freedom and adventure. And they don't care much about what or how it "shows" to outsiders.

Many of us want to have a boat as an escape option. Since we're disciplined enough to know that we really aren't going to chuck the career and run off to meet Jimmy Buffett in the islands, merely owning a boat is often enough to satisfy the yearning for escape.

For some, just owning the boat is enough to satisfy us, even when we don't get down to it for long periods for a variety of flimsy excuses. Knowing that the boat is there (all wet and ready) if and when we need it can be almost enough to quiet the urge to escape the grind of city life. And we are somehow reassured by the boat as our pressure-relief valve, so we stay in our career harness, since we know we could cast off ... if we wanted to.

Often, we choose a particular type, size, and make of boat, not because we plan to venture off over the horizon this weekend, but simply because we love or even need what the boat could do it if and when we wanted it to. That helps explain why people buy blue-water designs and offshore quality boats to sail within sight of land. Or why people buy long-range cruising self-sufficiency, when they only go out on weekends. Why they buy tournament sportfish boats when they can't afford the entry fee. And why they buy a racy sport-boat when they are sleek and sexy only to themselves.

So, much of our motivation to own a boat revolves around what we could do with it, rather than what we actually will do with it. And the fact that we realize this doesn't taint our motives.

MESSING AROUND ON THE WEEKEND

The old term "Weekender" hasn't been popular with the marketing droids for the past couple of decades because it doesn't connote anything quite grand enough to be sold as a "yacht." But weekender is exactly what most boats are.

Lots of owners have the boat primarily as a weekend getaway at the water. The opportunity to personalize the boat with a re-decoration project is often enough to win the wives over to the float-o-minium idea. Many owners find a community of friends in the marina that is almost worth the price of admission.

Then, there's the Water Rat syndrome from Wind in the Willows, where "nothing is better than simply messing about in boats." The guys are usually the ones who work out their need to putz and piddle at the boat. An acquaintance once told me:

"The best part of piddling on the boat is that I have no deadline and I don't have to produce any results for anybody. Yesterday afternoon, it took a six-pack, three trips to the marine store, and a football nap to work out where and how I was going to mount a teak magazine rack --you know, the rack I hadn't even bought yet. The best part was that I decided this morning that I didn't actually need the thing anyway. I had all the fun of figuring it out, but saved myself a lot of headaches by not installing it."

For some folks, the washing, waxing, shining, drying, varnishing, etc are forms of "polishing the machine" that is an important and fun part of messing about on the boat.

A lot of guys are just gadget freaks. They love looking in the magazines for all the latest stuff and getting worked up over splitting technical hairs about what is best. They get off on being up on the latest developments in electronics and equipment. Since developments come at a rapid pace, keeping up is a constant challenge that takes a lot of time during the week. Which is a great way of magnifying your contact with the boat.

And some boaters are cruise planners. They go for every guide to every exotic place they've heard about, and every gunkhole on the way to paradise. Of course, they've got to know about or have the gear to make the trip. At least that's the justification for buying the wife a windvane, windlass, or fighting chair for her Christmas present.

For women, the boat is often the opportunity to see and enjoy their husband in a setting where the phone doesn't ring, where he can't go to work, and where the kids demands are held off until Sunday night.

While the old man is getting dirty on his knees in his engine room or out washing and wiping the salt off the enclosure, the wife can work side-by-side with him on that, or she can nest away with re-decorating and personalizing the moveable vacation nest.

Having the boat makes us part of a unique community. A lot of skippers don't anticipate the camaraderie of shared interest until they become owners. Except for the occasional jerk who is trying to inflate his ego balloon with snobbery about the pseudo-superiority of his boat or his yacht club, the boating community is very democratic. The only criteria for admission is owning a boat or hoping to own one. Along the docks, very few people care a thing about where anybody lives or what they do for a living during the week. After several days in the status jungle, that's pretty refreshing.

All these intangible reasons for owning a boat have little to do with its utilitarian purposes as a play toy, with how we're going to use it, and with what configuration of features it has to have for it to do what we want. But we should never be fooled into thinking that they are any less powerful or less worthy motives for our ownership. After all, there are many ways to have fun with the boat.

A BALANCE OF BEAUTY AND PERFORMANCE

There is more to a boat than just its beauty, and more to the boat than just its utility. And the two are alloyed together like copper and zinc into bronze so that they can't really be separated.

Many people are attached to a particular boat because of its looks. Looks are primarily the result of the designer's lines that define the curves of the hull and the shape of the deckhouse, and establish a clear style that speaks of its purpose. The fairness and gloss finish, the colors and accent striping, the trim wood and deep varnish, the metal fittings and canvas covers . . . combine to complete the statement of style. And the difference between a boat that's just right and one that's just an imitation is hard to pinpoint, but easy for the experienced and appreciative eye to judge.

There is artistry beyond mere engineering in every successful design. Some of the art is simple and purposeful, some of it is exquisitely understated and conservatively tasteful, some of it is ostentatious and overdone, some of it is cheap and tacky, some of it is exciting and alive, and some of it is ordinary and boring. But all of it, in the eyes of different beholders, is beauty of the highest magic.

On the other hand, the boat ought to be more than just something pretty to look at, although you might doubt that from listening to some folks talk about how they want the boat to "look." Certainly, pretty is as pretty does. And a boat that looks fast or expensive at the dock can be a severe performance disappointment once you take it beyond the jetty. You can be sure that the joy of ownership can wear mighty thin when the boat exhibits serious performance flaws.

While there's no excuse for an ugly boat, there's also no excuse for an ill-mannered or under-performing one either. Fortunately, there are enough choices that you can select a good sea boat that looks good in the slip too.

My experience is that few owners have much patience, pride, or loyalty about a yacht that just looks good, but isn't much of a seaboat underway. Most of us would rather have a boat that delivers on the fun than one that just sits there looking salty or yachty and demanding attention.

TAKE IT OUT AND PLAY WITH IT!

Having said all that about the intangible reasons for owning a boat, we have to come back to the simply fact that boats are for play, not just for owning. Ultimately, the onboard activities are the best and most lasting justifications for having it. The boat can be the instrument of your fun, not the "be all and end all" in itself. It can be the magic carpet that takes you away in reality, so that your time aboard is enchanted beyond the imaginings of ordinary men.

If a sailboat in the slip is fun to contemplate, it is a live partner on the beat to windward and the off-wind romp. If a fishing boat is fun to admire in the slip, then running to the stream or canyon and getting hooked up is the real fun. If the trawler or motoryacht is a ready companion in the slip, it is a confident and steady performer underway. And if a sport boat or express cruiser looks racy at the dock, then it is ecstasy skimming the afternoon swells toward the evening's anchorage or harbor.

Given the choice, you should take the live action that the boat offers you. But, I know. I don't have to tell you how you should want to have fun!

THE HIGHEST AND BEST REASON

When owners try to imitate home surroundings on the boat, they miss the entire point of having it. We spend most of our time ashore being comforted by man-made convenience equipment in our homes, in our offices, and in our cars. Most of those "amenities" that have come to be considered "necessities" only serve to insulate and isolate us from the outside, natural world.

To replicate that insulation aboard the boat deprives us of the opportunity to be back in close contact with the water and the weather. Playing at being a weekend "rusticator" gives us the change of pace and circumstances that we need to fully appreciate the luxury of our ordinary lives ashore.

One definition of a "yacht" is a floating equipment package that separates us from nature. While a "boat" carries us into nature without that man-made cocoon. A simple boat therefore is a far better vehicle than a luxury yacht, because it does much better things for our lives.

The boat may be our only opportunity to approach Thoreau's exploration at Walden Pond into the "essentials of life." However incompletely we embrace that philosophy when the summer humidity hits 98% and the bugs are trying to make a meal of us, we ought to use the boat to participate in some more robust outdoor activities, in some significantly less refined circumstances, than we are accustomed to in the city.

The boat should salt us with spray as it takes us away from too much civilization. It should kiss us with the seabreeze as it takes us where sand sticks to our feet and the smell of low tide sticks in our nose. It should take us far from the maddened crowds, to where there are no roads, and to where the solitude of secret places dials the clock back three or four centuries to the way the world was when there were more birds than people.

The boat should take us off to where we have close contact with nature, not in to where we have contact with more people. Because boating, in its highest form, is a nature sport. And if we don't take the opportunity to embrace the wild parts every time we can, we miss more than the point of it all.

In one sense, most any boat will do most all of the important things for most of us. But in a different sense, what the boat can do for us is so important to the quality of our lives, that not even the best of boats can ever be quite good enough.