My boat isn’t so good.  Waterlogged, I think.  It’s an old whaler-style, heavily laid up and it has been used a long time,  It is pretty old.  Fibreglass boats don’t die so much as they just get heavier and heavier as they absorb more and more.  I can relate.

The old ‘Surf’ is 16 feet long and a helluva design.  It is similar to a Boston Whaler.  I can stand on a corner and it remains stable and relatively level.  That is a good feature for old, heavy guys whose balance is not what it used to be.  I love the design concept but I sometimes wish it was a bit bigger.  I have lots of stuff to ferry about.

Plus I am not getting any lighter myself.  Something has to give.

Slow, steady and stable

And this one needs power!  A 16 footer shouldn’t need 70 horsepower.  And worse, I only have 50!  So, it is a good boat but not economically or functionally ‘sustainable’ in the long run.

It works, though.  That’s good.  I am not going to sink.  And that is even better.  But I may have to do something about this situation and, if I do, it may involve boat building.  Gadzooks!

There are few undertakings by individuals more destructive to their health, their finances and their relationships than that of boat-building.  On a percentage wise basis, you are statistically more likely to become a healthy, active, accomplished and revered member of society from the experience of being an ex-heroin addict than from being an ex-boat-builder.  In fact, very few boat-builders actually ever finish their boat and thus do not even get to the ‘ex’ stage.

Boat-building: the unwritten tragedy.

Shakespeare might be more respected as a writer if he had addressed the tragedy of boat-building but I am glad that he left me the opportunity.  Sadly, though, one really must live the experience before writing about it and I don’t think I have the cojones.  “To build or not to build……..?”  

“Alas, poor (fill in the boat-builder’s name), I knew him well!”

It probably won’t come to that.  I hope not.  Boats are pretty cheap these days.  No one can really afford to run them anymore just for fun and many can’t afford to ‘moor’ them if they aren’t going to be used.  There is a glut of boats on the market and, in the states, some old boats are just being abandoned.

You’d think I could find something wouldn’t you?  But so far, no luck.

Partly, it is me.  I want a boat about 20 feet long – give or take two feet (but, like most boat owners, it is easy for me to fall in love with just about anything that appeals).  I want it to go fast (planing hull) and use very little fuel (displacement hull).  I want it stable (square-ish) and sleek (pencil-like).  I want open decks and no cabin but I want to stay dry when it is raining.  I would like to use the existing motor I have (Honda 50 – but that is like trying to find a wife whose finger fits the engagement ring you’ve already bought.  Wrong order of things.)

It is because of all that I am considering building what I want but, to be fair, building the impossible is just as hard as buying the impossible.  Boats just don’t do all things well.  Boats are compromises.

Still, there are a few designs that compromise well.  Power catamarans do a lot of what I want.  Lighter-weight whaler designs do that, too.  Generally, speaking I can get a bit of what I want but I can’t get all of what I want.

I want, I want and I want.  But I am not prepared to pay, work or even search too hard.  I just want.  It is not the recipe for success we have come to rely on but it is the one I am employing right now.  It could happen…

Dreaming.  It is the way of boats.

It is the way of all things.