PLEASURE and PAIN

What's not to love about this beautiful BOAT interior. The bright shiny varnished mahogany, the gleaming stainless steel, and the lovely Nantucket blue cushions and pillows. Enticing isn't it? Makes a fellow want to own another boat and go sailing out to sea.

Boats have motors, and motors don't always work. If you car motor does not start, you can call AAA or your dealer and they haul it away for repair, and it has a 4 year, 50,000 mile warranty. If your boat motor does not start after you spent the day anchored off some sand bar, you may have to spend the night there. Hope that it has air conditioning of at least screened windows and doors.

This interior does not look pristine as in this photo all by itself. In fact, the minute you have it looking like this it starts to deteriorate faster than an aging movie star. Somehow, even though the boat is held away from the dock with bumpers and ropes, rodents still find it and can't resist coming aboard to set up a nest. Same for wasps that always seem to glue theirs right under your seat where you put your hand. Then there are the natural ravages of salt air, weather, and barnacles.

So now we have these two opposing feelings... the exhilaration of sailing over the bounding sea in your own domain, literally the captain of your own ship, and free to go wherever it is deep enough and there are no signs saying marine life has more rights than you do and DO NOT DISTURB. The feel of the brightwork, the sound of a throbbing diesel engine and the wake you leave. All very visceral and pleasing to our reptilian brain. Then it becomes all about harmony and balance. Just like owning anything large, a house, a business, an airplane, you know what the pleasure is and you think you know what the pain will be, and now, which dominates? Some of us are so in love with things nautical that boat ownership trumps all the annoyances and expenses. Same as home ownership. And like real estate, there is the matter of size...or as some might put it "Size Matters." How much boat, house, car, stuff do you need? Is a 28 foot cabin cruiser the right choice? Do you need a 70 foot ocean going yacht? Or would your balance be best in the nautical equivalent of a Jeep... the 13 foot Boston Whaler with a 35 hp outboard?

I made this decision more than once. In most cases I was blinded by the prospective pleasure and was turned off by the real pain sooner or later. The old saw "The two happiest days in a boat owner's life... the day you buy it, and the day you sell it." For this sailor, I hope to spend the rest of my seafaring days on OPB, other people's boats. As for the rest of life's things, less is often better. "Get thee behind me, Satan," as I think about owning a cottage.