Boating for life
If 50 is the new 40, and 60 is the new 50, and 70 is the new 60, we’re all getting younger as we get older. I remember way back when my aunt turned 50 and announced she was going off to Zimbabwe for three years on Volunteer Service Abroad. I couldn’t believe someone who was so old would do such a crazy thing. I was 25 and expected to stay that way forever.
Now, 50 is behind me, only by a year or two, and I know the best is yet to come. So I loved it when I asked Alan and Gloria Day about the name of their Elite mid-pilothouse 18m, Antiquity. For them it means: the glory of being old. Excellent.
The baby boomers are moving up through our economy: a bulge of people in our population who have saved a few bob and have time and energy to spend it in ways that fulfil them. For some, that means building their dream boat to see them through the rest of their boating days. Thanks to improvements in modern equipment, such as push-button just-about-everything, those boating days are likely to number a lot more than they may have a decade or so ago.
Owning a boat on my own was one of the best things I ever did. I bought her in working order but she was tired. The original interior fitout had been a DIY effort rather than a professional installation and that made a big difference – because no matter what I did, it was always going to look homemade. Corners didn’t meet; 5mm gaps collected dust. The electrics had been added piecemeal – eventually I just pulled out miles of spaghetti wiring, much of it no longer connected, and started again. That was after I woke to see a flame flickering in the foc’s’le.
The best bit about owning my own boat was learning – about fibreglass, socket sets, plumbing, kerosene stoves. I even learned my way around the Yanmar engine. After crewing on a yacht delivery from Florida, USA to New Zealand I got motivated and spent heaps of money and time on the boat. For a while she looked fantastic. Then other things intervened – I crewed on friends’ boats, got overwhelmed by the big wide world; the boat got neglected. I sold her, overall in better condition than when I had bought her but the engine was kaput: a direct result of poor maintenance.
Overall, it was a good experience. So whether you are a 30-something, 40-something or 50-something, if you’ve never owned a boat, consider changing that status – this month’s Auckland On Water Boat Show will be a good place to start.
Happy boating,