THE BOATAHOLIC

Nick Burnham: “Total engine hours at the end of the season were a disappointing 45. But it’s not due to waning enthusiasm”

Aclose family member, who shall remain nameless (hello Dad!), amuses my mother and I with his assertions that many of the boats in the same marina as his never get used, simply because he never sees them being used (ignoring the possibility that owners may be using them at different times to him). Some might have assumed the same about Smuggler’s Blues this year. Total engine hours at the end of the season were a disappointing 45, less than half that of last year. But it’s not due to waning enthusiasm.

The big news of 2019 was the unexpected and massive surge in popularity of my Youtube channel, AQUAHOLIC (youtube.com/aquaholic). I’d previously uploaded occasional boating videos, including some I filmed years ago of the Miami Vice Scarab in America. Inexplicably, one of the Vice videos went viral in 2018, and by the end of the year viewing numbers had hit the level required to monetise the channel (whereby Youtube places short adverts ahead of videos in return for revenue). Frankly I expected to earn pennies at most, but I had a theory that Youtube would prioritise monetised videos. I was wrong on both counts. Viewing numbers remained steady, but on Friday 21st December, the channel earned £3 and the following day £5, and I realised that I might be onto something.

I’d put a few yacht tours up (where I wander round a boat with a camera talking about it) and they seemed popular so I filmed a few more and the numbers started to swell. By the middle of the year I had acquired 50,000 subscribers, viewing numbers passed two million a month and I was flying to exotic locations to film beautiful superyachts for the channel. We even got invited on board a charter yacht for two days, just to make an AQUAHOLIC video of charter life! Tough gig.

It became a full-time job, which was fantastic but for the small matter that I already had one. Cue a lot of midnight oil burning and a lot of weekends spent editing videos and catching up with the day job while Smuggler’s lay dormant. At least by that point Youtube was paying way more than my annual boating costs.

But I like to think that we achieved quality, if not quantity.

I’d met Marianne late in 2018 (it was a big year!), who fortunately loves boating. Our first weekend aboard was in May. We picked up a buoy off Dittisham on the River Dart, a stunning location for an afternoon in the sun, a meal at a local pub and an evening watching the sunset on the river. Magical.

The South West Sports Boat Rally was another highlight.

Held each year in Brixham and a firm fixture on the Smuggler’s calendar, it’s a bank holiday weekend of fun with friends charging about in boats doing treasure hunts, anchoring together in bays and partying in the evenings. We took Marianne’s son off for a night in Brixham and her daughter (who’d been away that weekend) out for an evening run and fish ’n chips at anchor in a cove. They came on the charter trip too, along with my son.

So despite the reduced use, 2019 has actually been a great boating year. Next year I just need to organise more Smuggler’s time.