EDITOR’S LETTER
After a few years without a boat to call his own, our editor-in-chief ponders the possibility of getting back into the ownership arena.
Threey ears ago, my older brother andi sold the last boat we shared. The two of us have long owned boats together. During the past 19 years, we’ve owned three of them. Our similar taste in boats has always amazed me because we are such dramatically different people: He’s the older brother who is always cool and reserved. I am Type A all day long. Boats are the place where we find common ground and agree more often than not. ¶ That said, after three years sans vessel, I find myself getting the itch badly. Granted, my job keeps me on the water often, and I crew for a friend frequently. I’m very fortunate. But if I could be on the water every day, I would still be missing the moments when I wasn’t there. Maybe it’s due to living life on an island (New York’s Long Island, to be specific). Maybe it’s genetics. Whatever the cause, the obsession is fine by me. ¶ Even with fantastic access to boats of all shapes and sizes, on stunning waterways from local back bays to the Mediterranean and beyond, I miss that something that comes with going out on your boat. On your own time. It doesn’t matter if I’m heading down after a workday to decompress, taking a sunrise
I'm very fortunate. But if I could on the water everyday, I would still missing the moments when I wasn’t there.
cruise and doing some drifting and dreaming, or heading out for a little fishing with the family. It all works. ¶ One of my favorite pastimes is washing the boat from top to bottom, bow to stern. (Can’t say I have the same enthusiasm for breaking out a vacuum at home.) Every moment on board is simple joy. Yes, there are headaches, but as owners, we know it’s all part of the boating experience. Our blood pressure goes up on occasion when that rocker switch gets flipped and nothing happens, or when there is an intermittent issue that has no obvious cause. But what else would we do? Stay ashore? ¶ Sure, I tried golf. It wasn’t pretty. Not for me or for the golf balls...or for the grass...or for anyone watching. When you have to purchase square feet of sod to replace the crater-size divot you just created, it’s not your sport. ¶ But boats? They make sense to me. As I write these words, my inbox is chock-full of new launches—from RIBs to express cruisers and from sport-fishers to superyachts. With each new set of images and information, I find more possibilities than could be owned in several boating lifetimes. ¶ I’m not sure when my brother and I will get another boat. Hopefully soon. But I’m thinking hard about it. When this fall boat-show season is over, I need to give him a call.