Mini-Rant
Library of
Charles Neville associates....
Min-Rant
078
PassageMaker
- March 2010
A
spacious home afloat, or a simple waterborne bungalow.
Cruising boats come in all sizes and types like any second home. And, yes, like fixed planet counterparts they can be expensive. Luckily, what boats bring in pleasure is not directly related to what they cost. Many owners I know get enormous fun from boats that cost far less than a modest mountain cottage or seashore getaway. Still boating is repeatedly portrayed as a rich man's sport. Perhaps because the flashiest yachts are the ones most often remembered, the ones that become pinups for media and magazines.
It can be disheartening for would be boaters as they try to resolve the difference between what they think they want, and what they know they can afford. Sound familiar? It's a common recipe no matter how much money you have. Honestly the solution to avoiding this frustration is as simple as starting out with a clear understanding of what you want to invest and then accepting the obvious evidence of just how much boat those dollars are likely to buy. That is what we do for other big purchases. For boats, however, we go to shows and fall in love with the very best, trying to find some common ground between that perfection and what we actually can afford. The goal: searching for that one in a thousand buy, getting ever more disillusioned as we go. It's like setting out to buy a new car focused only on finding that one cherry '64 Mustang somehow forgotten somewhere for decades and now out there available for a song. Yes lightning can strike but predicting where is another matter.
Remember: it doesn't take a million-dollar boat to provide hundreds of hours of enjoyment for you and your family. Get your expectations are under control, if you can't afford the boat you want... buy the boat you can afford. All boats are fun.
