Boating & Sailing
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02 4354-2 CH01 2/21/02 12:46 PM Page 3 Chapter1 Welcome to the Wet and Wonderful World of Boating! In This Chapter N What kind of boat is right for you? N Learning the vocabulary of boating N I’m not your type—classes of boats N If you have to ask how much it costs … you’re smart! N Buying your first boat: New or used? You’ve looked at the boating magazines and mooned around the boat shows long enough. Now it’s time for you to be the guy or gal next to that smiling, Florida-tanned model with the mirrored sunglasses and the wind-rippled hair, cruising across that emerald sea toward adventure, romance, and a monthly payment book. Or maybe your vision is a bit more domestic: the spouse, the kids, the Boston terrier, a jug of Gatorade, and a picnic basket full of pastrami on rye, off for a 02 4354-2 CH01 2/21/02 12:46 PM Page 4 4 Part 1: Getting Started in Boating visit to a sandy beach. Sailing, water-skiing, snorkeling, a visit to the next port down the river, or maybe a cruise to that island over the horizon—you are the skipper; you decide. You’re in command in a world where there are no yellow lines and no traffic jams, where fish and birds and wonderful marine mammals such as porpoise and manatees are fre- quently part of the scenery, and where you can find true solitude when you want it. No wonder people love boats and boating. There’s an aura of mystery to handling a boat, cultivated in part by the arcane language of the old salts of the sea. But getting started is a lot easier than you might imagine, and learning the basics for competent, safe operation takes a minimal investment of time and energy. What type of boat is really best for you and your family? Read on. Start at the Bottom Line Whatever your boating dream, realizing it starts with facing the realities of affordability, space, affordability, seaworthiness, affordability, comfort, affordability, and affordability. It’s the money, friends. Everybody knows that. With boating, as with everything else in life, you will soon find that you always want just a bit more than you can actually afford. And unfortunately, as yachtsman J. P. Morgan once said, if you have to ask how much it costs … you can’t afford it. (He should have said, if you have to ask how much it costs, you’re a wise buyer.) It is possible to go boating at some level on just about any budget that features discre- tionary income. I currently own a 14-foot Sears aluminum jon boat with a 4-horsepower outboard, which I can afford, and a $25,000 Hydra-Sports fiberglass tunnel-hull with a 200-horsepower outboard, which I can’t. (If a man’s reach does not exceed his grasp, what are second mortgages for?) Because boats last a long time and don’t go out of style Boat Bytes rapidly, you can get long-term financing, up to 15 years, If you can manage just on most models. This makes the payments easy for any- $100 per month, you can one steadily employed to handle. You can get a rough go boating in style. In fact, estimate of 5-year payments at 8–10 percent by multi- if you enjoy “people- plying the number of thousands by $20—that is, a powered” boats such as $5,000 boat will have payments around $100, a $10,000 canoes, you can be a boat boat will run around $200, and a $20,000 boat will cost owner for under $50 per month! around $400 per month. Check out the following table for examples. 02 4354-2 CH01 2/21/02 12:46 PM Page 5 Chapter 1: Welcome to the Wet and Wonderful World of Boating! 5 What Kind of Boat Will Your Money Buy? Payments on a $1,000 Canoe at 10 Percent Interest Term Monthly Payment Interest Over Full Term 60 months $21.25 $275.00 120 months $13.22 $586.40 180 months $10.75 $935.00 Payments on a $5,000 Bass Boat at 10 Percent Interest Term Monthly Payment Interest Over Full Term 60 months $106.24 $1,374.40 120 months $66.08 $2,929.60 180 months $53.73 $4,671.40 As you can see, longer payments mean lower payments. But they also add up to lots more interest—an amount almost equal to the principal in the case of the 15-year term. Cash is usually the best buy on any depreciable asset, but if you can’t manage, the long- term payments make it possible to enjoy the boat of your choice within your budget. Bet You Didn’t Know I own two boats because, for me, one is never enough, and sometimes two are not enough. I have owned as many as seven boats at one time, until the zoning people came knocking. The problem, as you soon discover when you get into boating up to your chin, is that the boat that’s just right for a solitary paddle into a yard-wide tidal creek where the scarlet ibises nest is a bit overwhelmed when you try to cross a 25-mile-wide bay with four or five aboard. That’s why many long-time boaters wind up with a backyard that looks like a boat basin. However, there are lots of single boats (and maybe even a few married ones) that will meet the needs of most beginning boaters. The problem is, out of all the thousands of designs and sizes, which one will be the best fit for you and your crew? Maintenance Costs If you opt for a 15-foot fiberglass canoe, maintenance costs won’t ever be a concern. But the larger and more complex the boat you buy, the more you have to anticipate an annual 02 4354-2 CH01 2/21/02 12:46 PM Page 6 6 Part 1: Getting Started in Boating cost to keep your rig happy. If you’ll be storing it in a slip or at a high-and-dry marina (where the boats are lifted out and stored on racks, usually inside a large building), those monthly fees have to be included. If you’re a powerboater or a sailboater with auxiliary power, you’ll need to budget for regular oil changes (with four-stroke and diesel) and tune-ups. Boats that are stored in saltwater need anti-fouling paint every year or two, and sailboat rigging and sails have to be maintained or replaced as they wear. For a fairly new power- boat 20 feet long, stored on a trailer at your home, these costs can be as little as $15 per foot, per year—i.e., around $300. For larger and/or older boats stored at a marina, they can run to $200 per foot per year and more. If the Sloop Fits, Buy It Boat Bytes The trick to buying a boat that’s right for you is to get a Englishman Izaak Walton rig that has enough space for everybody you’d normally wrote The Complete bring aboard, and one that fits the “mission” you and Angler, the first widely read your crew envision. book on recreational fish- ing, in 1653. It’s a cele- If you want silence and communion with nature, you’re bration of angling, conservation, probably going to be sailors, or perhaps paddlers of and the pastoral lifestyle, and your own canoes. If you want the thrill of mile-a- has made Walton the patron minute speeds, big-engined muscle boats may be for saint of anglers everywhere. you. If you have budding Izaak Waltons in the family, a fishing boat will do the trick, while if you like boats so well you want to live aboard, a trawler or houseboat may be in your future. What to Call the Pointy End (and the Rest of a Boat) Before delving into what type of boat you want, you need to learn a bit of “boater-ese”— the language of boaters. (Cursing doesn’t count.) You’ll see some of the basic definitions in the following figure. You’ll find more definitions scattered throughout the coming chapters as “Boater-ese” margin notes. Once you learn the lingo, you’ll sound like an old salt when you talk about boats! The following two figures show you the various parts of the boat. (Sailboats have their own terminology, which we’ll discuss in Part 7, “Sailing, Sailing ….” And you’ll find many added terms in Appendix A, “Glossary.”) 02 4354-2 CH01 2/21/02 12:46 PM Page 7 Chapter 1: Welcome to the Wet and Wonderful World of Boating! 7 Forward Amidships Aft The vocabulary of boaters Bow can be as confusing as Beam Inwale Gunnel Russian at first, but it Transom becomes more familiar Freeboard (stern) after some time aboard. Waterline Waterline Keel Draft Chines Length Overall (LOA) Here are the basic terms to describe the various parts of most boats—use them as often as you can, and soon they’ll be second nature: N Aft. Toward the back part of the boat. N Amidships. The middle part of the boat, between aft and forward. N Beam. The width of a boat, usually measured at its widest point. N Bow. Pronounced like “ow,” this is the pointy front end of a boat.