My dad used to own a sailboat, which was a high point for someone squarely middle class. We're talking a 44 ft sailboat.
These things are holes in the water who the fuck wants a boat
this post was submitted on 03 Mar 2025
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How do you make a small fortune?
Start with a large fortune and buy a boat.
I used to work at a fish market, and one of the fishermen we dealt with once won a large sum of money from a big fishing tournament. When they asked him what he was gonna do with the money, his response was, "Keep fishing until it's all gone."
Bust
Out
Another
Thousand
As the saying goes:
The two best days of a boat owner's life are the day they buy the boat, and the day they sell the boat
the upkeep alone - painting scraping replacing the anode every fuckin year.... it's a fuckton of work for a 'fun hobby'
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At the height of being poor in like '83 or so (mortgage rates to 17%; just ponder that) we panick-moved to a smaller town with a union job but found a fixer house with an attached shop.
Dad, ever the salesman and skilled labourer, would do work for people in exchange for wood-working tools: Old window Jenkins would part with Lester's Table Saw if Dad re-tiled the shower.
So we got tools. And he traded for plywood and plans. And suddenly we had a dory he could fit on top of this '75 econoline150 van. And fishing was great. But it was a lot of rowing this pig of a boat.
So he modded it with a dagger-board and a mast port. Took him 5 min to rig it and he was set for fishing.
Those summers camping because we couldn't afford to do anything else but at least gas was cheap, they were awesome.
I think these people just have shiny boats, which are too expensive. If you want to find them, they're finishing the Penske file so they can still afford exorbitant Slip fees and dream of Taking the Boat Out with the estranged family members who will then love Dad again and make up for all this toil. Dude needs a cheap ugly van and a wallowing pig of a dory to 'sail' around a lake in the woods; aim smaller and actually go make memories.
At the height of being poor in like '83 or so (mortgage rates to 17%; just ponder that)
FWIW A mortgage payment at 17% interest on the $20,000 my parents paid for my childhood three bedder in 1980 was cheaper than a single mortgage payment i make today.
Meh, a boat is a hole in the water to dump money into, a car is a hole in the road, and a house is a hole in the ground. At least the boat combines the advantages of the other two.
I used to dream of living on a sailboat. Then a friend of mine who owned one took me out for a ride and I was so seasick I had to jump into the water and be towed back to the dock. So much for that shit.
Bring Out Another Thousand
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I have a friend who grew up on the coast and her family always sailed for fun.
When she got divorced she bought a sailboat and traveled for a bit in it. She then parked it at a marina and lived in it for so many years close to her kids and grandkids. She paid $100K for boat and her marina fees were $300/month. The boat was paid off with the divorce settlement.
The cheapest 1 bedroom apartment to rent nearby was $3500/month for less square footage than her boat. The cheapest small house was around $1,000,000 or around $6000/ month at the time. The homes around the marina were all priced at several million dollars.
We met someone like that and they were considered homeless by the city, lol. I think they were annoyed at that.
Seattle is full of people that live on boat as an affordable alternative. You can't be squeamish about insects or get seasick easily because of the storms. I couldn't do it myself, but I've known quite a few that have.
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me writing “the ocean :)” as my permanent address on government documents
This is the right answer. It’s an RV on water but it doesn’t disintegrate (working as intended, that) like an RV or fifth wheel.
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The ideas that normies don't sail isn't true. I'm a normie and not rich and I started a sailing school because it's fun as hell. You don't need ^to ^own a boat to go sailing, you only need to know how.
Homie how tf are you sailing with no boat?
That’s the power of your imagination!
This simple trick, 🏴☠️
You wouldn't download a boat
You wouldn’t download a boat
Not a sailboat, but still a downloaded boat. https://www.drdflo.com/pages/Projects/Printcess.html
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A friend with a boat is what you want. Same with a pool.
The best boat there is is one you don't own!
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Can confirm, especially the smaller sailboats like lasers and such. You can get going insanely fast on a windy day on the lake :)
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Sailboats aren’t prohibitively expensive for a normie, especially if you buy a used one. If you look at the large empty houses near every harbor though, you’ll see a better sign of the wealth disparity. The rich own multiple houses worth millions each and they seem to be rarely used while many people can’t afford a starter home now.
Buying a boat is cheap, owning one not so much. Between marina fees and maintenance it adds up really fast.
As my dad would say, "A boat is a hole in the water you throw money into." Boats are cool and fun if you like to sail, but between maintenance costs, mooring fees, the cost to take it out of the water and store it at a boat yard once the season is over, scrape the barnacles off, repaint it, etc. it's not a cheap endeavor.
That's why the only reasonable way to own a boat you can't trailer is to live on it full-time.
This boat made me fixated on the idea of buying a boat and living in it.
While the buying part is plausible.
The living is a lot fucking harder.
Fish smell
You have to really like being on the water. It's just as hard as living in an RV off grid.
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Floating homes for alcoholics? Pretty much anyone who can sign a down payment contract.
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The two best days in a boaters life:
The day they buy their boat; and the day they sell their boat.
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A friend of mine used to work in a yacht club, albeit a very small one on a river, not the sea. He was firmly convinced that at least half of the boats belonged to the owners of craft businesses. He was of the opinion that the boats were bought with black money, either to be able to do something with the money or to sell the boats again later and launder the money that way. I don't know if that's true.
Who owns the lake?