"Jim Cate" wrote in message
...
It may be a stupid question in your opinion, but in my opinion, it's a
very logical, sensible, and relevant question. According to your
"logic", if I spend $30K to $40K on a boat and it turns out that I can
only sail the boat two or three times a year, but if on one of those
trips I see a moonlit night, or experience a sunny breeze on the water,
it's all worth it? Maybe, but I can charter a number of different boats
of various sizes for a few hundred dollars and see all the moonlit
nights and sunny days and secluded anchorage's I want to.

Incidentally, please don't quote me as saying what I didn't say. What I
said was: IF NEARLY ALL owners of such boats find that they don't
continue to sail their boats as often as they thought when they bought
them, and IF, in fact, they are only able to get out very infrequently,
perhaps I should take this into consider as ONE FACTOR, among OTHERS,
when looking at boats. Please note: ONE FACTOR AMONG OTHERS. You may
think that I have a problem in making a decision and going ahead with
it. Not at all. But in this case, I have only been looking at boats for
about two weeks. Also, I will probably need my wife's participation, so
the boat has to be appealing to her as well.

In other words, before committing $30-$40K, plus future maintenance,
dock fees, insurance, etc., to this interest (which in my case is one of
many interests), it seems only reasonable to consider the experience of
others when going down the same path. I'm not questioning chasing a
dream and looking for those sunny days or moonlit nights, but that
doesn't mean that I should make precipitous decisions or spend this
kind of money irrationally (if, in fact, it's probably the case that I
won't get what I expect to get from the boat) that could otherwise go to
a number of other worthwhile purposes. - Like, as one example, helping
children who would otherwise starve to death or die of dysentery, etc.

Jim

If all you want to do is figure out how often the "average" boat owner uses
his boat, hang out at the marina. As someone else put it (Don Casey)

"sailing is a leisure time activity. It should require only discretionary
income, and not all of that. Maybe if you think you had the right boat, YOU
would spend every free minute on the water. The odds are against you. Take a
walk through any marina on a perfect Saturday and compare the number of
empty slips to the number with boats still tied in them. I assure you that
the owners of all those boats intended to use them very weekend, certainly
every sunny weekend. What happened?

Reality. A sunny weekend is also perfect for tennis. Or golf. Or a cookout
with friends. Or working on the lawn. Or a drive to Grandma's. There are
also concerts and weddings, sporting event and sales. And there are weekends
when it is rainy, or cold, or you just don't want to do anything."

The name of the book is "This Old Boat", pretty good reading though I'll
admit I might not ever take on the projects he covers in this book, the
first part talks about boat selection and even the justification for owning.
I own because I want to be able to sail whenever I fell like it. I took up
racing last season (crewing on someone else's boat) and probably logged more
miles under the keel of his boat than my own, to the point where I had
thoughts about selling MY boat. Why didn't I? I still want to own my own
boat, period. It makes no sense on a financial basis, but it's my money
right? Chartering as an alternative to ownership? If you OWN(no lien) your
own boat, one weeklong bareboat charter to a nice destination like the
Caribbean will equal or surpass my total annual expenses associated with
boat ownership. The bottom line, owning a sailboat is not a "rational"
decision. Might be more rational to purchase a used boat rather than new
one, but you can't "justify" the expense. Just something you either do or
don't, like a lot of things in life. Just my $2.
John Cairns