Boats are everywhere - so sad

[rockDAWG]

Every time I go down to Annapolis, I see boats more than I can count. They never leave the dock or get in the water. Where are the owners? I wonder if they would loan to me for a season to put her in a good use.

It is so sad.

[kd3pc]

It is a time and money issue...in this economy many owners have very few free hours to do anything but work, to keep a head of the crap.

If you have the time, you don't have the money..

[LarryandSusanMacDonald]

They say time is money. I say, they can have my money - I want my time back.

[paulk]

I noticed a boat in our harbor that I had crewed on and which was sitting out Wednesday nights. I offered to help with maintenance (cleaning teak, change oil, scrape/paint bottom) in return for using her those nights, and both owner and I were happy with the results. Years later, we have our own boat, and I ask my crew to take it out on days that I can't. The more the merrier!

[Jeff_H]

At various times in my life when I personally did not have a boat, I have made deals with owners of underused boats that I could use their boats in exchange for doing routine maintenance or simply managing their maintenance. Typically this deal has meant inviting them when I was going out, but typically they did not come along. Sometimes the deal required me to teach an owner how to sail or sail their boats.

Finding an owner willing to do this is not that hard but its also not that easy. There were owners that I approached who turned me down and some were insulted that I even asked. The best tactic was that I would establish relationships with boatyard manager or crew, and so often a boatyard would steer me to someone who might be receptive.

[sailingdog]

Good advice Jeff.

[eherlihy]

Originally Posted by kd3pc

It is a time and money issue...in this economy many owners have very few free hours to do anything but work, to keep a head of the crap.

If you have the time, you don't have the money..

I find myself in the later camp... 'Out of work for going on 2 years now, occasionally working or crewing on OPB (both for FREE) when they need an extra hand, and still optimistically looking for an 80's vintage 33-36' coastal cruiser...

[deniseO30]

Sigh.. my boat is in the water, on it's mooring, and ready to go at a moment's notice just about.. I've not been on her in almost 3 weeks and she's only 7 mins from my house! Why? The heat. I tried during the June heat wave and just nearly passed out a few times because of the heat. July now..and, MORE of the same. It's quite disheartening considering how much I love my boat. If some one walked up to me saying... "Denise would you condsider.... $" .. I may just take it a run! maybe.. maybe not... How dare someone suggest such a thing!

Yes, I should move to cooler clime, Yes I want a bigger boat, Yes I want to sell my house, and yes I'm too tired to do anything about it today...yesterday.. sigh.

Me thinks what I'm feeling lately that is the kind of feelings many owners have about the boats they never use anymore. Yet.. I just checked on the boat because of last night's storms.. that quick my feelings of getting out there were renewed!

[DwayneSpeer]

I belong to a small yacht club which is made up mostly of sailboat owners. If I had to divide up the owners into two classes; those that use theirs often and those that don't I think it would fall about 40/60. Of those that don't use theirs the divide would be because of circumstances and because of lack of interest and there it would be 75/25. Given that analysis (guess), about half of the boats go unused because of circumstances and only a small fraction due to a lack of interest. Health issues is the primary reason that boats don't get used. Money for us isn't a real issue because we are all working or retired.

With all of that said, I really wonder how our demographics would fit other areas in the country?

[4arch]

Unless I'm on vacation or have some other major extenuating circumstance, I generally take my boat out at the very least once a week for a daysail. That's probably pretty heavy/regular usage compared to a lot of my marina mates.

That said, if I do one 8 hour daysail on a weekend and one or two 4 hour daysails on weekday nights, that only amounts to 5-7% of all the hours in a week that I'd be at the marina/away from the dock. Who knows what's going on with the other boats the other 93-95% of the time?

Also, high heat, light winds, and frequent pop-up thunderstorms make July and August fairly bad sailing months in the Chesapeake. I'd much rather be out there April-June and September-November.