Am I weird?

[JillyP]

Re: Am I weird?

I started out 20 years ago with a 15 foot tri-hull. Then moved up to another 18 ft early 70s tri-hull. Then lastly and a "newer" '02 21ft. bowrider. All with Older Evinrude and Mercury outboards, and a lot of lessons learned here and on the water.

I say that to illustrate that sometimes the gradual step-ups are better over time, and give the boater experience and perhaps perspective. Going from 16.5 ft to the different animal of a larger, slipped boat is a quantum leap in some ways.

Agreed, Huge learning curve. And I'm glad we didn't start out with a new boat.

 

[jkust]

Re: Am I weird?

Agreed, mn boating season is short, so it is a passion, and you can't add up the dollars or you won't do it. I don't have kids in sports, so that's not an issue for me. You can actually get a nice boat for well under $80k. There are a ton out there. Though I met a guy who spent $140k on a 2008 36 ft SeaRay. I would never spend that on a boat but it's his cabin, his kids are little, and he & his spouse make a ton of money. I don't want a boat that big, cuz slip fees alone would make me cry. His attitude was right though, he doesn't expect his investment to make money or appreciate, but build family memories. I think his motto is "Go BIG or go home."

Well he should look into a cabin/lake home. Of course there is almost no such thing as a 140k lake place on a lake worth boating. They appreciate and you can downsize to a nice/newer mid 20 foot Cobalt or something. The thing about these under 20 foot boats...after a few years of quick depreciation the depreciate very slowly. You almost can't give the larger boats away because there are so many basic issues such as where are you going to store it for 9 months of the year and the pool of people here willing and able to own one is miniscule.