Boating & Your Significant Others

[lrlima]

Re: Boating & Your Significant Others

"Has boating helped or hurt your relationship with your significant other?"



It all depends how the darn thing is running...

 

[Jeep Man]

Re: Boating & Your Significant Others

I consider myself spoiled. We have been planning on getting a pontoon boat for a few years and due to work schedule and finances it took longer than we planned. But we finally have the boat we wanted and wife, kids, grand kids and friends are always excited to take a cruise. We are fortunate to have a dock to leave it at all season and over 250 sq./kms. of pristine clear water to cruise on. The more time we spend on the water, the better it gets.

 

[ScottinAZ]

Re: Boating & Your Significant Others

The boat is the one activity that the wife and I can ALWAYS agree on. She loves to go to the lake, and before the boat, I hated it, I cant stand to be on a public beach with god knows how many other people, and all the distractions and "issues" that can occur. with the boat, we can put it in the water, and go somewhere significantly less crowded, littered and noisy. If we want to go and relax, we find a secluded cove and anchor out, if we want to go swimming we go to the boat access only campground on the lake and use the docks and swimming area there. if we want to go tubing, we can, if we just want to go and burn some fuel for the hell of it, we can do that too. boating is such a versatile time consumer, it isnt even funny. we were out today with my dad, who hasnt been on a boat in about 40 years, and he loved it. that and the kid (not quite 1 yet) really enjoys the waves, the bigger the waves the bigger the grin on his little face. I would have paid 1000x more than we did for the boat to get this kind of enjoyment, it really is worth it

 

[pinellas50]

Re: Boating & Your Significant Others

It has definately brought the family together. I was into cars before this and that was kind of a me only type activity. The family really got nothing out of it.

With the boat everyone can enjoy. The kids favorite thing is jumping off the bow, swimming to the ladder, climbing back aboard, and repeating this over and over and over. We all love just cruising and dropping anchor at the local islands/sand bars to just hang out. The kids can't wait to pull up to one of their favorite pizza joints in the boat to go eat. My dad can't wait to come down and go fishing. And we haven't even purchased anything like a tube yet.......or a bimini top for that matter.

As far as cost, I'm betting that it will probably be less than what I was doing with all the car stuff. Even if it pukes a motor. But those big ticket items sure can cause issues so I'm hoping to avoid that kind of stuff as much as possible.

Oh. The kids are 5 and 10 years old.

 

[tboltmike]

Re: Boating & Your Significant Others

The Admiral liked the first one so much, she let me buy another bigger boat.

So size matters!!

 

[werthert]

Re: Boating & Your Significant Others

The Admiral was definitely *not* interested... but I had a feeling I could win her over once she got out on it and relaxed with a few beverages.

I was right. It has brought us closer. She loves taking the cruiser out. It's a great way to relax and spend time with your significant other.

 

[scutly]

Re: Boating & Your Significant Others

most definately the best thing i did for myself and my family was to buy our boat this summer. a couple hours before work on a weekday by myself just chillin and listenin to some dead has got to be the best way to start ones day and hangin with the wife above and below deck on the weekends is a hell of a lot more fun than mowin the lawn. my dog loves it the most i think!

 

[WAVENBYE2]

Re: Boating & Your Significant Others

My wife and I boat as often as we can even when we don't backwoods camp for a 3 day weekend, We also take her out with our two dogs just for the day also, beach it, go to the marina(s) for lunch and enjoy the rest of our day back at the spot we pic for that day and get home about 6-7pm until the following week. boating is a big part of our life. It's who we are, It's what we do!!

 

[nd_guy]

Re: Boating & Your Significant Others

My girlfriend asks me to take her on the water often. She baits her own lines, unhooks her fish and is getting pretty good at backing the trailer. I am considering keeping her around for a while. Mostly because she looks better than my other fishing buddies in a bikini

 

[LIQUID PROZAC]

Re: Boating & Your Significant Others

our boat has been an awesome bonding tool--my wife and 6 year old son can't wait for the weekends to get here now and i don't want them to end

 

[Mischief Managed]

Re: Boating & Your Significant Others

I grew up boating, wife did not. Before kids, my wife and I did a lot of canoeing on our own, and sailing/motor boating on other people's boats. We got our first motorboat and some lake access property shortly after the birth of our first child and have had a great time watching our two kids, now 12 and 14, grow up as boaters. Our family is very close and I am certain boating has a lot to do with it.

We are on our third boat (a trailer-kept, big-block powered, 25' cuddy that sleeps 4) now and have no plans to replace it any time soon, it does everything we need it to very well, and has always been kept in excellent condition.

We rarely take the boat out without friends aboard. It's a really nice way to spend a day with another family or a bunch of our kid's friends. We also spend long days at sandbars hanging out with other friends that have boats. We have no intention of ever giving up this lifestyle. We have plans to live aboard a boat in the early years of retirement.

 

[mike64]

Re: Boating & Your Significant Others

Like ShaneCarroll, I had to really work on my wife to get her to agree on us buying a boat. She wasn't into the boating thing. But since then, we've had a lot of great family outings, and she's warmed up to it a lot. She still gets annoyed at the time I spend working on it sometimes, though.

Like a lot of iboaters have said, boating is something you can do as a family, with a bunch of friends, as a couple taking a romantic cruise, or just going fishing by yourself. It's a very versatile activity.

Lately I've been taking the boat out fishing by myself a lot early in the morning, and it's great, nice and quiet, little bit of mist coming off the water. You can do some thinking. Or take a break from thinking.

Just get a boat that's small enough to easily launch and retrieve by yourself. Especially since it's your first. My 16' runabout is very easy to handle, and I do it by myself pretty much all the time, even going out with family or friends. i got used to doing everything by myself and now I like to have control of the entire process.

 

[stubbsboogie]

Re: Boating & Your Significant Others

most definately the best thing i did for myself and my family was to buy our boat this summer. a couple hours before work on a weekday by myself just chillin and listenin to some dead has got to be the best way to start ones day and hangin with the wife above and below deck on the weekends is a hell of a lot more fun than mowin the lawn. my dog loves it the most i think!

Love the Dead reference SCUTLY!!!! Soundtrack of our rides!

We got into boating together. On my lil sea nymph. Just the two of us could fit. Then decided to upgrade. Did that now we have upgraded again. She loves it. Wants to go sometimes even when I am not all for it but we get out there and each time the statement is the same ...
"I love boating, I love you, I love boating with you!"

Wonderful doing something you love with the ones you love!!
She is my first mate co captain and everything else. Her help makes it super easy, launch and retrieve I back trailer she drives boat. We have a perfect system working together. We have never once had any problems working together with the boat. (house cleaning, thats another story)
Just cannot say enough how boating is our "thing" and what it does for the relationship. AWESOME!!!!

 

[wca_tim]

Re: Boating & Your Significant Others

My boat is my significant other! (good thing I can get away with having more than one...)

 

[deadstick]

Re: Boating & Your Significant Others

this is my wife's first striper. if we have any free time she would rather be on the boat fishing or relaxing.

 

[Home Cookin']

Re: Boating & Your Significant Others

My wife loves to go fishing but many of our fishing trips end up being just exploration cruising. I got a larger boat this spring that she loves; the smaller ones were too bouncy and wet and crowded to get around. With a center console there's so much open space for moving around, but it is also comfortable for her to sit either in the bow or with me at the helm.
The right boat makes all the difference, and I was very intentional at looking first at how we'd use it before I started shopping for the hull design. Likewise made "objectives lists" with my college-aged daughters so they will want to use it. It's dry when it's rough. Stays clean b/c it's all fiberglass w/ removable cushions. so for dinner trips, cocktail cruises, fishing, travelling or tubing, you can't beat a center console.

 

[nlain]

Re: Boating & Your Significant Others

In my case, lets just say I had best not try to take off without her. We can go ride, go to the beach, drop anchor and watch a float float, uh, fishing, don't matter just peace and quiet and relaxing.

 

[PowerAddict]

Re: Boating & Your Significant Others

My boat is my significant other! (good thing I can get away with having more than one...)

haha, you took my line! My boat is mine too, I like my boats bigger than I like my women though

 

[rlb2252]

Re: Boating & Your Significant Others

It's great to see so many positive stories. In fact all of them suggest that their boat has been a plus for their relationships.

I was expecting, to be honest, at least a few that went in the opposite direction. Some that indicated their spouse had threatened them with bodily harm or beheading over the amount of attention they were paying to the boat.

These posts make me think to hell with a marriage counselor. Buy a boat!

 

[nitsuj]

Re: Boating & Your Significant Others

My biggest problem is that my wife absolutely refuses to say "Permission to to come aboard" before she gets on the boat. She totally doesn't give me the respect I deserve as captain of the ship.