Re: Need help naming an illness...
The medical literature is clearly not up to date with the multitude of Boat-Related Disorders becoming evident on this thread...
I think other medical professionals out there will agree with the observation that there are two primary forms, both are mental disorders.
One is a major illness, with very poor prognosis, in fact, incurable, and manifests in the form of obsessive-compulsive behaviors (fixing, tinkering, shopping, dismantling, dis-assembling, reassembling, and in extreme cases, reverse-engineering entire systems and engines that otherwise function perfectly). Treatment consists of "supportive measures", such as allowing the patient to go out on the boats, or to carry out their projects to their completion, whenever possible. Patients in this category usually are able to function and have normal family lives and jobs, but their condition is not curable, th may linger in a chronic, relatively benign form. (Perhaps a
Nautical Hyperactivity Disorder)
The second disorder is more acute and often malignant, with potential for complete personal and financial ruin. It is characterized by sudden, implulsive delusions and urges that translate into unrealistic projects, such as restoring a totally worthless, unseaworthy, mutilated, fire-damaged, sunk or crashed vessel, or take on the restoration of a seized, toasted, burned, cracked, demolished and discontinued engine and drive(for which there are no parts available), to make it run again, usually in a vessel as that described above. (Perhaps
Paranoia Nautica Magna)
These must be distiguished from the normal boater, who fixes only when something is broken, who performs routine maintenance at appropriate intervals, who only looks at boats for the pleasure, although they may suffer from occasional propeller insufficiency (promptly cured by a visit to the propeller threads). Most on this forum would probably be in this category. But there are many, particularly in the engine forums, who may fall into the major forms above...
In 1961, Disney released a cartoon call "Aquamania", which describes the normal boater of modern times...
