Speaking of boats

I have a tendency to go overboard with my hobbies. When we lived in Idaho, I went to our church camp every summer. The camp, located on a beautiful mountain lake in central Idaho, was a great place for boating. When I first attended the camp, there was a broken-down sailboat, a somewhat leaky paddleboat and two or three fiberglass canoes. The canoes were a bit heavy and had some amateurish patches, but that didn’t stop us from having fun with them. Over the years, I did a bit of work on the boats, raised a few dollars, explained to a few people the tax advantages of donating used boats and together with other church leaders, built the camp fleet to four small sailboats, a half dozen plastic canoes, a fleet of sailboards, and a couple of rowboats. We had a water sports camp that sold out each year, giving participants an opportunity to learn skills such as CPR, sailing, water safety, paddling, and even giving them a taste of whitewater rafting. At one point, I chartered buses to transport youth to and from the camp. Along the way, I had the joy of using the various watercraft, learning to sail and adding to my paddling skills. I used to rise very early in the morning, while the campers slept and paddle out onto the lake for a few moments of peace and quiet, prayer and enjoyment of the beauty of creation.

I decided that I wanted to have a canoe of my own, but our growing family had other financial priorities. I knew how much it cost to buy a used canoe. I’d bought a couple for the camp. I decided that I could build a canoe. I purchased a set of plans for $5 and began to look through the cedar boards at local lumberyards for a few exceptionally straight and clear boards. When I found a suitable board, I purchased it, cut it into strips approximately 3/4 x 3/8 inches with our table saw. I didn’t have a planer, so I hand sanded and planed the strips so that they fit together. I glued them around building forms made from scrap plywood. By the time I had a wooden boat, I probably had about $35 invested in the project. Then I had to buy fiberglass cloth and epoxy resin to coat the boat inside and out. That was a big purchase, just over $100 at the time. Since I had purchased a few hand tools, mainly clamps, bought a couple of paddles, and needed a couple of new life vests, I estimated that i had just over $200 in the canoe when it was finished.

I still have that canoe, but as I said to begin this journal post, I have a tendency to go overboard. One thing led to another. I decided that I wanted a smaller boat, so I built a smaller canoe. This one was built out of fence grade cedar and the basic boat was less expensive than the first, but the price of epoxy had gone up, so it probably cost me about the same as the first boat. I was charmed by Canadian Prospector canoes, so I built one for myself from the measurements of a Chestnut prospector. Three canoes was more than I could take on the roof of our car in one trip. I went paddling with my brother on the Puget Sound and got pretty wet in an open canoe in the waves of the big water, so I decided to build a kayak. A kayak is a solo boat, however, and I enjoy paddling with others. We would take out the kayak and the smallest canoe on adventures, but they tended to paddle at different speeds. When we took a trip to the northeast and visited the Old Town Canoe Company in Orono, Maine, I ended up purchasing another small kayak.

I didn’t stop there. I now have five kayaks and four canoes and a row boat. I have a trailer with a rack upon which I can carry all of the boats at the same time. The general formula for all boats is that it costs about 10% of the purchase price per year to operate the boat. That would include new coats of varnish for my wooden boats, repairs as needed, occasional new paddles and life jackets, covers to protect the boats, storage, and other miscellaneous costs. It is pretty obvious that I need to get rid of a few of my boats. I can’t paddle them all at one time, and there are a couple of whitewater boats that are probably better suited to younger paddlers. No one needs ten boats.I admit it. I’ve gone overboard.

That doesn’t keep me from thinking about another boat. It would be fun to have a small sailing dinghy to take out on fair weather days, maybe even use to go camping on a nearby island. I could make such a boat inexpensively and I have access to a shop to work on boats now. Maybe if I sold some of the canoes . . .

I have not, however, gone overboard quite has much as Jeff Bezos with his boats. The world of yachting is fairly secretive. The Netherlands yacht yard Oceano, builder of the boat isn’t releasing any details to the public, but there have been some leaks. It has been reported that the primary boat will come in at around $500 million. That isn’t a big expense to the world’s richest man, whose wealth has increased as much as $13 billion in a single day. With something like $200 billion in assets, he has a smaller percentage of his money in boats than I. But he will discover that there are other costs. A full-time crew of 60 for the main boat a support yacht with a crew to transport vehicles, water toys, including a submarine, and a helipad (an essential item for a guy who is dating a helicopter pilot) all add to the cost. A $500 million yacht will cost about $50 million a year to operate.

I hope he has a little fun on his boat. I hope he gets to see beautiful sunrises and sunsets from the surface of the water. I doubt, however, that he will find as much joy as I do setting forth in a boat I built with my own hands. I do expect, however, that he, like me, will find it a bit hard to sell the boat when the time comes. Other than that, we don’t have a lot in common.

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