The ups and downs of owning a boat!

My father is now 88 and still very much the patriarch of the family. He is really upbeat and has great perspective on things, and 98% of the time I think he is dead-on with his advice and wisdom. But, this past weekend, when I had a rare occasion that I had to disagree with him, I had to take note.  He has always said "The two days that are the happiest parts of boat ownership are the day you buy the boat and the day you sell it."  I have to say, those two days are bittersweet, and it is all the days in between that are the happiest!

2003- back in the heyday of our boat use!

In 1993, my husband and I bought a 19' Maxim inboard/outboard boat.  It is the old style boat with walk-through windshield. I was apprehensive about the expense and the responsibility of boating with our young children. But for the next 15 years we made so many great memories I can't recount them all. Tubing, teaching the kids to ski, fishing, swimming off the boat, and the frequent boat rides just to cruise around and cool off, all great memories.

This appears to be some sort of unsafe project my teenage boys were experimenting with, exactly what I worried about when we bought the boat!

Then the last 5 years or so, there has been much less boat use, the children are grown, and have summer jobs, and somehow circumstances have just conspired against boating! So while it has been a great run with the boat, it is time to bid farewell. 

My Dad always said this would be such a happy day, but when cleaning it out last weekend for a final time, I felt the same sadness that you feel when getting rid of your first car.  It was a great ride, with a lot of memories, the end of an era!!

The boat is making its way to the Boy Scouts, where we hope they will be able to make use of it at their summer camp, which makes it a little easier to part with!

So to anyone apprehensive, like me, about taking the plunge into boat ownership, do it! Yes, it will at times break down, and after you keep it enough years and make lots of great memories with it, no one will want to buy it from you, but it's all worth it!

Happy boating! Stella