Friends say I'm an idiot

[OldDan1943]

Wifey B: Whatever became of the idiot? I mean the one whose friends said he was an idiot. He disappeared over a week ago. Come back to the pack of idiots.

Hmmm, maybe he got a new set of idiots?

 

[Lollygag1]

Hey we are idiots with a great view. I could blow cash on plenty of other things just choose to do it this way, which I can enjoy with family and friends.

 

[koliver]

Our kids don't mind if we try to spend their inheritance.... or so they say now.

 

[Ramsey1]

57 and A Happy idiot Also

I'm 57 and a fellow Idiot also. My Wife and I just bought a 60 trawler in San Diego. We have sold our house and most other stuff and are moving aboard the boat. We concider it an investment in life. As a hobby it can be expensive, especailly if you don't use it. I see wounderfull boats that i would love to have just sitting collecting gull crap. (Did they tell you about that?).


I spent alot of money maintaining my house, and while i can do alot of the work on the boat myself, it comes out about the same.



Final word, It's only expensive if you don't use it.

 

[X24]

Not to worry, I’ve been an idiot my whole life and love it. You have diesels, that’s a good thing. I don’t count miles per gallon, but calculate fuel burn per hour. I have a 36 trawler, @ 7 knots, I.6 gallons per hour. Biggest expense is slip and storage fees. Diesels are pretty reliable, keep the filters clean and oil in the right places, don’t over rev, keep an eye on temp gauge, they will last longer than the joker valve in the head?. Nothing better than a sunset on the water..

 

[JOY-SEA]

As one of the posters said, nothing finer then having your morning coffee on a boat
At home I generally get up 4 am , On the boat I still get up 4 but fall back too sleep getting up around 7
I stay on this forum too keep myself connected with true boaters ,
Wife & myself are retired . Spending a lot of time aboard .
Sorry too say I purchased the wrong boat , A power cruiser with gas guzzling feed me engines, solely based on the price
Use boat 2 or 3 days of every week, staying close too shore ,
Boat is listed with marina broker , NEXT BOAT ???? Live in FL ,want too travel local
When I have enough I go home , and after a few days I had enough need too be back marina, water .
My marina is a live a board , I find few couples, many single older men ,, Seems bit lonely ,
I made a decision , Keeping the house , Wife has her hobbies , crafts ;etc
I don't want too give up my garage , Tools, collector cars, ALL MY STUFF
Once boat sells hopefully get that perfect boat that I can say I LOVE MY BOAT ,
Lot cheaper then moving , buying a condo , Get bored , find another marina

 

[Blissboat]

We are all idiots! [emoji30]

What CarDude said. Consider that a boat isn't just a boat - it's an experience, whether your travels take you near or far, or even nowhere at all.

 

[OldDan1943]

Joy-Sea, I made the decision to keep my condo in Atlanta. I have too much crap up there to move it all. SMIRK

 

[Blissboat]

I think that was exactly it: to encourage (even enable) home ownership.

Another impact is that it encouraged/expanded a market for mortgage instruments, sort of like growing banks. Don't know if that was intentional, at least on the government side. Might have been influenced by the bank lobbies.

-Chris

Congress never intended to make home mortgage interest deductible. Back in 1913, when the modern income tax became legal (through the 16th Amendment) any form of interest was deductible. It mattered little to homeowners. At the time, homeownership was relatively low, around 43%. Those who owned homes had relatively little debt. After World War II, homeownership soared, thanks to FHA and VA loans. The homebuilding, real estate and mortgage lending industries touted the interest deduction as an incentive, not merely to buying a home, but to borrowing as much as one could.

The evidence that deductible interest stimulates homeownership is thin. For example, Canada has no mortgage interest deduction, but Canadians own their homes at a proportion very similar to that of the U.S. - presently around 66%.

(Apologies for fostering thread creep)!

 

[ranger58sb]

Congress never intended to make home mortgage interest deductible. Back in 1913, when the modern income tax became legal (through the 16th Amendment) any form of interest was deductible. It mattered little to homeowners.

Good point...

I was actually focusing on why home mortgage interest deductions were preserved when the changes were made to eliminate the other interest deductions.

-Chris

 

[cardude01]

The strong homebuilders lobby may be the reason.

 

[JD17]

Indeed we are all "idiots." But I see that as a compliment at this stage of life.

We live in N. Cal. I have had boats of various sorts for 40 years. What a glorious waste of money!!!!!

Currently own a Nordic Tug 37 in Seattle. As I tell friends, its the best stipid decision I've ever made.

Educate you instincts, then go for it!

 

[Imp]

Spent a month in San Diego doing final outfitting prior to going cruising many years ago. You've chosen a great place to learn to love boating, & I'm sure there are plenty of classes & clubs available for you to increase your knowledge & circle of boating friends. Immerse yourself, & your new "hobby" will soon become your new way of life. Until then, don't forget a rainy Saturday is the perfect day to settle into the settee with a good boating mystery & a mug of tomato soup sprinkled with oyster crackers while the rain beats down on your windshield & the fools out on the freeway.

 

[FrontBaby]

Thanks for bumping this thread. As someone who is in the process of going from sail boat to trawler, these are good answers to the questions that hound me. As a sailor, the diesel was always an afterthought (it is auxiliary power on my boat) so long as I stayed on top of maintenance, so I never dove into the ocean of information that I needed to to fully understand these machines. Maybe once I get this trawler, I will start obsessing over the Powerboat details the way I did when I got my sailboat.

 

[jimisbell]

Been there done that. You will obsess over the diesel, but they are more reliable than the sails but harder to repair.

 

[Imp]

Also in the process of switching from sail (Fantasia 35) to trawler, though owned cabin cruisers in the 70's & husband had master's ticket + skippered scuba charters for years, so power not a new experience altogether. Hoping for a buying trip to Florida in near future, as plan to keep boat in Keys.

 

[Gmarr]

I think the OP disappeared the day before his survey 6 months ago?

 

[Dani-lu]

If your friends are telling you the truth, they are good friends

 

[Shrew]

If your friends are telling you the truth, they are good friends

If your friends are telling you to get out of boating, then they are clearly not boaters. That makes them misguided with a history of making questionable choices and therefore their opinions should not be trusted.

 

[Dani-lu]

If your friends are telling you to get out of boating, then they are clearly not boaters. That makes them misguided with a history of making questionable choices and therefore their opinions should not be trusted.

I was in a kidding way alluding to them telling him he’s an idiot

But you are 100% correct, if they are telling him to get out of boating, they are bigger idiots

 

[firstbase]

I guess the OP is gone for good. Bad survey? A day with people who knew stuff and he came to the realization that there is a lot of stuff to know? I wish I could go back to not knowing what I know now. It was much more fun.

Goodbye OP. We hardly knew ye.

 

[jimisbell]

Not sure who is the bigger idiot, someone just getting into it or me who has spent a fortune on it. Sometimes it isnt clear.....LOL

 

[Gulf Comanche]

Not sure who is the bigger idiot, someone just getting into it or me who has spent a fortune on it. Sometimes it isnt clear.....LOL

No sht. I started looking at past boat expenses and thought, well, that would be nice to have all that cash in the bank now, that’s a shtload of money. But, when I’m at the boat, the dream of a little kid is there, in the flesh/aluminum. I love it, this is my hideout, no turning back, no way.

 

[OldDan1943]

No sht. I started looking at past boat expenses and thought, well, that would be nice to have all that cash in the bank now, that’s a shtload of money. But, when I’m at the boat, the dream of a little kid is there, in the flesh/aluminum. I love it, this is my hideout, no turning back, no way.

A floating man cave.

 

[Pura Vida]

When you push in the gate code at the marina you are entering your happy numbers!

 

[OldDan1943]

Perhaps you need new friends?
These very same friends will be the first in line when you ask them to go for a boat ride.

 

[BandB]

We're all idiots and freely admit it, but those idiots among us with boats, are happy idiots.

 

[ddw36]

Dan, about $2k will get you the best and most portable wheelchair out there...
The Air Hawk Portable Lightweight Power Wheelchair.

It weighs in at under 50 lbs, fold compactly and can run up to 26 miles on both batteries.

Don't order the car charger, since all you'll get is a small inverter, not a DC-DC converter.

I'm planning to buy an Air Hawk & appreciate the warning re: car charger.

 

[firstbase]

Not sure who is the bigger idiot, someone just getting into it or me who has spent a fortune on it. Sometimes it isnt clear.....LOL

I don't think any of it has much to do with intelligence, IQ so to speak. It's more about naivete or ignorance when jumping in. If the desire and love of the whole thing is there then you just take your $$$ lumps and move on. The ones I feel sorry for are the ones that LIKE it all but don't LOVE it all...then the cost outweighs the benefit and they are sorry they didn't just buy another guitar....or whatever.

When I see the smile on 8 grand kids faces as they are cruising along and getting introduced to and taught about the water and boating by granddad then..well.... you know. What cost? This thing costs money? Who knew? Not to mention all the other stuff we all love.

 

[Group9]

Hi there
I'm 56 and buying my first ever boat down here in San Diego. Im getting a Californian 34 for $36k cash and it looks like I'll be paying $625 a month slip fee. I'm buying a boat because I'm bored and when consideing a new hobby his is the only one which excited me. I haven't had a singl3 friend who hasn't joked that I'm an idiot and all the jokes and stuff and it's fine but I'm starting to wonder if they're right. How much is really gonna cost me. Aside from slip fees what are we REALLY talking about? I think my boat will get a mile a gallon. That's really gonna add up so I get that. Thats actually the only thing that scares me. At $4 a gallon a trip to Catalina will cost $350 in gas alone. Registration, insurance and other things barnacle removal and cleaning? It seems like it's all about repairs. How often do these things break down? I see people talk about new motors installed $5k total each. I have two motors and if they both blew up the day after I bought it I would spend the money and then look forward to hours and hours of boating pleasure. Am I being naive?

You may be an idiot, but I'm an idiot, too!

Yeah, boats cost some money. But, my boat is really the only hobby I have and it gives me great pleasure. It's an ongoing project, and that's probably what I like about it.

I've had friends ask why I don't just charter, or join one of those clubs where you show up, are given a boat, use it, and then drop it off and go home, so you never have to worry about maintenance, etc.

I always tell them that, doing that, would make me miss half of the enjoyment I get out of owning a boat. Namely, fixing it, cleaning it, tinkering around with it, improving it, and just really using as a kind of getaway where I exchange all of my other problems in life, that I don't enjoy dealing with, for boat problems, which I do enjoy dealing with.

My kids will have to figure out what to do with my boat, because I'm never selling the one I have now.