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It’s been a long,
tough winter. Whether you were forced to contend with blizzards, ice storms,
torrential rain, hurricane-force winds, or some evil combination thereof,
chances are you didn’t get much time on your boat, unless you happen
to be a king-crab fisherman. Even now there are plenty of boaters who
are still skating on backyard ponds and chipping ice off their windshields
every morning. For them and a lot of us, it’s still too soon to actually
venture out on the water, but not to plan that first trip. And it’s
definitely not too soon to start getting the boat ready for the time when
the water around us finally reverts to its liquid state.
“Getting the boat
ready” is, of course, euphemistic for spring launch, a part of maintenance.
My friend Phil says you can divide all boaters into two categories: those
who own boats in spite of maintenance, and those who own boats because
of it. Most of you, being sensible and logical, probably fall into the
first category. You might enjoy puttering around on your boat every now
and again, but when it comes to any sizable or dirty task, you call the
boatyard. Who wants to rebed a fitting on a beautiful spring day when
you could be boating?
The second group is
not quite so well adjusted. They like to strip bottom paint, wax hulls,
and change oil. You’ve probably got a few of these souls at your
marina. They spend so much time working on their boat, you pity them.
The unvarnished truth is, though, they aren’t happy unless they have
a project. In fact, they’ve got a list of things to do, the length
of which never changes—as soon as they’ve managed to cross one
job off, they’ve added a couple more.
This disease is pervasive
and affects a wide range of boaters. In this issue’s “At Sea,”
our own Capt. Bill Pike writes about how difficult it is for him to sell
his boat Scrumpy Vixen. He waxes poetic about all the wonderful
experiences he’s had aboard her, including “those…plentiful
hours spent on…bottom paint, waxing topsides, replacing engine filters
and fluids, sanding and varnishing the louvered companionway door.”
Now there’s a guy with a maintenance fixation.
Truth be told, I guess
I have to admit that I have one, too. My own boat, Ava T., is coming
up on her 20th birthday, so as you can imagine, she offers all sorts
of maintenance possibilities. But she’s also in great shape, and
she’d be perfectly fine if I didn’t do a thing to her all summer
long. But I love to tinker with Ava T. almost as much as I love
to run her. In fact, I underwent a major withdrawal this winter when it
got so cold and nasty, I couldn’t work on her interior, even with
her shrink wrap and a sizable space heater.
But I’m fine now.
Really. I’m back at work on Ava T., and just like that guy
down the dock from me, I’ve assembled a whole list of things I’m
planning on doing to her this year. And yes, that includes actually running
her.
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