Boating in Retirement-Start Early!

I deal almost exclusively with boats used for “cruising” . Going from Point A to Point B, spending the night and then heading to Points C and D, not roaring around the lake  with a 4 case capacity cooler-which is also fun. When I am working at the boat shows one of the most common comments I hear is “when I retire”.  However, you are not going to go from “no boat” to “boating every day” just by buying a boat. There will be a break-in period, definitely for you and probably for the boat.

Boat Handling– Boats are not like rental cars where you can just hop in and go. Each style will handle differently in wind, waves and current. When you are docking or underway you need to take some time to learn how to handle the boat with your normal crew. If you have no experience with the size and configuration of your new boat, then I recommend budgeting for professional training. A bad experience or two could keep you from ever leaving the dock again.

Equipment Add/Deletes– Most people want to start making changes as soon as they purchase a vessel (unless new). I recommend that you cruise for a while with the boat’s existing equipment before you start making a lot of major changes. You may find that the item you thought was pointless actually has a purpose. After a little time the $20,000 in upgrades may only need to be $5,000.

Shake down Cruising-When your new-to-you boat has not been boating much lately some stress testing will show up any weaknesses. It is not uncommon for a seller to hold off selling even though the boat is getting very little use for a season or two…or three before deciding it is time. I know everyone wants a boat to have low hours but when a boat is underutilized it has a tendency to have minor items go haywire until you have worked all the kinks out. Better to work through this on a series of smaller excursions instead of shoving off for months only to find yourself in a quiet cove without a critical replacement part-for the toilet!.

New Boats-Even if you are purchasing a new vessel, there will be some break in time. Warranty items will come up and need to be addressed. A cruising boat is one of the most complicated things you will own and it will take some hours of use to get all the minor adjustments worked out. Buyers spend a lot of time analyzing the warranty, which is good, but seem surprised when they actually need to use it. It is simple part of the process of getting your boat ready to go.

Finances- Your budget is about to go through a bit of a shock once the annual maintenance of your new vessel settles in. Even though you have run the numbers and you know you can afford it, it will still be an adjustment. This is a little easier to absorb emotionally when your money-making capabilities are still in place.

All this adds up to buying at least one but probably two years before retirement. The time between purchase and actual retirement will not be wasted. Each trip will be a step in getting to know your boat with plenty of time in between shorter cruises to make all the adjustments we just discussed. And it will help prevent you getting impatient to start serious cruising before you, or the boat of your dreams, is ready.

Finding purpose (small “p”)

You hear a steady mantra about finding your purpose. Only then can you find peace in your life. If you are struggling with finding your BIG PURPOSE, I have a small one for you to help pass the time…Save an Old Boat. No one said your purpose had to be noble, or epic, or podcast worthy. Though it would be nice if it gave you a sense of accomplishment.

Actually, you could consider saving an old boat noble or epic. Think of what you will be doing for the environment by keeping that thing out of the landfill. Or helping your local maritime industry by sprinkling some dollars around the boatyards and at the local chandlery. It could start feeling epic, after spending a long weekend in the yard sanding, painting or polishing and waxing. Or that feeling of satisfaction after spending a Saturday standing on your head below decks trying to trace down the faulty wiring and you finally find the culprit! (Micro-rant: why do people think the old wiring is what you hang the new wiring on? The next owner will not know which was new or old-it is all just “wiring”).

It can definitely give you a sense of accomplishment after taking what most people were willing to cast aside and making it useful again. Think of the satisfaction when walking down the dock and your boat is floating there because you had the vision and willed into reality. Or the enjoyment of preserving a bit of nautical and/or regional history. Being the next link in a long chain of stewards who have kept the story going.

Boats are interactive, you don’t purchase it and put it on a shelf to admire. You work on it, and use it. It can take you places in return for the love and attention you lavish upon it. We are wired to actually do things, all sorts of things and sitting around watching other people do things is soul-sucking.

Finding a boat is easy. Spend even a few minutes on Facebook Marketplace, Yachtworld, Craigslist and a dozen other sites and you will find a long list of small “p” purpose yachts waiting for you. Find one that won’t break you financially and get to it.

You’re Not Going to Bounce Forever

I thought when you got to middle age, things would be easier, clearer, with fewer decisions. No! It all starts with the you-won’t- bounce-back-forever thing. Yes, this is a common refrain from middle-aged people. You aren’t going to be able to bounce back like you used to, so you better get retired and get out there!

At the same time we are also told that everyone is living longer so you should plan your money until your 99 years old.  Back to the “won’t bounce” crowd-they say you are only going to be able to dodder around until you’re maybe 70. So, does that mean I will be sitting in a chair for 30 years watching Jeopardy? That sounds awful.  Or, you should assume you will live to 99- but did you hear about poor fill-in-the-blank? Gone in the prime of life, never got to enjoy the goals he or she hoped to achieve one day. Well, that sounds awful as well.

My other favorite is the email that has been going around for years written by a 94 year old full of witty life advice. Live life with no regrets! (not possible)  Eat chocolate! ( I don’t like chocolate). Work less (maybe). Drink wine and be merry! ( I am good with this one) and it goes on from there. I don’t think this author actually existed, it is probably just some early form of AI.

Eat right, but there is no consensus on what right is. Get enough sleep, but also get up early to meet the day. Touch grass-I don’t even know what that means. Exercise, whatever you are doing is not enough! Be social it is critical to staying connected, but also meditate in solitude.

There is so much input that how can you possibly make sense of it all and figure out what works for you? A steady firehose of information from podcasters, Tik Tok and Instagram influencers. There are books and articles, where does it end?

So what does this have to do with boating? Is this where I tell you to start now on your boating dreams before you become poor fill-in-the-blank? Nope, go boating to get away from all the noise about how to live your life. Boats offer escape! After all, why touch grass when you can touch water?

Thus endeth the rant-thanks for listening.

A Tale of Two Budgets

The most common question I get is “How is the boating market?”. It is a bit like asking “How is the weather in the United States?” Well, it depends on where you are, what are the big influences like the jet stream and ocean currents along with local impacts of geography etc. etc. You get the point-the market depends on where you are and minor specifics of your particular market niche. However there is one common trend I am hearing about which is affecting buying decisions. We all know that boating is not the cheapest of hobbies and requires a commitment of time and money. We have discussed this more than once in previous blogs. The change in conversation I am hearing is switching from, “Gee boats are expensive” to “ Wow, it costs a lot to keep a boat!” The focus has switched from the boat buying budget to the boat keeping budget. The marine industry has not been immune to the inflation we have all experienced in the past few years. Moorage, maintenance, financing and insurance have all gone up in varying degrees. (I still think insurance is crazy cheap considering what we are asking of it).   Moorage and maintenance are the most common ones I hear about which makes sense as they feel like they have seen the biggest increases. They are impacted by a multitude of different factors and a little increase in each area starts to add up. However, THERE IS A SOLUTION! When you are trying to figure out which boat to buy and whether can you afford it, dial it back a bit. You wanted that 55’ pilothouse? Maybe you can get achieve your goals in a 45’ sedan. Looking to cross the oceans in 20 years? Maybe buy a boat for the inland cruising you are going to be doing for the next 15 years and worry about the oceans later. Want a brand new or newer boat? Maybe give a look at something a bit older that has been loved and coddled and has many years of cruising left. If the goal is to be on the water, modify your expectations and get there.  I think 2026 is going to be full of opportunities for buyers, and adjusting your expectations will allow you to grab one as it floats by.

December-Let’s Recap!

I thought it would be fun to take a quick run through what we have discussed this year. I have a habit of continually looking towards the next thing and never taking a moment to reflect on where I have been. Sometimes coming back to something a month or year later gives you a fresh perspective or new take on a topic. Here is 2025 by month and topic with my quick reaction in ().  

January: Barriers in Boating (Today’s challenges are tomorrow successes)

February -Weather! (Nothing you can do about the weather!)

March: Quit Moving the Goal Posts (Take a moment and enjoy the win)

April: History month-American Marine’s Alaskans. (Nostalgia)

May-Set Your Expectations (Old boats=Opportunity)

June-Expectations by the Numbers (It’s just math)

July-Is it Really Work? (Work or play has more to do with the framing than the actual activity)

August-Six-percenters & Somedayers (Better to be a six-percenter)

September-A Little Self-Reliance=Less Boating Stress (Personal agency is freeing)

October -The Gripers#%$&! (I need to stop complaining and be grateful for the opportunity)

November- The Key (Know thyself and know where you are headed)

Interesting how often the same things that apply to our boating can also apply to the broader scope of “life”. No wonder boating can be such an all-encompassing activity. Barriers, goal post moving, setting expectations, Six precenting, self reliance, self awareness. However you decide to spend your time in 2026, hopefully these will help you live life as you wish to. All the best, Todd

The Key! Or maybe just some self-awareness

Roger Taylor in his book Good Boats wrote “the key to choosing the right boat is perhaps self-knowledge more than it is expertise in naval architecture”. In the world of boat shopping, we are always trying to understand where you are trying to go-not physically but emotionally. Yes, boats take you somewhere physically, but you are going to that place because it does something for you emotionally which is why we focus there first. To understand where you are headed on the emotional side may take a little soul searching. You also need to know yourself well enough to understand what price you are willing to pay in time, money and mental bandwidth. Toss these things into the hopper and perhaps the right boat will pop out. The following three steps assume you want to go boating soon, not some undefined date in the hazy future.

First, try to understand the “why you are going to boat”. It may be as simple as it is a fun weekend activity with family and friends, or it might be as epic as trying to instigate a significant change in your life. Whatever your reason, figure it out.

Next let’s “know how you are going to boat” Do you have visions of cruising from Alaska to Mexico yet your current and foreseeable future is a work and a life structure that requires you to be in one location 50 weeks a year? Time to realize that you can boat on the weekends and short holidays but not for months at a time. This may require a speedy cruiser vs. the slow passagemaker you had been envisioning.

Finally (and most difficult I think) lets decide if we are “willing to pay the price”. We all have a mental picture of what our “boating” will look like. We then have to figure out how far our current situation is from that picture. So ask yourself, how likely are we to put in the effort, and make the sacrifices in time and money to achieve that picture? Highly likely? Then carry on…not so much, then time to redraw the picture. And there is no shame in redrawing the picture-it is the right thing to do.

Nothing new here. Take the why, add the how and then decide if you are willing to pay the price. A little self-knowledge will give you a chance at finding the right vessel for you.

The Gripers#$@&!

Boaters are Gripers. I do it, other boaters do it, it’s a thing. And we are griping about a completely optional activity! It is not like someone is forcing us to be boaters.

We complain about insurance -they require too much training, it’s too expensive, they want a periodic insurance survey. Granted we ask them to pay for the results of our, and every other boater’s bad decision and even deferred maintenance-but still!

We complain about our maintenance team- Yep, this is the group that were sitting around all winter while we were skiing, or in the desert. Now we are trying to leave for the Memorial Day Cruise, which we clearly told them about 3 days ago and they are still not done with the annual maintenance! It is so hard to find good help these days that can READ MY MIND.

We complain about the boatyard-those goofballs! I called and gave them a brief 30 second description of a complex problem and now they are late and over budget! And to heap more hardship on me, the coffee I am swilling for free tastes like tar! Why don’t they have a De’Longhi Magnifica Evo Espresso machine!

We complain about our marina- the money grubbers, they raised my rates 3% this year! Can you believe it! Sure, their expenses went up 25% but they should absorb that!

We gripe about the weather, sailors complain about powerboaters and powerboaters complain about sailors. We whine about the wait at the Ballard Locks and the wait time on the Garmin support line. We vent at length about the latest whizzbangy gizmo we bought on Instagram that turns out to not be very whizzbangy. You name it, we’ve got something to say. We train in the art of griping like elite athletes.

I used to think that boating was a chance to see the beauty of nature and spend time with family and friends, but I have finally realized it is even better than that. Boating gives us the chance to enjoy human’s favorite pastime-griping!

A Little Self-Reliance= Less Boating Stress

Boats are complicated and they have gotten more complicated as time moves on, just as everything else has. When was the last time you looked under the hood of your car, I mean, why would you, what is all that stuff? If it quits working just call AAA or the dealer.

With boats, we do have some resources to call upon when our boat quits boating. But it is not quite as easy as your car and for many of us part of the allure of boating to get a bit remote. If you are boating in a remote area and something stops working, then what do you do?

I recommend you spend a little time understanding how your boat works. At this point, I could give you a long list of technical items to review, document, become familiar with. Don’t worry, I won’t, simply try to think of your boat as a floating city. They have their own source of power and water. It has a system to dispose of waste and a system that moves you from point A to B. And finally, a structure that keeps you out of the water below and hopefully shields you from the water above.

Depending on the size and age of your own Little Toot, these systems may be simple or complicated and highly technical. There may be duplication-if you have twin engines, that’s easy to identify, but you may also have two or even three sources of electricity (shore power, batteries, generator) which is less easy. Some items have two functions. Your engine can push you through the water AND charge your batteries.

Now the homework, take the time to identify which components belong to which system and what it does. Not how it does it, leave that to the technical folks, but simply what is the thingamajiggy supposed to be doing. Again, depending on the complexity of your boat, you may need some help identifying and understanding what everything is, and it may take some time, but I promise, it will make your boating less stressful. There is nothing less fun than getting away from it all and suddenly having your boat stop doing what it is supposed to be doing, and you have no idea why. A little knowledge may make the difference between resolving an issue on your own or with a little phone support- or having to call for someone to come out and assist.

Six-percenters & Somedayers

There is a common stat out there that only 6% of people follow through on their goals. Which means there is a whopping 94% of people who think about having a boat and never will.

That is a pretty staggering number when you think about it. Only 6%! Some will decide that a boat is not right for them and will move on to other things they will accomplish. Those are not the folks we are talking about. We are talking about the Somedayers- they will move forward, then back off deciding that right now is not a good time for them but someday… And as we have all heard, “Someday” is not a day on the calendar.

Somedayers do hours of research, they call broker after broker to discuss a variety of boats. They build spreadsheets comparing costs and features and they haunt the boat shows.

Somedayers set impossible criteria that no boat could ever meet, which absolves them of any responsibility for not making the final decision.

Somedayers spend hours on the internet sending in request after request for “additional information” which they never act upon.

So far this sounds like I am on my high horse and that I could never be a Somedayer, but here is the kicker, we are all Somedayers about different things. And the sooner we can realize what we “someday” about, we can take the efforts we are wasting and put that energy towards goals we will achieve. After all, wouldn’t we all prefer to be a Six-percenter rather than a Somedayer?

Is it Really Work?

One of the constant refrains I hear from folks looking for a boat is that they want zero wood on the exterior and certainly do not want to see any varnish. They are looking for minimal maintenance because maintenance conflicts with the boating experience. I have an older Grand Banks with a varnished transom, rails and trim on the exterior. It takes 40 hours a year to scuff, tape and topcoat all that varnish. And once done, there is some light maintenance throughout the season, which some would consider an annoying hinderance to enjoying their boating hours. My take is a little different

I am enjoying an early morning cup of coffee in the salon while the boat drifts around at anchor on glassy water. It rained last night, and the rails are covered with drops. The clouds are starting to break up and soon it will be time to wipe down the rails. I finish up, put on my rain boots, grab a towel and squeegee. As I get started on the “miles” of varnished rails and trim, the sun breaks through and lights up each drop before the towel takes it away. Too soon I am done and this post-rain-ritual that is so important to my boating experience is complete. Oh well, I console myself, the ship is well cared for and there is another cup of coffee waiting.

I wonder, in an effort to reduce the boat to just a vehicle to take us to the experience, do we skip experiencing the bond forged between ship and caretaker? I think author Kathrene Pinkerton said it well in 1940.  “We thought a home afloat would only be an instrument for comfortable living while we wandered. ..for a ship comes to dwell in the hearts of the men who serve her, and for them she becomes alive. When that has happened, man and boat possess one another, and sacrifice and service are the expressions of that love.

Whimsical fantasy I know, but in our hyper-hustle-achieve-much world, perhaps a little whimsy isn’t so bad. And I know that for at least 40 hours every spring, I get to disconnect as another coat of varnish rolls on and another strand in the bond, is created.