Talk about stuff that gets up my nose...
Boat bucks!
Not so much the fact that we, from time to time, have to spend money on our boats but the fact that we have been trained to think it is natural and proper to pay excessive money for goods and services and be proud of it. Sort of like announcing to the world...
"Hey, I'm stupid and it makes me happy"
Of course, folks in the marine trades just love to hear clients/customers/marks use or think in terms of a phrase like "boat bucks" because it says loud and clear...
"Hey, I'm a cash cow!"
So, hardly surprising that some marine tradesmen and traders might take advantage.
Maybe it's just me, but where I come from a buck is a buck, as in 100 cents, and I suspect most folks of the VolksCruiser ilk tend to agree with me.
That said, some folks would be lost without the ability to bemoan how many "boat bucks" they're spending in a transparent ruse to tell people how much money they have in the ongoing pissing/dick measuring game so popular with a certain kind of boater who actually likes to use the term "yacht" when referring to his/her boat.
As it happens, I just bought a new (to me) mainsail and it only cost me about $400 which included shipping down to the Caribbean from New England. For those who are interested it is in excellent shape with pretty close to new cloth and will easily give a bunch of years of cruising service. For those who keep track of such things, I do have to cut down the sail a kiss to make it fit my needs but we're only talking about a few hours of labor... No boat bucks involved.
I mention this because there is almost ALWAYS an alternative to spending boat bucks or silly money for those of us in the land of frugal sailing and cruising and it's not even a lot of work or hassle...
All you have to do is use your brain before you reach for your wallet.
