The upside of DIY...

The other day a reader dropped me a line where the subject of DIY came up and he pointed out that, unlike me, he could afford to hire folks to do work for him and if you had to DIY you might want to consider something other than yachting as a lifestyle decision...

Not the first time I've heard that opinion and, I expect, most folks of the VolkCruiserish ilk will hear it as well.

What the reader in question doesn't quite get is that the advantages of doing work on your boat and its systems yourself has a great number of advantages which improve the sailing and cruising experience and the fact that it also allows you to save money in the process is just an added perk which is no bad thing.

Sadly, too many of the marine trades are not just over-priced but also woefully short on the needed skills that they charge you for. I've seen too many projects and repairs done by various contractors that not only did not fix the needful repairs but wound up creating more damage and problems that would be left for someone else to fix.  

An advantages of doing your own work is that you actually know how things are put together on your boat and that gives you the skill set to fix it when or if it needs to be sorted out. Sure there's a learning curve but it's a fairly easy one as almost all boat related work is just minimum wage level stuff mixed with common sense.

No rocket science involved.

Being able to handle maintenance and repairs is both empowering and adds greatly to the overall safety of the boat and its crew. Which, from where I sit, are the two most important reasons to get your DIY groove on.

Lastly, doing work that fixes things is mostly enjoyable and satisfying. Of course, not everyone enjoys all boat work and I'll be the first to admit I really do not like working on internal combustion engines as it's a UGH job as far as I'm concerned, Still, in spite of the UGH nature of working on engines, I find it especially satisfying when I'm able to fix one.

I'll also add that saving money is a game I really enjoy and the perks of doing my own work adds up to a considerable chunk of change in the process which makes DIY that much more enjoyable. Then again, some folks don't mind paying $4.99 for a  twenty-five cent machine screw and take pride in throwing around how much they paid for stuff as a badge of honor. Not sure where you stand on such things but the whole Boat Buck mentality seems somewhat questionable at best.

Oh yeah, on the whole yacht thing... I don't own a yacht, don't want to own a yacht, and cringe whenever I hear a boat described as a yacht or a person sailing it a yachtsman. So I'm not exactly the sort of person who would ever consider yachting as a lifestyle.

Nobody (important) really cares...

Face it, a lot of folks put far too much importance on what other people think...

Ya think?

I've lost track of the number of times someone has told me that they'd love to go cruising but they can't afford to do it in the style and fashion they believe is required to fit in comfortably in what they seem to believe is some sort of high school fashion clique from hell.

Or, to use a more concrete example, that if you show up in an anchorage with a funky classic plastic or homebuilt that you'll find yourself in the equivalent of social hell or limbo, people will point in derision, and you won't get to hang out with the cool kids...

Of course, none of us ever want to repeat our angst-ridden high school experiences so I do get the fear of not fitting in and it's understandable.

But...

Here's the thing, most everyone is so busy worrying that they won't fit in and you'll be judging them, that they really don't give a shit what sort of boat you show up in at an anchorage.

Really.

Which is not to say there are not a few patheticly insecure folk whose only coping mechanism is to try and make other people's lives miserable. Lucky for us they are a tiny minority of the folks out cruising and tend to posse-up with other like-minded damaged souls and, since they pretty much stay amongst themselves, they're really not all that problematic and not important at all.

Yeah, just like high school.

On money keeping you safe or keeping the riff raff out...

Over at Estrellita 5.10B (always a good read) they have a great post concerning fear and it got me thinking...

As it happens, I was also trying to digest just why a thread about the possibility of a $15,000 bluewater cruiser over at Cruisers Forum irritated me so much.

I've gone on record that I don't think the moniker "Blue Water" should ever be used in conjunction with the words design, sailboat, or gear. I feel boats should be seaworthy whether you sail a couple of miles or a couple of thousand and the idea that it's alright to go somewhere in an unsafe or unseaworthy boat as long as it's "coastal" is somewhat flawed logic.

Also, it goes without saying that sticking the words "Blue Water" and a large price tag on a boat's description does not make it a safe or seaworthy boat...

Looking at the Cruisers Forum thread again with the word fear freshly imprinted on my mind all of a sudden it all makes some kind of perverted sense.

Fear is an interesting emotion and one that will, more than likely, destroy what was once a great experiment in democracy and, if fear can bring a great empire to its knees, just imagine what it can do to people who simply want to go sailing...

Of course, there are many seaworthy boats and a lot of them can be bought for $15,000 or less. For an example take a look at the CAL34 but there are any number of boats in the 26 through 38-foot range with small price tags that will take you safely anywhere you care to go.