A Wish: for a Thrifty Versatile Boat

I see aluminum fishing boats on trailers in driveways by the thousands around here. And a good quarter of them seem to be for sale at a given time—$800 will probably do ya, and get a decent motor, too. I’m sure these rigs are a couple grand new. Maybe up to $3K.

I wonder if one reason they aren’t used much is that each owner has had a break-down experience, or has run out of gas. And then suffered wretchedly. A typical broke-down bass-boat is a true pain in the butt, I imagine. And what’s the biggest reason why? –They don’t have oars!

I only rarely see a set of oars in one of these rigs. So if you break down your whole day might be shot and vexed. But with oars, you could at least get back to the dock readily enough. (If you’re not a total couch-slug, ahem—ruling out way too many Americans, I know.)

The upshot is that these boats sit in the driveway more than they should.

Maybe. It’s a theory.

Anyway, here’s my dream: Why not have an aluminum fishing boat with a bit nicer lines to it—tuck the stern in a bit more, widen the mid-section. Include a truly nice set of oars. Install a smaller outboard (easier to take on and off, for sure). Then why not put a hole in a forward seat and include 3 little spars…to raise a little gaff-rig sail on a breezy day. With these two additions (uh, and a set of rudder pintles) you get a 3-Way Boat instead of a sled that’s dead in the water for anything but noisy motor-blasting. I’d love to slap down 800 clams for someone’s hand-me-down if it was like that! And you’d think that folks with jobs wouldn’t mind paying $3K for something like that new—it sure wouldn’t hurt their fishing any and it would add so much more.

There are literally MILLIONS of boats sold that are ALMOST useful in these ways. Adding this functionality would add a hundred bucks to production costs.

Here’s an almost interesting stat: small boat sailing, rowing, and canoeing were the very top activities in America in the 1890’s. Amazing to think that the beauty and health and sustainability of such activities could drop as far as they have.

I tell ya, people, Americans are almost fed up with being slobs. First, bike touring is going to be the new black. It’ll be so cool to ride your bike on a self-supported weekend that you’ll be shocked. The next step will be non-slob boats. Fitness is going to come out of the gym. Disease, delusion and slobbery is going to lose its cachet, I swear! It’s so passe’ already! Folks everywhere are waking up to the fact that a twist-grip life ain’t a life a’tall. And that making stinky noise to wreck your neighbors’ lives really isn’t right. A breeze is free! The average boat outing of a couple miles is as easily done with oars as a motor—what’s a few minutes? Once almost every American is bankrupt we’ll wake up to what a sweet thing the Quiet Sports are! (Ahem.)

Anyway, these kinds of boats do exist today. Fine specimens, too. Worth every penny. They’re just out of my personal $ league. The Norseboat is one. The Sea Pearl is another. These are boats that are about 18 feet long and can be rowed, sailed, motored (altho the Sea Pearl is 21 feet). A few folks can even camp aboard them. Boom tents can be readily acquired. They run about $13K new, which makes sense because these are small shop productions. (And you only have to add metal flake to a fishing boat to get that pricey.)

The versatile boat concept has also helped inspire the whole big plywood homebuilt backyard boat scene. Although I’m gathering that my dream-boat size is a bit big for stitch’n’glue.

NEW COMPLETE VERSATILE BOATS…

www.marine-concepts.com/sp21.html

www.seapearlboats.org/

A couple Sea Pearl pics: