Sunday, December 30, 2007

Time

While showing WhisperIII, I was asked if I find it harder to work on a boat as time goes by. Do you find yourself wanting to spend more time sailing, rather than making improvements? My initial thought was that the boat must look like crap to prompt such a question. I started thinking about all the projects that I wanted to complete on WhisperIII, and I realized that ten years have gone by in a flash! Questions about the boat brought me back through it's history. I remember talking about these projects a long time ago, and I started wondering what my excuse was for not getting these things done. I'm not talking about regular maintenance, or fixes, but things like teak care, waxing, replacement ports, etc. One reason would be money I guess. The other more acceptable reason would be time, or the lack of it. We launch our boats in May, then haul them out in September. Between that time there are weekends for sailing, or projects. There are in fact about twenty two weekends of which to accomplish some of these things. If you are married( marry a sailor!), subtract at least 3 of these weekends for visits to relatives, craft shows, friends, etc. Bad weather weekends account for about 3 to 6 depending on where you live, and the state of climate change, El Ni'no and stuff. So now you could be left with about thirteen weekends. If any of these weekends offer great sailing conditions, which you hope they do, then your project weekends dwindle even more. So why the hell would anyone buy a boat from up here? I guess you have to find those retired guys, that store their boats inside all winter. On the plus side, boats up here are cocooned, or preserved for seven months, and if the skipper is a hardy soul, can be worked on with a decent heater, and some fine spiced rum :) I remember taking a week off to paint the deck, and showing up at the marina with all the tools, brushes and paint mixing stuff in the cart. This was a great week of work in the hot sun. I loved it. I felt quite a bit of pride in getting something done to make the old girl look pretty. So I guess given enough precious time, I would get some projects done. We just need to be more efficient... as time goes by.