A former boss told a story once that was super relatable.
It was about change and how it's not always necessary.... He went on about how one business changed their payment policies so that everything was done by some kind of payment card, they wouldn't accept cash/cheque with their new system.
He was basically bitching about having to pay by card for something he usually pays for by cheque.
The super relatable service that "pulled this on him"? It was a dry dock for his boat.
Yep. Super relatable bossman. I can barely pay my bills on what I'm paid, and you're being super relatable talking about how you store your boat in the winter. 🖕
I have a friend who grew up on the coast and her family always sailed for fun.
When she got divorced she bought a sailboat and traveled for a bit in it. She then parked it at a marina and lived in it for so many years close to her kids and grandkids. She paid $100K for boat and her marina fees were $300/month. The boat was paid off with the divorce settlement.
The cheapest 1 bedroom apartment to rent nearby was $3500/month for less square footage than her boat. The cheapest small house was around $1,000,000 or around $6000/ month at the time. The homes around the marina were all priced at several million dollars.
A city of 250,000 people could have 250 boats (that's enough for a marina or two) and it would be 0.01% of the population (the one percent of the one percent). That seems to not really be that crazy.
And if you consider that a small percentage of the boat population may have 2 or even 3 boats, than it gets even less weird.
I also think that if you live near water, people are generally at least a little more likely to get a boat instead of a nice car or bigger house or other luxury item.
Edit: I was off by an order of magnitude so it would be 0.1% not 0.01, however, I think the broader point is still valid.
I'm kinda one of them. Well my dad is. He's typical of the boat owners I've met over the years. Boomer, business owner, white. He bought the first boat with a buddy in their late 20s, cuz that's when he had enough disposable income after they could afford a house, a rental property, two kids, two cars, a dog and a golf course membership. They had a falling out and my dad bought out his buddy. Three or four boats later I look after the boat, and do all the maintenance. My dad's in his 70s, he can't take the boat out on his own anymore. We go fishing 5 or 6 times a year. Moorage is $6000 a year, fuel is $2000, insurance $3000, maintenance at least $2000. Maintenance would be 10x that if I didn't do most of the work myself.
Sailboats aren’t prohibitively expensive for a normie, especially if you buy a used one. If you look at the large empty houses near every harbor though, you’ll see a better sign of the wealth disparity. The rich own multiple houses worth millions each and they seem to be rarely used while many people can’t afford a starter home now.
Some people don't even really sail them but live in them.
boats aren't expensive, especially the older they are. fixing boats properly is expensive, but you also don't really need to do that. My dad had a racing boat when I was a kid, it cost him $400.. I bought a dinghy last year for $200. That's less than the cost of a game console. And it costs literally nothing to go take it out on the water.
When I was a kid, my aunt owned a small one. She’d bring it to my house where my dad and my uncle did repairs.
We were by no means a rich family. It was a two bedroom house with my parents and 3 kids.
I imagine the most expensive part of these are probably dock fees?
I have the same feeling when I'm around neighbourhoods with nice houses, real estate is crazy around here so I know the prices and so even anything remotely "nice" or "big" or "not touching the neighbours but they're kinda right there" is in the millions immediately. Can't help wondering who all these people are.
The answer of course is generational wealth, same with the boats.
A friend of mine used to work in a yacht club, albeit a very small one on a river, not the sea. He was firmly convinced that at least half of the boats belonged to the owners of craft businesses. He was of the opinion that the boats were bought with black money, either to be able to do something with the money or to sell the boats again later and launder the money that way. I don't know if that's true.
Your neighbor owns one of these boats, try harder OP.
Floating homes for alcoholics? Pretty much anyone who can sign a down payment contract.
It's usually a divorced guy
It’s like when you drive through an area that’s all McMansions you’re like “how they hell are there this many people with enough money and poor enough taste to own all these McMansions”? I guess the thing is that money people property sprawls out, whereas most of us live in a container city down a hole clustered around a sewer outlet so thousands don’t take up that much space.
The crab people.
Them Bucklanders, obviously.
I suspect technically insurance companies own most of the boats, they just don't know it yet
They aren’t as expensive as you think especially the shitty sailboats
People selling boats.
I've had this awesome teacher. He was a boating and train nerd and looked the part.
This is a different kind of boat, but I met someone recently who lives in a houseboat like this and apparently it works out cheaper than buying a house near where they work. It's moored on the Thames, some way upriver from London.
The funniest part was how relatively normal this person was. They work as a lawyer.
Ah you are on to John Boatman I see....
The boats are just coming back from the migration season.
It's the same with mansions and drop-dead gorgeous women; a small percentage (of men/boatowners/landlords/...) gets the grand majority of the boats/mansions/women. This isn't new, this has been true throughout all of history. But it is getting worse though.
Who owns the lake?
They're just decepticons!
