Biggest problem with boating?

[Lars113]

Hello everyone
I'm fairly new to owning a boat and also have just a smaller one for entering int this but very excited already.
If you could solve one problem with Boating what would it be and why?

 

[john_morris_uk]

The commonly held view that boating is elitist and only for the super rich. You can have lots of fun on a fairly miserly budget.

Our daughter bought a little sailboat and trailer for a few hundred £. Last year she and I sailed it to Cherbourg and back.

 

[William_H]

The biggest problem of boating is in the inclinations of the skipper. It can all seem a wonderful dream. Just that when you get the boat you either love it or end up not using it. The most common problem of boating "I havn't got time to get out there and do it". Having a boat is stupid if you do not use it often and love it. Something you never really know until you have one. I hope OP finds he does love it and does it often. Problems are there to be overcome. In fact I describe sailing as all crisis management. But fun. ol'will

 

[ChromeDome]

A boat will not be used enough if it is not prioritised. This is also the justification for the costs and time invested.

If you live with a partner, a boat can strengthen the bond or really put it to the test if the interest is not shared or it is recognised from the start that one of you is a boat nerd.

Boats tend to take up all the free time you have - and more, because an interest is always lurking somewhere in your brain. You take a detour to see something or go to exhibitions for hours on end.
Edit: Or spend a lot of time on boat forum(s)

Alignment of expectations is essential before putting any part of the family fortune into a dream.

This applies to other interests too, by the way: Horses, cars, garden, house, travelling, art - you name it.

 

[38mess]

That the dream will turn into reality.
A lovely young couple in a yard nearby took two years to refit a 30ft yacht for a circumnavigation.
On the maiden voyage they got lost in fog in the Irish sea, panicked called the lifeboat and got towed in. The boat went up for sale the next week and they went their separate ways.
Sad tale

 

[Gixer]

The cost of parts and accessories. As soon as it’s got ‘marine’ written on it the price doubles. Why? I’ve got no idea!

 

[Sandy]

Spilling tea in a choppy sea.

 

[RunAgroundHard]

The lack of tax incentives for boat owners. The value of my boat and boat spend should be given back to me as a tax credit.

 

[Snowgoose-1]

If sailing in the the UK the WEATHER .

 

[Praxinoscope]

The commonly held view that boating is elitist and only for the super rich. You can have lots of fun on a fairly miserly budget.

Our daughter bought a little sailboat and trailer for a few hundred £. Last year she and I sailed it to Cherbourg and back.

If only our local council that maintains the harbour could divest themselves of the illusion that boat owners are rich and can be extorted for money, we are being 'soaked' 33% increase in harbour fees this year with planned 25% per year over the next 4 years.
Several owners are now looking at selling.

 

[vyv_cox]

If only our local council that maintains the harbour could divest themselves of the illusion that boat owners are rich and can be extorted for money, we are being 'soaked' 33% increase in harbour fees this year with planned 25% per year over the next 4 years.
Several owners are now looking at selling.

Becoming a serious problem in Greece now, no longer the cheap cruising ground it was. Ports where we paid €8 overnight are now €40. Charter fleets happily pay this, pushing private owners out. Coupled with massive overcrowding in the Ionian, thanks partly to covid after-effects, we will very probably go elsewhere after 15 years.

 

[rogerthebodger]

As the world economy takes a nose dive and tax income is lost all governments and local authority will look to any way to incease income without loosiing votes.

Tax the perceived rich is always the way governments and local authority will always go.

 

[johnalison]

The biggest problem in boating is in ensuring that you and everyone else are enjoying themselves. This means that the skipper has to be confident and in control of the boat and his or her temper. This itself demands a level of competence, which can only come from study and experience, and how to do this can be testing, since it requires meeting challenges without exceeding one's competence. The most relaxing way is watching other people's mistakes, something that many of us here specialise in.

 

[Sailing steve]

Supply and demand. Marinas in the SE are pretty full and can charge as much as they please so long as it keep them full.

Whilst it's quite understandable, the difficulty with any owner saying sod this and selling up is the boat that's being sold isn't going to disapear into thin air or deprive the marina industry of a penny and all the office will do on any sale is send their invoices to the next owner leaving the current one lamenting the loss of an enjoyable hobby.

Yes marina fees and charges are expensive - in many cases probably way more than they ought to be. But unless a substantial number of boats are removed from the market entirely resulting in under occupation and dozens of empty berths which would hopefully kick off a price war between various marina groups they can simply carry on milking berth holders and for as much as they can and there's nothing that can be done.

 

[boomerangben]

The mindset of bigger is better

 

[RupertW]

The mindset of bigger is better

But it is

 

[jlavery]

But it is

Until it's not.

 

[Praxinoscope]

Sailing Steve #14, your post is probably very accurate in describing the situation in the more populated sailing areas (South Coast and parts of East Coast) but don't completely hold water in the less populated areas, we no longer have a waiting list in our harbour and about 20% of moorings are lying empty, so upping the mooring fees is just deterring potential users and prompting current users to consider leaving.

 

[RunAgroundHard]

Flag etiquette and the shame of lowering ones burgee at sunset before the most senior burgee has been lowered.

 

[TwoFish]

If you could solve one problem with Boating what would it be and why?

Spambots cluttering up boating forums.