For Want of a Boat

Here it is another exciting Saturday night.  I’m at work, as usual.  Lunchtime is a little late today thanks to an airplane getting ready to leave, and the usual rush rush rush to get everything done. 

I decided I want a boat.  Which I need like a hole in my head.  So it is fitting:  A hole in the water instead.

I want an old boat, gotta be wood.  I really don’t care what brand it is.  I would prefer a Chris-Craft, but anything that fits the criteria would do.  I’m thinking 17’ to 22’ in length, wooden hull, inboard engine  of any kind (well, except a diesel, yuk), and has to have enough room for my and the family. 

There are lots of them out there for sale, most of them either expensive (relatively), or all torn down and a restoration started, and they want too much money for it being in that condition in my opinion.  I’m looking for one that is all together still.  Preferably with the interior not all rotten, but I could make some seats for it if I had to.  The engine must be at least fixable.  And the hull, well as long as I can epoxy it and paint it up to look decent, I don’t care if it’s rotten.  Well, there are limits of course.  If the wood is so rotten it’s crumbling away, then it won’t work for me.  I’m looking for something I can put back into service for a few years, and if I fall in love with it for some reason, then I’ll tear it down and restore it. 

I even have some name ideas for it.  Emblazoned in gold lettering (isn’t that what you put on the back of a mahogany boat?) on the back of the transom.  Something like Rotten, or Rotted.  I assume Worm Wood is too obvious.  Maybe the first two are as well.  So maybe in a different language? 

Verrot ; Rosse ; Verfault ; Mostruoso ; Podre  ?  All different ways to say Rotten.

Just a thought, all for the boat I’ll probably never get.  Not like I don’t have enough other stuff to do.  Like work on the house, and fix all the things around here that need it.  Yeah, I need a hobby.  Like a hole in the water. 

So what do I need?  I’m not sure.

I have a good job.  I have a wife.  I have three kids.  I have three dogs, and a hamster.  Not to mention several mice and chipmunks I am sure in the garages.  Have a house, two cars, an old motorcycle.  More stuff than I can use around the house. 

So really, what do I need?

In reality, I need so little.  I already have so much.  As long as I have my family and love in my life; what more is there?

So maybe I’ll just keep looking at boats for fun.  My father always said that the looking, and the accompanying research and such, is as much or more fun than buying.  In the case of an old high maintenance boat, I suspect he was more than adequately correct.

Cheers