In 1985 we moved to Idaho and shortly after our arrival, I visited our Association camp on Payette Lake. It was a gorgeous, pristine site on a protected cove of a beautiful alpine lake. The camp had four old fiberglass canoes that had been heavy to start with and had gained pounds through numerous paint jobs and repairs over the years. There was a small sailing dinghy that leaked so badly that if you were solo sailing, you had to hold the tiller with your left hand and bail with your right on a port tack. No worries, you got to switch hands when you turned to tack on the other side. And there was paddleboat that you pedaled with more than half of its rudder broke off. Even after I fashioned a new rudder out of aluminum, the boat steered poorly and the pedal bushings were so worn that it made a terrible screeching noise.

Over the next decade I worked with a team of dedicated leaders who developed a first-rate water sports camp. Our teens had a full day of water safety instruction including certification in CPR, a day of wind-surfing, a day of small craft sailing, a day of ACA certified canoe instruction and a half-day whitewater raft trip on the North Fork of the Payette River. In order to support the program I was personally involved in the purchase of four sailboats, three canoes and six wind surf boards. I brokered donations, bought used equipment and raised funds to support the camp.

Along the way, I made my first woodstrip canoe, a 17’ tandem canoe, made from plans with very few tools. Later I found a Sunfish hull on a boatyard scrap heap, rescued it, salvaged a mast and sail from another scrap yard, bought a used trailer, made a centerboard and rudder and sailed it for a couple of years. I came close to breaking even when I sold the boat for $150. Since those days, I have made two more canoes, two kayaks and rescued an additional canoe from the scrap heap. I restored an antique canoe for a friend. I also have purchased two plastic kayaks.

So I’ve been involved in buying and building enough boats to know a little bit about the process.

If you add up all of the money I have spent on boats in my life, including the funds I raised and invested on behalf of the camp and the money I have spent on my own boats, the total would be about the same as the purchase price of an Iridium satellite phone system for a yacht. That’s right, there are yachts in harbors with telephones that cost more than all of the boats I have ever been involved in purchasing. Over the next few weeks yacht owners will be assembling in several different locations to compete in Caribbean Regattas. Some of these will be class races, where all of the competing boats will be the same make and model. The buy-in for some of those yachts is in the $6 to $8 million range.

The people who own that kind of boat would be quick to say that I know nothing about buying boats. They also would be quick to point out that I know nothing about sailing. I certainly don’t have enough knowledge or experience to operate their boats.

But I doubt if there are any owners of those boats who have had as much fun in the water as I have had. I wonder if any of them have spent a week with a teenager who began the week afraid of the water and ended up laughing as she was splashed while riding a raft down a Class III rapid. I bet none of them have sat in a rowboat coaching a 14-year-old through the first raising of a windsurf sail. Do they know the joy of gunwale walking a canoe or directing a brand-new stern paddler through a course of floats yelling “the other left! Your other left!”

I’m willing to bet that I watched more sunrises from the surface of the water last year than most of those yacht owners.

It is simply true that you don’t get more enjoyment out of boating by spending more money. The ones who spend the most money aren’t the ones who ge the most joy.

And I’m pretty sure that subscribers to Yachting Magazine don’t get as much fun out of reading their magazines as I do from my subscription to Messing About in Boats. Each month I receive 60 pages of small print in a black and white magazine that wasn’t produced by a team of graphic designers, but has stories about boats by people who really enjoy them. I can’t imagine what kind of people own multi-million dollar yachts. I don’t know any of them. But I suspect I could really have fun with Johnny Mack, who built a “Fullly Cup Holdered, Low Impact, All Purpose, Expeditionary Slow Cruiser” out of salvage parts on a $250 budget. I know I’d rather take a trip on the Erie Canal with Johnny than crew one of the yachts racing in the Caribbean next month. In addition to not being an expert in sailing, I know nothing of proper vintages of fine wines and wouldn’t know how to buy a bottle for the yacht owner. I’d have no problem picking out a six pack of beer as a gift for Johnny.

I’m pretty sure that God never intended for me to be rich. What makes that work out is that I’m perfectly happy with that as well. I get a bigger kick out of going to the hardware store with $20 in my pocket than I would going to a boat show with a million dollars.

Besides, none of my boats seem to have need of a telephone. If you call me around sunrise on a summer morning, be prepared to leave a message. My phone will be in the car in the parking lot. Who wants a phone call to interrupt sunrise solitude on a gorgeous lake?

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