I’ve had a rowboat under construction in my garage for the last four or five months. I work at it when I have a little spare time and it is nearing completion. Over the next few weeks I’ll be sanding and varnishing, then sanding and varnishing some more. I think I need about four coats of varnish to protect the wood of the boat’s interior. It is probably the largest boat-building project I’ve undertaken. It took me longer to build a woodstrip kayak, which is a smaller boat and the two times that I have re-canvasssed canoes the jobs turned out to be bigger than I anticipated. The point is that I am, so far, not the kind of person who tackles the construction of a yacht in his garage.

The canoe is sometimes called “the poor man’s yacht” and I do take pride in my boats. I enjoy paddling them and I enjoy talking about them with anyone who is interested. I don’t mind pulling up to a rest stop with a trailer with hand-made boats and striking up a conversation with some other traveler who has noticed the varnished surfaces and admires the wood grain.

Back in 1998 I built a small cedar strip canoe from plans obtained from Mac McCarthy. It is a solo canoe and I usually use a double paddle to propel the craft like a kayak. Although it doesn’t have decks covering it, I did craft a couple of bulkheads and install them in the ends to provide a couple of air chambers and a place to store a few items. I didn’t know how to make covers for the access holes in the bulkheads, so I ordered a couple of plastic deck plates from a boating supply company. They work great and I am using a similar plate to give access to the space under the seat of the rowboat I’m building.

I don’t remember how I found the company from which I ordered the deck plates. I guess I just looked online, or perhaps I got a tip from another boat builder. At any rate, the place from which I ordered it is a company that specializes in selling parts and supplies to yacht racers. I ended up on their mailing list and now I get catalogues from a half dozen yacht suppliers. You might think that they would notice that I live in South Dakota and nowhere near an ocean, but they persist in sending me catalogues. I’m sure that over the years they’ve spent more money sending me catalogues than I have spent purchasing items from their companies. I’m simply not a big customer.

The catalogues do, however, expose me to a world that is far different from anything I’ve known. A couple of the catalogues have large sections of specialty clothing. I think that there may be a couple of caps that are preferred by canoe people, but other than that, I don’t know of any specialty clothing that we wear. We’re pretty much a jeans and t-shirt crowd. I suppose you could call a wet suit or a dry suit a piece of specialty clothing, but I’ve never owned either. I usually paddle with a wind-breaker if I need a jacket and a big floppy hat to keep the sun off of my face. I do have a pretty nice pair of gloves that keep my hands dry when paddling in cold weather. That’s about it. I have a catalogue that has four or five pages of specialty shoes for yachting. There are pages of shirts and slacks and socks. And the section of fowl weather gear is impressive. I thought of finding myself a new rain jacket in one of those catalogues, but for the most part the prices are out of my range.

After you get through the clothing, there is no small amount of equipment. There are the sort of things you would expect: paddles and oars, boathooks, anchors, deck hardware, paint, sealers and adhesives. One thing that surprises me is the extensive array of electronics that are available for boats. There are marine radios, GPS units, antennas and accessories, a lot of different instruments, depth sounders and more. There are radio systems for boats that cost more than the most expensive of my little boats. There are fancy antennas designed for mounting on masts and special enclosures for radar and other electronics.

I guess that none of this should surprise me. There are a lot of fancy boats in this world and fancy boats require lots of specialty items. There are plenty of people who have more money to spend on their recreational activities than I. And there are a few folks who are so caught up in yachts and yacht racing that they are willing to devote all of their resources to their sport.

For me, however, the catalogues are mostly entertainment. I enjoy paging through them from time to time just to see what kinds of things they are offering for sale. It is, however, a waste of resources to send me the catalogues. They usually end up in the recycling bin the same day they arrive. When I want to order something from one of the companies, I will go to the web site to find what I want. I don’t keep the catalogues around on the chance that I might want something that is in them. And their entertainment value is very limited for me. There are a lot of other things that I’d rather do than sit around looking at a catalogue.

I suspect that it is a good thing that I live a long way from the ocean. Based on how much time I spend at the hardware store, I think that living near a real ship chandler would be dangerous. When I can see and handle items prior to purchase, I often discover that there are gadgets that I’d like to own. When I have traveled to the coast, I find myself in “need” of a new handsaw or a shiny brass fitting to add to one of my boats.

I may not be a sucker for the catalogues, but they can get me with an aisle end display or an impulse bin. I know. I have a coupon for the hardware store and nothing that I need. I may stop in on my way home from work anyway. You never know what they might have.

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