Just need to vent...

gag gifts - just make me so angry ! My mon gave my dad a desert plate sized blue painted tin placard with a 1/4 manila rope border around the edge. It's inscription was " a boat is a hole in the water into which one pours money". It hung in the family 25 ft. 1935 Chris Craft Streamline Cruiser for about 10 years while money was poured into it,

 

My dad owned a 32' twin screw Owens Cabin Cruiser which was welded to the dock of my Uncle's Marina for 10 years during my childhood.

It left the dock under it's own power exactly twice.
Once when we went out for a day trip as a family, and once when my sweet mom had the gas dock attendants fetch it from the slip and she took it out for an afternoon alone after she 'shared her thinking' with my dad about ROI.
Being a somewhat know-it-all lad (then as now) of 15 years I bet my mom that I could get the boat under way unassisted.
My dad 'read the room' and it was sold VERY shortly thereafter!
Dad got the boat nearly free and sold it the same way.
A painful lesson learned, if not cheaply.

Two happiest days of a boat owners life.....
(IYNYN)

Stern Shot:
Boats are hard for some people (mostly dudes) to resist!
I was pondering just now what I might have done if I had been presented with an opportunity to inherit that same boat .....

 

as are over-the-top - head turning cars. They are opportunities to wastefully drop a ton of money into.
.

 

My boss and I had this same conversation just yesterday when he showed me pictures of his (USED!) nearly $50K trail rated Jeep.
I told him that he could at least drive it get takeout.

 

Getting stuffy in here, need more vents...

 

Here is my poor man's answer to owning a boat.
I use it for fishing trips on our local lakes and creeks:
Sea Eagle SE 330 2 person Inflatable Kayak. Package Prices starting at $249 plus FREE Shipping

It requires no gas, motor or registration fee and has given me more fun times than I could post here. It is inflatable and comes with a duffle bag for it and all the accessories - you just throw it in the car and then over your shoulder to hike where you want then inflate and fish. I've had it 20 years and it has never sprung a leak in that time and after taking some very ambitious trips with it. At my age now I don't take it out near as much as I did initially.