They also spend who only sail and toil
Issue 48 : May/Jun 2006
Some time ago I participated in a government survey focusing on the national economy. It was interested in the buying habits of the public: what had we just bought and what were we going to buy soon? I’m afraid I was a disappointment to them. Not just me. The whole family. On the other hand, I wasn’t all too thrilled with them, either.
For starters, they referred to our family as “a consumer unit.” Then they failed to understand the priorities in life (that being sailing-related activities), assuming that we were somehow like everyone else on our street. A cross-section of Americana, as it were. But we weren’t. I figure we represented the folks at the far end of the consumer spectrum. After all, they need a champion too.
The surveyors wanted to know, for example, if in the past 6, 12, or 18 months we’d purchased a household appliance. No. Any electronic equipment? No. Automobiles? No, not at that time anyway. Household furniture? Negative again. Homes? And so it went. Well how about in the coming 6, 12, or 18 months? Not in the plans. Not for this household (er, consumer unit).
What they didn’t ask about was our marine purchases. Now there we really shine! We bought our first good old boat in the $20,000 range 15 or so years ago and have since put at least that much into it. In fact, much more. And it’s the same for the people who started with a $40,000 good old boat. They still put at least that much more into it.
When we ran out of things to do to that first boat, we bought another boat (a trailerable this time) in the $10,000 range and started again. That one required a three-quarter-ton truck to pull it. So make it another $20,000-something for starters. Now start counting all the modifications and repairs that we’re adding before we launch the boat for the first time.
Always in the budget
There’s the usual seasonal stuff like bottom paint, antifreeze, cleaning items, and so on that are in the budget every year. Marina fees, haulout fees, launch fees. Heck, we even buy a skosh of fuel each year! There are new cushions and fabrics, wire by the mile, new tarps for both boats, another new engine and alternator, marine plywood, and fasteners by the score. Cordage and goops. Epoxy! I refer to Jerry as the Epoxy King. He buys the stuff — and all the mixes and fillers that go into it — by the gallon. There’s more, always more. They see him coming at West Marine and know they’ll have a good day, maybe even a good week, when the reporting is done.
Yet there are marine advertisers who don’t see the point in advertising in a magazine for folks who own used sailboats (that’d be Good Old Boat). They tell us that sailors are too cheap: the wind’s free, and it therefore follows that sailors believe everything else should be free as well . . . or so these potential advertisers say.
I beg to differ. Who do they think is buying all that paint and epoxy, cleaning supplies, sewing material, line, and rigging, if not the folks with the used boats? Certainly not the charterers or the folks with brand-new boats. Those are the folks who are trying to avoid life in the boatyard each spring and fall by letting someone else do it or by having a boat so new it doesn’t need upgrades or repairs (although a dirty little secret no one told them is that they still have to maintain the boat or suffer the consequences).
In fact, the brand-new boat buyers will be in possession of a good old boat, given another few years. I can be patient. Soon they, too, will have a need for this magazine.
Consumer unit, indeed! What our government and some marine suppliers should recognize is that there are those of us who do, in fact, spend money. It’s just that we’re putting most of our discretionary income into our boats. Good old boats. Those are our kind of boats. And they’re maintained by our kind of folks. It’s just that those folks are not typical consumer units.
Thank you to Sailrite Enterprises, Inc., for providing free access to back issues of Good Old Boat through intellectual property rights. Sailrite.com
