Issue 11 : Mar/Apr 2000
Time flies. Whoever thought we’d become “good old boaters”? It’s been just 20 years since we picked the site to dock our newly purchased 21-footer. Ten years ago we bought our present boat, a Niagara 35, that was featured in the November 1998 issue of Good Old Boat magazine. Although our boat barely qualified as a good old boat, the magazine’s editor, Karen Larson, said Good Old Boat was also interested in good old boaters, so we qualified.
As the years went by we made many good friends among fellow sailors and dockmates. Now that we’ve earned good-old-boater status, we’re beginning to reflect on what happens as we and fellow good old boaters sail further into the sunset, couples in their late 50s, 60s, and 70s who have been sailing for decades. They seem to fall into three groups, one or more of which we’re all going to join eventually.
Good Old Boaters Group 1: The first, and least enviable, group usually has one, but sometimes both, of the good old boaters declaring that they’ve had enough of boating or they “want more time for ___.” (Fill in the blank with golf, gardening, grandchildren, gallivanting, or any other word, not necessarily beginning with “g.”) How do you respond to such a declaration, except to wish them a speedy sale and a good price for their boat? These folks disappear quickly from our boating life and are sorely missed.
Good Old Boaters Group 2: Some members of the first group probably are unwilling to admit that they really are part of the second group: those whose age, agues, and aches are catching up with them. Arthritis is particularly hard on a good old boater. After all, strenuous activity in a cool, moist, sometimes cramped environment is seldom recommended as a pain reliever.
As we age we not only ache but also tire more easily. The 40-mile jaunt to another port, that we did with such joy 10 years ago, now becomes a source of discomfort or weariness. Our observation is that most unwilling members of this second group, which includes ourselves, put up with the discomforts for a while. Then we gradually ease them by giving up the harder parts — but not the joys — of sailing. We pick our times and trips with a heightened knowledge of the conditions of weather, winds, distances, and our joints.
This knowledge, enhanced by the experience gained over decades, lets us enjoy sailing almost as much as we did 20 years ago. Eventually, some of the infirmities of age catch up even with those who have tried to accommodate them. It’s a sad day when it happens, and some try to delay it by switching to trawlers. It works for some; but it’s not for us.
Good Old Boaters Group 3: The third group consists of those wonderful paragons of good health, wisdom, and energy who seem to go on forever. They eventually reach a point where they (or the executors of their wills) decide the boat must go. Our advice is not to do it too soon, though; one of our dockmates forsook sailing to avoid injuries and fell off a ladder while trimming a hedge. That gardening stuff is dangerous.
Thank you to Sailrite Enterprises, Inc., for providing free access to back issues of Good Old Boat through intellectual property rights. Sailrite.com
