Non boat-owners..can you imagine buying a boat?

one of my best friends has a bass boat. i love it. i hand him the occasional (rare) gas money and i am off fishing the Delta.

BUT..this guy hates towing. never tows it. he has it stored at one of those places that will take his boat and set it in the water for him. he just has to make a call the day before. nice and luxurious..but the problem is that we only fish the same damn spot. that relatively tiny spot in the Delta. now if i could convince him to pull it to Comanche, Berryessa, Clearlake, etc..LAKE SHASTA!!..

 

I take my boat to Lake Berryessa. Alameda has good fishing too if you want saltwater fish.

 

No on the boat, but I do want a pony.

 

I once heard a very wise old man say: "If it flys, floats, or f**ks, you're better off renting".

 

hahahaha..awesome.

 

Why are you asking people on the internet? If you want a boat, and you think you'll enjoy using it, go get one.

It's like asking people what color truck you should buy, who gives a shit what they think, get what you like.

Regarding the truck, you should get a bigger truck anyway, even if you don't get a boat.

 

That's what a former chief pilot I use to work for always says.
I didn't take his advice...on two counts. Three if you count the bow rider not pictured because I decided to dismantle my dock and replace it.

 

Just get a small all welded John boat with a Yamaha outboard and a trolling motor up front. Going on 10 years with mine and have never had an issue in salt or fresh water. Idk what these other minions are talking about, don’t buy a piece of shit and you won’t either.

 

My buddy just sold his Tacoma and bought a boat and Ram 2500. He couldn’t be a happier person.

Moral of the story: Don’t buy a POS

 

It all comes down to what kind of boat you want and what your budget is. Are you contemplating a 6 figure ski boat? Or a cheap thrills family run about? A sailboat?

I love having things, not waiting to use other people's things. I may not have a nice wake boat, but i bet i dont have 80k less fun than someone who does. I love boats, and luckily i now have the space to store it and work on it, and also enjoy the challenges of working on it. Its old enough its not like im doing fiberglass on a $100k wake boat, so you aren't as nervous about it. And its cheap enough I dont feel guilty when I dont use it. People with $500+ monthly boat payments all year long just have to use it all the time to justify it unless they are very wealthy.

The more free a boat is the more expensive it will be to keep up, but some people love projects, so that might not be a bad thing. Storage and maintenance are usually what kills boat owners when they dont anticipate how much they get nickeled and dimed.

 

If you buy a beater 70's boat you'll have the same problems as if you bought a beater 70's truck. Buy something that's new or a few years old and take care of it and you'll be fine.

 

Canoes and kayaks are fairly low maintenance...lol

But if you want to buy a "beater," consider taking a boat engine repair class at your local community college. It might help you down the road.

 

I do not wish to own a boat, I do wish I had a friend with a boat though.

 

Unfortunately - I’m the friend with a truck, a boat, and a pool.

 

I have buddies with bass boats and bay boats. At 48 I finally got tired of living on the coast without a boat
to enjoy all the water. So I said what size boat can I get that can handle lakes, bays, and ocean that can be
pulled by my Tacoma. I settled on a deep v hull 18 ft Pioneer center console. I can pull a tube with it. I can
cruise up to the beach with it. I can catch monster bass in it. I can catch saltwater fish in it. Absolutely love it.
It's not too heavy so my Tacoma is fine pulling from South Carolina to Florida and back. Everything cost money.
We can't take our money with us to the grave. So why not own a boat if you want to. I spend about a hour after
every trip cleaning my boat and flushing the engine. It's a $42,000 boat new. I see 2010's selling for $24,000 so
I think it's a decent investment if you take care of it. Some peeps mod out their Taco's, some peeps mod out guns.
Some of us buy boats too. So far I have no regrets.

 

I may be in the minority here. I bought this 1978 Chaparral 187 from a college kid that was graduating. I paid $2000. I replaced the floor, carpet, seats, and gas tank. I kept it for 2yrs and sold it for $4500. Me and my dad did all the work on it ourselves.

 

when i do go with my friend, i give him about $90 in fuel. ouch!!

i power my kayak with coffee and a donut.

 

But yeah. as a "boat friend," if you dont offer to pay the fuel bill for a day of skiing/cruising, you are an asshole that wont maintain "boat friend" status for long.

This. I used to run a square stern I bought at academy for like 500 bucks and put a Johnson 3.5 on it. I got laughed at wherever I went, but at least I went wherever I wanted. Plus it had a shallower draft than even a bass boat could hope for. Only downside to it is that as soon as I slapped that motor on I was required to register and sticker it, as the great state of Texas has decided that configuration falls under motorized watercraft category (duh) instead of exempt (paddle-powered) vessels. I might have gotten informed of that law by a friendly game warden, in the form of a yellow piece of paper.



Nowadays I just run an Advanced Elements inflatable kayak, and am getting a lot of joy out of it. I got tired of the canoe after only 5 years, mostly due to bumping my head on the thing whenever I walked under its storage sling in the garage.

 

Notice how he is getting rid of it**** this should, to you OP, be a big sign to just simply NOT buy a boat