Howard, I was down at a local marina a week or so back, helping my octogenarian friend Winterise his Nicholson ketch by fitting the equivalent of two boom tents, which totally cover the vessel`s deck area from bow to stern. The tenting and associated fittings designed by my friend to hold the "tent" in place to protect the wooden decking which he over-laid on the original fibreglass some years back. His design has been well tested and proven to survive the worst of winter gales over a number of years. It took a few hours for five of us to fit and tie the tent down securely, my friend dosed up with paracetamol to numb the obvious pain while crawling about under the tent tying it down to the the fittings. All this effort, a week prior to his visit to hospital to have hip surgery... ! Both he and his good lady have sailed their ketch as a two "man" crew over many decades, and it would seem they fully intend to continue on doing so...
Another of my friends has in the last two months had open chest heart surgery, a day or so after release from hospital he suffered great chest pains, diagnosed as pneumonia. In the last week or so he has just purchased another corroded classic car on-line for him to restore, which had delivered, to add to the two he already has in bits and part way through restoration in his garage...! When I phoned to enquire on his recovery process, he was outside in the driveway, checking for a misfire on the recently acquired vehicle`s K-Jetronic system ...!!!!!
My guess is that as we evolve, if that which once provided great pleasure might now not fit as well as it once did, or worse still has no place in our current,or future lifestyle ....the answer seems to lie with the individual concerned....? Snap decisions are perhaps best avoided..?
As ever, each to their own works for me.
A Nicholson ketch is a good solid crusing boat, built like a tank. I prefer something lighter and faster but each to his own. Why on earth he has put timber on the decks I will never understand - my current boat was chosen, amongst many reasons, because it has no wood at all on the outside of the hull. Teak decks are hideously expensive to install, and even more expensive to maintain. Yet every club / harbour / inlet has some mad soul busily repairing or renewing his wooden boat. Many never ever get their bottoms wet - they become daydreams for people who read Hornblower as a kid or even, as I did , Swallows and Amazons. Wooden boat disease where working on the boat is the object rather than sailing it.
I've been hooked on sailing, boats and the sea since I was a kid in the school naval section of the CCF. Not the slightest possibility of me ever giving that up and indeed I plan on being burried at sea, hopefully a long time in the future. We have just done that for a fellow member who sadly died on board his yacht.
My Ferrari doesnt really make any sense. It is a lovely piece of engineering and a surprisingly high quality one compared to Porsches produced at the same time with intermediate shaft issues etc. Enzo was an engine man and for many years Ferrari made only the engines and the bodies were put on by Scaglietti. But going back again to my youth which is what all old men dream about, I remember my only car being a Triumph Spitfire used winter and summer with the hood down and a proper tonneau cover with a zip between driver and passenger This was in Yorkshire where winters can get parky but the heater under the tonneau together with a decent sheepskin coat and hat worked fine. Can I use the Ferrari like that? No I cant, not least because of the damage that sort of use does to any car. Maybe an MX5 would be the answer? I doubt that the Plus Four would be given its cost. Same for a Porker and both of them would cost the 60/70k that my Ferrari is worth anyway. So they start being the sort of car you feel you need to take care of rather than just get on with using.
P.S. At 80 I am surprised that your pal hasnt discovered that boats are far less work if used through winter rather than winterised. You take ages emptying the boat, then covering it, putting in a dehumidifier, removing electronics, emptying tanks, and then making a list of what you are going to do over winter. In spring you reverse the process and the work list usually isnt much shorter . As Nelson said, both ships and crews rot in harbour.
