WHEN DO WE RETIRE FROM BOATING?

[KevinDU]

I will be 73 years young next month. I wonder how many years I might have left to enjoy my C-Dory fishing/cruising trips, expecting continuing good health of course. Who is the oldest C-Dory owner on this forum and still going out there on adventures?

[BigSwede]

When this question comes up I think of the line from Shawshank Redemption: "Get busy living, or get busy dying."

[Schuster]

BigSwede wrote:
[When this question comes up I think of the line from Shawshank Redemption: "Get busy living, or get busy dying."]

That was a classic line from a classic film and yes I agree 100%.

KevinDu, I don't think anybody can answer that for you. If you're still feeling it then keep on keepin on. As long as the health and strength hold out and you have the desire to go.... then go. Don't put up any road blocks that don't need to be there. Good health to you and many more years of boating. [/quote]

[JamesTXSD]

In 2006, we retired TO boating. We had been sailors for years, but wanted to spend time cruising by a powerboat. We ordered a C-Dory 25 at the Seattle Boat Show that year, then went back to Texas (we had built a small vacation home there) and put our home, business, and commercial property up north (in the Black Hills of South Dakota) for sale.

The ducks lined up. It all sold, before the boat we ordered would be delivered. two weeks before my 53rd birthday, we were officially retired. We picked up the boat from the factory (at the time) with a list of places we wanted to cruise on our bucket list: summer in the Pacific Northwest, winter in the Florida Keys, Lake Powell, Lake Tahoe, Flaming Gorge, the Gulf Coast, San Francisco, the Erie Canal, the Trent-Severn, the Hudson River down to New York City. We lived on our C-Dory for up to 6 months at a time, coast to coast to coast.

I had a captains license before all that, with sailing and towing endorsements. I hadn't intended to do anything with it, but a job running a commercial boat kinda presented, and that started 8 years of driving commercial boats. We were able to live on our boat while doing some of what my wife called "fun summer jobs."

Those years of doing boat jobs were a changing point: cruising on our boat became less recreational when we spent months at a time working on boats. We sold our C-Dory, but continued with the boat jobs... finding our recreation on motorcycles and scooters (a passion for 57 years now - I taught Joan to ride a motorcycle when we were in high school).

At Joan's urging, we bought another boat to keep at our dock at our house in Texas. Something small to day-trip, dolphin watch, and sight-see. Eventually sold that one, too, and have now moved to the desert (to be near our kid). Still traveling by land; still riding.

If you were to ask, neither of us have any regrets about retiring early and heading off boat cruising. Joan is quick to add: "Glad we did the stuff we did, while we could." We're both still in decent shape (as the doctor would say: "For your age."), but it is more physically demanding to spend extended time on a boat, than to spend that same amount of time traveling by land. We both enjoyed our boat cruising years (by sail and power).

Spending time on your boat should be fun (day-tripping, fishing, or long time cruising). At some point it is going to become more work than fun, and that is a realization that needs to be determined by each individual. Do it until it until it isn't fun. We all age at a different rate. While we are no longer C-Dory owners, I still enjoy being a C-Brat (once a C-Brat... well, you know).

To the OP, it's a good question. No age-answer. Enjoy!

Jim & Joan

[thataway]

Well, I am 88 and a half years old. I have serious heart disease, with 2 by-passes, one 35 years ago and the other 15 years ago. I have over 20 angioplasties, a pacemaker, and 19 stents in place--I take about 30 pills each day. I need oxygen all night, and sometimes during the day. I can only easily walk a hundred or so feet--but I am still boating--if I ever finish re-wiring my 18' CC Caracal Catamaran.

We gave up the last C Dory (and it was a mutual decision between my wife and I) about 4 years ago. The reason is that both of us had several injuries related to our use of the C Dory, These were not the C Dory's fault, but related to our strength and balance. For me, the "straw" was when I fell between the boat and dock, badly injured my leg, could not pull myself out of the water. Marie had gone to sleep, and I was putting heavier lines from the boat to the dock. I had walked forward on the dock, and was trying to get back on the bow, to put heavier lines in place with a storm brewing. Marie could not pull me out, I could not pull out onto the boat, or the dock. My grip on the bow railing was failing--and not much to hang on too after that. I had Marie bring the inflatable dinghy--I didn't have the strength to pull myself into the dinghy. I could hold onto the dinghy stern, where I got aboard via our swim ladder and swim step. We were on a group cruise and we all tried to see how easy it was to get back aboard. Several did not have a boarding ladder or swim step--they could not get aboard.

Marie had scrapes and cuts on her legs which became infected and required months of wound care, and in one case a central IV line for several weeks and 4 x a day I gave her IV antibiotics. Both of these incidents could have been fatal--so our path became clear. We sold our C Dory 25, although we both loved the boat.

Mdcv. ake sure that you can handle all of the requirements physically. We made accommodations for tasks we could handle manually in the past--we put in a dinghy Davit to hoist it aboard, instead of pulling it over the bow. We made a block and tackle to hoist the window air conditioner into the front opening window, instead of "arm-strong" method.

The boat I still have, normally lives in a boat lift, I push a couple of buttons, and the lift brings the boat so I can easily step in, then lowers it into the water. A Catamaran is very stable. The decks are wide and as you walk around the boat, there is little tipping or heeling. There is plenty of room and hand rails. You walk inside of the hulls, So that boat is safe and at least 25" of boats and railing between you and going overboard. I believe as long as I can stand I will continue to use that boat, even if I have to take oxygen when driving or fishing. Please, understand boating was my advocation, Medicine was only my profession. I probably spent more time in boating. I have no regrets, and are glad we have gotten out of the larger and trailerable boats. If my heart was better, and balance, strength was better, I would still own the C Dory 25. Of course I have always envisioned a Viking funeral--but that sort of thing is frowned upon here on the Gulf Coast of Florida! Burning boats just seem to bring all sorts of attention. I still have that fantasy of buying a Nordhavn 62, hiring a captain and crew, Then sailing to Patagonia, the one place on this green and blue sphere I wanted to visit and didn't get there.

I wish you many more years of boating. As long as you feel safe.

[Foggy]

I cannot imagine there is a single 'right' answer to this question that applies to all.

My boating endeavors began at about age 8 and ceased as an octogenarian. In the
in-between, I've been witness to new boaters quitting immediately after their first
storm scare at sea. Alternately, I met a late octogenarian in the Azores who died
from a heart attack on the foredeck of his boat preparing for a local race to a
nearby island. He was returning to Europe after spending 35 years sailing in the
Caribbean with his wife claiming to have gone 'everywhere'.

Then there a batch of people who maybe should have quit, but didn't. They
suffered different injuries from slight to fatal doing what perhaps they shouldn't
have been for a myriad of reasons.

So, my best answer is 'timing is everything'. Keep up monitoring your abilities,
awareness and level of enjoyment. Then decide. When your inner voice tells you,
'it's time, you've had enough', cut bait, hang it up and go on to something else.

Aye.

[dotnmarty]

My wife Dotty was an outdoorzie person for most of her life. She also was a liveaboard for her first 18 years. Yet, inevitably, the time came when she could no longer safely climb onboard our 16 footer. We sold it and figured our boating time was over. Then, out of the blue, our son bought a 21 foot Ranger tug which we can easily step aboard. So, it depends.

[thataway]

Here is another "take" somewhat fostered by Jim and Joan's life story. I had dreamed of at some point in my life I would take a period of time and go cruising in a sailboat. As life progressed, as a physician, I realized that many who retired at 65 could not fulfill their bucket list or dreams because of health problems. A time came in my private practice where the group I was with had become an HMO. I would not practice the kind of medicine where I was limited to spend only 5 minutes with a patient. I left that practice, and we built / bought a boat which was suitable for our proposed journey at age 45--right in the height of my earning potential--and we took 4 years and sailed from Calif. to the Med and Baltic, via West coast Mexico and Western Caribbean, then back via the Windward and Leeward Caribbean. We also retired in my mid 50's partly because of health reasons. Then refitted another sailboat to cruise AK for 4 seasons, and sail to Pensacola, vis Panama.

You might say, that you could not afford to do that. I know both young and old, who have purchased a sailboat for as little as $5,000, sold everything, and sailed off on long adventures. Even today you can do this and live for less than $500 a month--If you are willing to make certain sacrifices. But not everyone is willing to live that simple a lifestyle or "invest in the sweat equity" necessary.

There are many other options with the Patron system on U Tube and similar travel blogs, where the people are paid by viewers and sponsors.

What does that have to do with "when to stop boating"? It allows you to do what you really want to do, when you can. Many of the boats we have owned we purchased as less than perfect. Sweat equity and looking for materials at a bargain price can do wonders in a cruising boat. Used sails, used systems and almost everything you can imagine on a cruising boat can be picked up at a fraction of the "new" retail price.

Some C-brats have left their boats with us, on our boat lift or at our dock when they wanted to travel to be with relatives or take a break from full time cruising and living on their boats. Several of these couples are vagabonds at heart--and have very simple lifestyles, which "pay as they go"--such as "farm sitting". "Travel consultants", etc instead of a 9 -5 job. The presence of Starlink has made this even easier to do.

[thataway]

second post by error.

[Foggy]

Many boating stories exist for many reasons. The commonality is they all end.

Changing a boat to better fit your personal requirements may lengthen your
story for the short term but not in the long term which is always the same; it
ends.

Maybe some evidence the journey is more important than the destination?

Aye.

[JamesTXSD]

Who'da thought I'd agree with Foggy on something?? Life and circumstances change, but none of us are getting outta here alive. Life IS the journey.

If you would have asked me a dozen or so years ago about boating, my conclusions would have been different than the answer today. I stand by the: "do it as long as it's fun" premise. That fun might be a few hours or many months. Since we all age (and wear out) at a different rate, who's to say what that ending age should be? You may have taken better care of yourself than the next guy. Never thought I'd live long enough to need "replacement parts"... but, a new hip gave me back mobility, stability, and stamina that I could feel slipping away 5 years ago. I call this current time "my bonus years."

Enjoy it while it's good. In the words of my Grandmother's cousin's neighbor: Life is like a roll of toilet paper - the closer you get to the end, the faster it goes.

[colbysmith]

[Foggy]

My Grandma used to say, "There is only one thing that never changes: change."

Aye.








and Naysayers say, "But what about before the Big Bang?"


hhmmmm...


Answer: "Go blo. That's before 'never' ."

[Donald Tyson]

Last year, April, one of my best friends (70) went to pick up plumbing supplies. He dropped over and never returned to us. It broke My heart wide open. Not sure I ever hurt that bad before. The warning shot was two years ago but I ignored it. A valuable Co-worker (70) announced he would retire at the end of the year but instead he fell over never to retire. So I'm starting right away (66) and who knows how long I'll last. At least I've had this opportunity.

[Foggy]

Donald,

I've never held too much on coincidences, same numbers, comparisons - things
like that.

Here's an anecdote that could help you out.

This guy wakes up for work usually at 630AM. This day it was 555AM.
He walks 5 blocks to catch his bus to work; Bus #5. He offers his usual $1. fee.
The driver says "Today the fare is 55 cents". He sits and thinks of all the 5s.

After 5 blocks, he exits the bus at his bank and withdraws $5,555.55 which he
bets it all at the Track on Horse #5. Of course, his horse comes in 5th.

My take for a string of similar events to continue (good or bad) ? The exact
moment luck runs out is a mystery. A series of bad events may be an example
of the Cluster Illusion. Your recounted sadness in losing friends may be nothing
more than a reaction to randomness.