Dad was a boater. I just didn’t get it. Can you explain to me the lure of buying something really expensive, with really expensive upkeep, then putting it in an environment that immediately tries to aggressively reduce it’s value to zero?
Part of it is an independance thing, I’d think, the way people used to get charged up about working on their own cars and driving them out to explore. It’s your boat, lots of mechanical work involved, lots of smarts involved <or at least nautical knowledge, and that’s not something you pick up in kindergarten>, the ‘roads’…well, there are no roads! You make your own roads. You may do nothing more than go out and sit, away from ‘civilization’ for a while, but you’re doing it in a more isolating way than, say, driving out into the middle of some ‘pristine’ forest only to have a VW bus, 3 off-road bikes and a motorhome drive by you. You’re GLAD to see the coast guard; they’re good guys. Things are simpler.
That’s all I’ve got personally, as I’ve never owned a boat. I just feel the lure, despite getting seasick on trips longer than about 12 hours. I’m sure someone who really owns and does for him/herself will have more insights, but there’s a start.
Lots of people like to fish. They LOVE to fish. They love to catch fish and eat fish and talk about fishing and fish in different lakes and buy fishing gear.
You can very well fish on a pier or a cliff, but everyone I know who owns a boat is an avid fisherman.
The one guy I knew who had a boat and was NOT an avid fisherman ended up getting rid of the boat after he realized the costs outweighed the enjoyment.
Ok, I take that back I know one other guy who is not an avid fisherman and owns a boat. His WIFE is an avid fisherman (she fishes from a pier), and he’s a mechanic who loves driving fast. A rusty old boat was a perfect buy for them.
Being out in the open. It’s like camping. I’m guessing you’re not a camper, either. Or I’m biased by being from Michigan, where all but the most very poor grew up going boating. Hell, I was on welfare, but had enough boating friends that it didn’t matter. Culture, I guess?
I don’t own nor want to own a boat, but I love going out on the water in one. The open air, the waves, the sun sparkling on the water, the wildlife, the breeze, the quiet, the gentle rocking sensation…it’s all pleasurable. Mostly I just sit near water whenever I can. There is a special allure to the movement of a vast or even not so vast body of water. Nature is good. Always something new to see.
My family has owned boats most of my life. It helps we are 20 minutes from the Mississippi, 2 hours from Mark Twain Lake, 3.5 hours from the Ozarks, and 5 hours from Table Rock Lake.
Boating is fun. My nuclear family has a boat but I also have 3 other aunts/uncles whose families have boats and we know other people with boats too. We keep ours at a nice place on the river but we used to trailer our boats to the river and various lakes on the weekends but quit doing it when we upgraded to a 24 foot cuddy and when we found our place at the river. Our dock is huge with tons of huge boats, all way nicer than ours. We have a party spot and grills - my uncle has 2 boats he keeps at the mouth of the docks and we have lots of space. There’s a restaurant and pool at the docks. Every weekend in the summer you can find a lot of my family members up at the docks, hanging out and having fun. We take the boats out and drive them around (makes hot days very tolerable, you get to see stuff that’s pretty or odd you couldn’t see driving, get places you couldn’t go driving, wind in your hair, engine rumble) and can go to lots of fun places off the river - restaurants, bars, parks, shopping etc. It’s an excuse to eat and drink (not the boat driver!) and be merry basically. Enjoy the summer weather.
You ever driven a boat? It’s fun. Like a convertible but cooler cause you don’t have to follow a road. Riding is just as fun too. Nothin better than sittin in the back of the boat, cold beer in your hand, soaking up the sun and wind, looking at all the pretty stuff on the shore. For me it’s a social activity and just enjoying the outdoors. When I was a kid it was all about getting to swim a lot. Finding a good calm cove and jumping off the back. Swimming now is more us lounging on rafts with some drinks but it’s still fun to swim somewhere other than a pool.
The first boat I was old enough to partake in was a 16 foot bassboat…NOT the kind of boat you typcally see in landlocked Colorado. But Dad was a fisherman, and he outfitted a fishing boat the way he wanted.
It was also the last boat I really enjoyed. It had a 90 hp outboard with trim, and it was a light, fun little boat to run around in. But for the one or two pleasant memories (sunset with glassy water), there were 15 where the weather sucked, the fishing sucked worse, and I just wasn’t having a good time. He replaced it with a 23 foot fishing boat, and the terror I had trying to drive it up onto the trailer in a crosswind…His last boat was a liveaboard, I never did anything with it, other than tie up once…it was big enough to scare the crap out of me.
But man, motor prices, gear, corrosion, teak, cramped living quarters…I guess I just don’t have it in my blood.
You need to listen to more Buffet.
*
Mother, Mother Ocean, I have heard your call.
Wanted to sail upon your waters since I was three feet tall.
You’ve seen it all, you’ve seen it all.*
A Pirate Looks at Forty, by Jimmy Buffet.
This. Plus, if you boat on a semi-empty lake, it’s just as fun and a hell of a lot safer than riding a motorcycle, dirtbike, ATV, or similar high-powered object that’s not a car.
Love boats. I would really love to learn to sail someday, but all my boating experience is lake-based. The first boat I buy myself will likely be a canoe. I love water skiiing, but yeah high cost and lots of maintenance… I have plenty of fun just fishing and going down rivers in a canoe.
The only experiences I have with a boat were getting a massively aggressive ear infection and thousands of mosquito and flea bites during a houseboat vacation, and being seasick on my honeymoon cruise and wishing I wasn’t so confined. I won’t be rushing out to get on another boat for vacation anytime soon. I’ll never learn to sail, and will probably never learn to fish. I love swimming, though, and could probably hold my own in any type of endurance swimming environment.
I live quite near the Chesapeake Bay and see and, more importantly, hear it frequently.
Boating has me baffled. The idea of being tranquil on the open water doesn’t seem remotely connected with it. Boating seems to be about noise and smoke and thrillseeking. And about drinking and networking and borrowing and littering. It seems ugly and reckless.
Moreover, it has turned what once must have been a beautiful environment into a roaring, stinking intrusion.
In prehistoric times, the waterfront must have been a beautiful and enchanting place, but now it is a blight, a place to keep one’s distance from.
I hadn’t intended on this turning negative (if course, I guess that should be expected with the SDMB, The odds of any thread dipping below positive are equal, I guess).
I’d really rather hear why folks take enjoyment out of it, rather than the ‘kills the fish, ruins the wildlife, destroys the view, stuff.’ I already don’t get it, I don’t need more convincing to the negative.
What gets me is the rate at which money can be spent on the hobby. Cars, and to a lesser extent, houses, really don’t hold a candle to the money that can be spent on water craft (‘A hole in the water you throw money in’).
Aircraft? Yeah, they’re pricy too.
I’ve never been boating in Chesapeake Bay, but boating isn’t always like that. I’m sure it is in some places, but would you go to the Jersey shore and decide you don’t like the beach? Hear a Nickelback song and decide you don’t like music? Eat at Olive Garden and decide you don’t like Italian?
Be it on the boat or the beach, I just like to be near and in the ocean. It’s just one of those things that makes life worth living.
As others have noted, there are many alluring aspects, none of which are related to the possibility of financial gain. I particularly like sailboats and the idea of using skill and experience to obtain useful work from the wind.
If you’re attracted to nautical endeavors but reluctant to commit heaps of money, the right approach is to cultivate friendships with boat owners (who often appreciate help and like to show their hobby to interested newbies) or simply to pay by the hour/day/week.
“If it flies, floats or flirts, it’s cheaper to rent.”
Damn, that’s funny! (I’ll add RV’s and trailers to that too, but they don’t work as well, as a saying)
If you’re doing it right, there’s purty stuff to look at on the boat, as well. 
Indeed we have a small boat on Lake Erie, the water provides some of the most beautiful vista one can experience. These our a few pics from our boating adventures.
Don’t own a boat, can’t even swim, but I’ve jumped on every boat when offered a ride, from little aluminum rowboats to cigarette boats to day-cruisers. I spent a lot of time in the Thousand Islands in upper NY. Love everything about it! Fresh air and sun; no sound but the wind, waves, and birds; looking at frogs on lilly pads; fishing; what’s not to love? We used to take a medium size cabin cruiser out into the St. Lawrence seaway, riding the waves from passing ships, it was a whole lot of fun! And before it was developed into Singer Castle on Dark Island and was a unknown private property, we cruised by this at sunset, with the red sun reflecting off the windows - had never seen it before or heard of it! Quite a thrill.http://www.who2c.com/jorstadtcastle/images/JCStorm1.jpg
The only boat I’ve ever owned was basically a one man skiff with (IIRC) a ten horsepower motor; I loved it and took it out every chance I got. Given the size of the thing and my lack of boating experience, I stayed in shallow water, primarily Pine Island Sound. I caught a lot of sea trout and I saw a few LARGE sharks and a lot of smaller ones. I also spent a lot of time just drifting and thinking while enjoying the birds I saw. In fact, I sold that boat to a serious birdwatcher when I left Florida.
Once I get my present difficulties sorted out, and if I have any money left, I might look into buying something similar.