Compulsion

Boats appear to be a compulsion, at least in my life. I don't think that you could call it an addiction because you don't wither away with it nor do you get the shakes without it. The compulsion can be extremely powerful just the same. One is always looking at boats, appraising different styles, spotting boating related literature, pictures, clothing, games, gizmos. And you either have the compulsion or you don't. There is no in-between. And those that don't have it just can't understand the behaviour of those that do.
 
I suppose it's the same with gear heads or sports nuts or, as the Brits say, "Anoraks"  (derived from the old time train spotters who wore anoraks) of any kind. Like any compulsion, it's difficult to give up, at least without analysis that is. It must be that it is something that is in your blood or maybe you carry a defective gene that predisposes you to suffer with this compulsion for a lifetime.
 
I didn't always have the boating compulsion because I was just a user. I went fishing in boats, travelled in boats, and acquired some skill in the use. But the minute that I opened the man-door of the big boat shop doors and whiffed the heady fragrance of teak, red cedar and yellow cedar, I was hooked. Add to that the sight of a large wooden vessel in frame, ready to be planked and what began as a firm interest grew quickly into a full blown compulsion.
 
When my compulsion began, wooden boat shops were shutting down all over North America.  Fibreglass (now known as GRP or glass reinforced plastic) was going to take over. Skilled woodworkers weren't going to be needed and thousands of boats could be popped out of the same mould by semi-skilled workers. The marketers put the spin out there that wood wouldn't last, rotted all the time, needed outrageous amounts of maintenance, was causing the ruin of the rain forests, and was just downright not a boat-friendly material. Say it ain't so, Joe.
 
Jon Wilson, around this same time, decided to publish a magazine called WoodenBoat to focus the efforts of those people who knew that wood was indeed the best boat-friendly material. Of course, all the nay-sayers, nit-pickers and layabouts said that such a magazine would not have any readership and was doomed to failure. I picked up issue #1 at a boat show in Vancouver in 1974 and have picked up every issue since, although lately my issues are in digital format and are delivered at the speed of light.
Similarly, wooden boats made a resurgence and knowledgeable buyers continue to place orders with wooden boat builders. Obviously, compulsive people.
 
I still suffer from the compulsion although large doses of sailing holds the worst symptoms in check. When, in the depths of winter, it isn't worth your knackers to go out on the water, a listlessness sets in. It's like a general malaise that keeps you dragging around the docks and boatyards. You can try and self-medicate by going to second-hand boat parts dealers and rooting through all the good jun...er, good stuff. Make lists of next summer's cruising locations, take courses, talk to other patien...er, sailors. Drink rum. Talk like a pirate. Aargh.