Wives like boats?

My wife grew up and lived on a houseboat. She has spent much more time than me on a boat. I didn't get into it until after college. We love the adventure. Turning late fall now here in Indiana so our season is over. It'll be a long wait for next spring. We love it!

My wife does a lot on the boat. I would argue she enjoys it more than I do.

She loves it. My MIL helped us clean interior yesterday and get ready for winter!

OllieC said:

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OMG, that's me.

My wife tolerates my boating habit. And life has a way of working out...

So for years she wanted a dog, and I (rather stupidly) was not on board with that. With the purchase of the first boat, the subject of a dog came up, but it was soon forgotten (at least by me).
With the purchase of the second boat, the subject of a dog came up again. I hoped the issue would be forgotten again, but I quickly came to the the realization that I need to support her with a dog in the same way that she supports the boat. I came to that realization right after she came home with a dog and told me that was how it should be! And she was right.

Here is the funny part: That dog loves being on the boat. That dog loves exploring new islands, laying in the sun in cockpit, hanging out by the heater while we play cards, and lazy dinghy rides. We are now on our third boat, and if we talk about going out on the boat, the dog gets a case of the zoomies, so off we all go to the boat! So, life does have a way of working out.

Tacoma290 said:

My wife tolerates my boating habit. And life has a way of working out...

So for years she wanted a dog, and I (rather stupidly) was not on board with that. With the purchase of the first boat, the subject of a dog came up, but it was soon forgotten (at least by me).
With the purchase of the second boat, the subject of a dog came up again. I hoped the issue would be forgotten again, but I quickly came to the the realization that I need to support her with a dog in the same way that she supports the boat. I came to that realization right after she came home with a dog and told me that was how it should be! And she was right.

Here is the funny part: That dog loves being on the boat. That dog loves exploring new islands, laying in the sun in cockpit, hanging out by the heater while we play cards, and lazy dinghy rides. We are now on our third boat, and if we talk about going out on the boat, the dog gets a case of the zoomies, so off we all go to the boat! So, life does have a way of working out.

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I hate to say it but sometimes dogs are better than wives.

Golfman25 said:

I hate to say it but sometimes dogs are better than wives.

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Lock your dog and your wife in the trunk. Open it up 20 minutes later and see who’s happy to see you……..

The wife usually takes better care of the dog than the husband.

If the dog hates the water, she won't go because she won't leave the dog home alone.

Guess who has to pick up the **** on the back lawn.

If you live with the dog, you don't notice, but visitors will see that the house smells like a dog.

If the dog DOES like the boat, and you don't have a sandbar / island to stop at, all your trips will be short because the dog has to have a place to do his bizness.

You can't have Seadek because the dog will ruin it.

I am a very lucky boater. My wife is Scottish and grew up in small fishing villages. After 20yrs in the Navy and newly retired we bought our first boat as a family (2 young daughters). A 19' open bow ski boat which we used every weekend. The ground work was laid very early, I would maintain the engines, drives, hull, topside, cockpit, trailer, and all associated camping gear. And my wife would maintain the cabin. So to make the chores a little more equal our next boat was a 22' Crownline Cuddie Cabin. Now things were still not even so our next boat was a 27' Maxum Cabin Cruiser. At this point I felt the work was pretty evenly split. But my wife insisted on purchasing our current boat 330DA which WE both love. She has total control of the entire Cabin and I still maintain all topside spaces. She was never super happy about walking on the bow of the first 4 boats, but she's like a chee-ta on the 330DA which is huge help when docking. But she has me trained pretty well and I don't require much from her when docking and w/ twin vdrives parking is a breeze. My has initiated a huge cabin remodel for this winter and oddly enough I have been invited to perform all the tear out and installation. Damn I love my wife.

GypsmJim said:

The wife usually takes better care of the dog than the husband.

If the dog hates the water, she won't go because she won't leave the dog home alone.

Guess who has to pick up the **** on the back lawn.

If you live with the dog, you don't notice, but visitors will see that the house smells like a dog.

If the dog DOES like the boat, and you don't have a sandbar / island to stop at, all your trips will be short because the dog has to have a place to do his bizness.

You can't have Seadek because the dog will ruin it.

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why we went from dogs to little kitty, they fine at home while we at boat for weekend, my baby. Raven. Note the claws, spend a lot in band-aids.

Pirate Lady said:

why we went from dogs to little kitty, they fine at home while we at boat for weekend, my baby. Raven. Note the claws, spend a lot in band-aids. View attachment 114029

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Love the "What are you looking at?" expression!
Get that from our two hairballs all the time.

+1 on the being able to leave them at home for the weekend.

On the topic, my admiral loves the boat, although was "tolerant" was an accurate description of her interest level when I first talked about getting it.

We hauled on the 9th of October and I got the "Why so early?"
By February I'll be getting the "When do we splash?"

We are up sizing in a year or so and she asks how the search is going....

My wife is engaged as I am in boating. When we haven't been to the boat for a bit, she starts getting anxious.

Both my wife and I grew up on small lakes. We had a 16' Checkmate with an inline 6 150 Mercury (prettiest outboard ever built) shortly after getting married. We worked our way up to a 34 footer within about 12 years and then back to a 24 ft Laguna that I rack stored and moved it from Michigan to Florida. Decided boats were way too much work to keep up in Florida and gave them up for hot rods and muscle cars. After 25+ years in Florida, we moved back to Michigan to care for my mother in law. Decided a center console would suffice. Nope... Need a Sundancer. And that's where we're at. In the process of acquiring a 390 out of Ohio. We're equally excited about it and are wishing away the next 5 months. The bigger boat will be much more suitable for mom(she loves to go for rides).

GypsmJim said:

The wife usually takes better care of the dog than the husband.

If the dog hates the water, she won't go because she won't leave the dog home alone.

Guess who has to pick up the **** on the back lawn.

If you live with the dog, you don't notice, but visitors will see that the house smells like a dog.

If the dog DOES like the boat, and you don't have a sandbar / island to stop at, all your trips will be short because the dog has to have a place to do his bizness.

You can't have Seadek because the dog will ruin it.

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Funny we, wife and I, could not imagine not having our 90lbs white lab on the boat with us. He is always with us, period. Loves his dinghy and swim platform dog float. We are putting SeaDeck on our new swim platform this coming season and don't expect Cody's nails will ruin it at all. Cody is as much my best friend as my wife is, probably more so because he is always with me. And yes we have not done things because it wouldn't work out with Cody. But life is much better with a fur ball around.

My wife's grandparents had a cabin cruiser on Lake Michigan in Chicago while she was growing up. She spent a lot of time on that boat during the summers. I grew up on Mark Twain tri hulls of my parent's friends. From the time we started boating we talked about owning a boat. Fast forward and my boys are 8 and in 2004. We stopped by an end of summer boat sales event the (now defunct) local Sea Ray dealer used to have every year on a local hotel's parking lot. We thought we were a long way from being able to afford a boat. We really liked the 240 Sun Deck, especially with the 350 Mag. Before we could leave, the salesman stopped us and said "the manager put a special deal together for you, since we are out of 2004 240s". Yeah, right. When he handed us the paper with the number on it, it was the price of a 2005 240 with all the options we had mentioned. it was a bit less than 70% of MSRP. My wife didn't hesitate and said "we'll take it". The only thing I could think to say was "pending a sea trial and you have to include a 6 year warranty at that price". We test drove it and the rest is history.

When it became apparent that the 240 was too small for all of our friends and family that wanted to come out with us, my wife suggested the upgrade to a yacht certified boat. She has helped with everything on the boat, including maintenance (only she doesn't share my desire to sit on the boat early in the morning leisurely "cleaning", listening to music and watching the action on the dock). I do most of the pre and post season stuff myself because her work schedule is more constricting than mine and I like to get it done on my schedule. But she loves to boat as much as I do. She always handles the lines when our kids aren't with us. She had to pick up a lot of pieces when I was limited for a month after I burned my feet on the dock. She used to drive the 240 all the time. For some reason the 270 intimidates her, even though it handles better. But when I had COVID and we had a bunch of family and friends heading to the lake, she stepped up and drove the entire week. I consider myself very lucky.

Like a lot of you here, The boat is a big part of our lifestyle. She does bottom paint to waxing to whatever project is next. When we are cruising we are usually alone somewhere where we may have never been, and things still need to be done and alot of those things require teamwork. I couldn't have a better partner. She's all in and always has been.

This summer in Vermillion OH on our way back from Lake Superior


43 summers ago at Long Lake in the Adirondacks

my3sons said:

Like a lot of you here, The boat is a big part of our lifestyle. She does bottom paint to waxing to whatever project is next. When we are cruising we are usually alone somewhere where we may have never been, and things still need to be done and alot of those things require teamwork. I couldn't have a better partner. She's all in and always has been.

This summer in Vermillion OH on our way back from Lake Superior
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43 summers ago at Long Lake in the Adirondacks
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Mark, both pics are great. The second is,... well, amazing. What a "Trip" that must have been. I remember the first time you posted it. Happy peeps I'll bet.

Well I must REALLY love my wife and she must REALLY love our boat cuz she talked me into new cabin upholstery today with a cool 3 boat buck price tag. The trade off will be I don't have to learn how to do it myself and as she quickly noted "you'll have more time to remove the ugly blue carpet and install sweet new LV flooring, stair treads and all vertical carpet over the winter"
God, I love my wife!

MoonRiver said:

Well I must REALLY love my wife and she must REALLY love our boat cuz she talked me into new cabin upholstery today with a cool 3 boat buck price tag. The trade off will be I don't have to learn how to do it myself and as she quickly noted "you'll have more time to remove the ugly blue carpet and install sweet new LV flooring, stair treads and all vertical carpet over the winter"
God, I love my wife!

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Giddy up!