Gofirstclass
Well-Known Member
I must be getting too darned old
Just when I thought I’d seen just about everything in my near-70 years on this planet, and just when I thought that nothing would surprise me any more, I have come to realize that I’m wrong. Now it’s not all that hard to admit that I’m wrong—I get plenty of practice at that, so bear with me.
I was perusing the pages of the June, 2016 issue of Yachting magazine I came across something that took my breath away. Not because it’s such a beautiful piece of art or a beautiful boat (though it costs more than many boats). It’s a frickin razor. Yup, a razor made by a company called Zafirro and it’s made out of Iridium and it costs….are you sitting down? $100,000
But you’d better get you order in soon because they’re only going to make 99 of them. Here’s where to order it: http://www.zafirro.com/zafirro-iridium.php
But that’s not the only reason I feel I’m getting old. Boats don’t look like boats any more. They look like some millennium designer’s idea of what a penthouse apartment should look like. Or something that Captain Nemo would have enjoyed skippering. Check out this “beauty”….
C’mon Man. If this is what the future of boating looks like I’m glad I’m going to be with Neptune before they become widely used.
And look at boat interiors. Boat interiors are supposed to look like, well, boat interiors. Not like some city apartment in one of those cheap high rise buildings you see in the big cities. Even my favorite builder, Sea Ray, has gone away from building boats with boat interiors. They build interiors that look like…wow, I don’t even know how to describe them any more. Words like cold, harsh, uninviting all come to mind, but I bet that’s not how Sea Ray describes them.
And to buy SR’s new L650Fly model, you don’t just go to your local SR dealer. You work through a Sea Ray Concierge. Dang, and I thought a concierge was the guy in the monkey suit standing behind the small counter at an upscale hotel.
I subscribe to a half dozen or so boating mags. Most of them deal in what I call ‘real’ boats. But 3 or 4 of them deal in boats that only those people who Robin Leach (remember “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous” show?) would interview. These mags advertise wrist watches that sell for as much as many of us paid for our home. And leather bags that sell for as much as a car. And fashion items where you could easily drop several boat bucks just to look nice at your yachting party.
So I guess I am just getting too old to enjoy the new stuff and the stuff I could never bring myself to buy even if I could afford them.
Now don’t get me wrong. Getting old has its pro’s and con’s. The con part is when I’m trying to squeeze this tired ol’ body behind one of the engines to work on it. That seems to get more and more difficult every year. But there are also some real good things about getting old. It beats the hell out of the alternative, which is death and the last time I looked that was pretty darn permanent.
Being an old boater also has its benefits. My 50+ years of boating has given me a LOT of experiences I can call upon to help me do things like handle emergencies when they come up, or back the boat into the slip when the wind is blowing 25kts from the worst possible direction. My years of experience has taught me not to panic but to take my time and do it right, whether that takes a couple of ‘missed approaches’ where you pull back out and reposition the boat to make that near perfect landing.
What say you? Is it me? Or is it this new up and coming generation of boaters who have to have the biggest and fastest and loudest and shiniest of everything?
Just when I thought I’d seen just about everything in my near-70 years on this planet, and just when I thought that nothing would surprise me any more, I have come to realize that I’m wrong. Now it’s not all that hard to admit that I’m wrong—I get plenty of practice at that, so bear with me.
I was perusing the pages of the June, 2016 issue of Yachting magazine I came across something that took my breath away. Not because it’s such a beautiful piece of art or a beautiful boat (though it costs more than many boats). It’s a frickin razor. Yup, a razor made by a company called Zafirro and it’s made out of Iridium and it costs….are you sitting down? $100,000
But you’d better get you order in soon because they’re only going to make 99 of them. Here’s where to order it: http://www.zafirro.com/zafirro-iridium.php
But that’s not the only reason I feel I’m getting old. Boats don’t look like boats any more. They look like some millennium designer’s idea of what a penthouse apartment should look like. Or something that Captain Nemo would have enjoyed skippering. Check out this “beauty”….
C’mon Man. If this is what the future of boating looks like I’m glad I’m going to be with Neptune before they become widely used.
And look at boat interiors. Boat interiors are supposed to look like, well, boat interiors. Not like some city apartment in one of those cheap high rise buildings you see in the big cities. Even my favorite builder, Sea Ray, has gone away from building boats with boat interiors. They build interiors that look like…wow, I don’t even know how to describe them any more. Words like cold, harsh, uninviting all come to mind, but I bet that’s not how Sea Ray describes them.
And to buy SR’s new L650Fly model, you don’t just go to your local SR dealer. You work through a Sea Ray Concierge. Dang, and I thought a concierge was the guy in the monkey suit standing behind the small counter at an upscale hotel.
I subscribe to a half dozen or so boating mags. Most of them deal in what I call ‘real’ boats. But 3 or 4 of them deal in boats that only those people who Robin Leach (remember “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous” show?) would interview. These mags advertise wrist watches that sell for as much as many of us paid for our home. And leather bags that sell for as much as a car. And fashion items where you could easily drop several boat bucks just to look nice at your yachting party.
So I guess I am just getting too old to enjoy the new stuff and the stuff I could never bring myself to buy even if I could afford them.
Now don’t get me wrong. Getting old has its pro’s and con’s. The con part is when I’m trying to squeeze this tired ol’ body behind one of the engines to work on it. That seems to get more and more difficult every year. But there are also some real good things about getting old. It beats the hell out of the alternative, which is death and the last time I looked that was pretty darn permanent.
Being an old boater also has its benefits. My 50+ years of boating has given me a LOT of experiences I can call upon to help me do things like handle emergencies when they come up, or back the boat into the slip when the wind is blowing 25kts from the worst possible direction. My years of experience has taught me not to panic but to take my time and do it right, whether that takes a couple of ‘missed approaches’ where you pull back out and reposition the boat to make that near perfect landing.
What say you? Is it me? Or is it this new up and coming generation of boaters who have to have the biggest and fastest and loudest and shiniest of everything?
