Re: [Paddlewise] Boat Design

Lumps of fiberglass are not easily marketed, whereas dreams are.

For example, one of my friends is new to sea kayaking.  His dream is extended
trips in the arctic.  What type of boat do you think he wishes to purchase?
Yup, he's in the market for something which is large and stable.

There are a few of bugs in the ointment.  First, it will be a few years until
he has anything more than a day or two off from work at a time.  Second, he is
landlocked.  Third, it will be a few years until he can afford more than one
new boat.

Although he is landlocked, he has easy ww at his door, and is one hour from a
world renowned ww section.  Within a few hour's drive he can make it to one of
the Great Lakes.  He is also in the middle of some wonderful small lake
territory.  There is a tremendous sprint club where he lives.

>From the ww and sprint he could develop some pretty good boat handling skills
which eventually could be transfered to big water sea kayaking.  From paddling
chains of little lakes he could have a heck of a lot of fun.  A Queen Mary
sized sea kayak would not be remotely appropriate to any of these.  Indeed, I
suggest that paddling about in a very large, very stable boat on relatively
calm water will do very little to develop boat handling skills.

But rather than pick up a small second hand touring kayak and a second hand ww
kayak, and simply borrow an expedition boat if by chance he has the opportunity
to get away in the next few years, he is in the market for a new Queen Mary.
Why?  He says the dream is just too hard to resist.

Hmmm, proportionately more folks in Toronto and Ottawa drive sport utility
vehicles than folks in communities in the north.  More canoe trippers wear
Tillly Hats (made of cotton to keep you shivering and equipped with gromet
holes to let the bugs in) than any other hat.  I have to wonder if much of
outdoor adventure activity retailing, including the big boat craze (and the
long paddle tradition ;^) ), has more to do with image and dreams than it does
with reality.

(BTW, you know those days of perfect sunshine, gentle warm breezes and rythmic
surfable chop; of high cliffs, deserted beaches and myriads of autum colours;
of loons calling, terns diving and geese flocking?  Those days that seem to
appear in magazines only?  Well, I just had one of them yesterday on north-west
Superior a little ways north of the border.  Dreams, even little, single day
ones, do come true.)

Richard Culpeper
www.geocities.com/~culpeper

John Winters wrote:
--snip--

> The problem as I see it has to do with buyer perceptions and dealer mind
> sets. Most seem to
> equate size with safety, speed, and comfort.
>

--snip--

> This is sad because most people buy much bigger boats than they need and,
> in my
> opinion, miss out on a lot of fun.

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