Unless you’re an older reader you may not realize how different things used to be years ago when people went out with families and friends to fish, clam, crab, go to the beach or just go for a ride on their boats. In the 1930s and 1940s, there were so few recreational boats out on the bays and the ocean that you were totally dependent on each other for towing, battery issues or other needs unique to boating. There were no cell phones, satellite phones or BOAT/US towboats to take care of your problems. Because we all recognized the need to help each other, it became part of the mystique of having a boat.
A recent discussion about changes in the way we live and changes in boating came up as an adjunct to memories of inviting guests aboard and the good and bad guests we had all taken out for a day or a weekend. Someone wrote a few lines on the “Hull Truth Boating Forum” that were right on the mark about guests. The people who invite themselves along on your next trip – nip that in the bud – an awkward moment now is better tolerated ashore than having a bad guest for an entire day on the boat.
Changes in the times over the years have meant differences in the volume and scale of guest visits. I can remember as a child going with my father on a summer Sunday morning to pick up the Sunday papers and ice for the boat. After he put the ice in the icebox and the papers on the dinette table, the moment came when I’d hold my breath. Would this be the day the 6-cylinder Gray wouldn’t start? Most times it did start, he’d let it run for a few minutes and we’d leave to pick up my mother and the food. If it didn’t start, we’d pick up my grandfather and his toolbox and he could always get the engine started. If we needed him he’d fix the engine, we’d take him home and then pick up my mother with her collection of shopping bags that contained blanket and newspaper-wrapped pots and pans of pot roast, gravy, mashed potatoes and string beans. The smallest bag would have the cake, usually an upside-down cake.
We’d meet the friends or relatives back at the boat, unload the food, beer and soda into the boat and head out to the clam grounds to get the first part of dinner. Somewhere in the shopping bags was a container of cocktail sauce for the little necks and cherrystones we’d dig up. There was never a problem finding clams – the bottom was studded with them and if you tried to walk you tripped over them. From the clam grounds through East Fox Creek to the State Boat Channel, we’d head for Cedar Beach or Gilgo Beach. An hour after dinner we were allowed to go across to the ocean for our swim.
Later, when I had my own boat, the guests were invited to bring lunch for all but the dog. I’d supply the clams and the cocktail sauce. In just that short time of about twenty years, hosting a full hot dinner as my mother had done morphed into inviting guests to provide all the food but the clams. How did that happen? The times had changed. When my mother married she lost her job at the bank because she was not expected to work. Now, women were educated and expected to work. To provide a boat, a car and pay household bills I had a full-time and a part-time job for nine years.
From boating friends and my family, I learned not to invite the people who try to invite themselves or the drama queens. They said to look for easy-going people that won’t challenge you about things you need to do your way and they were right. My best guests ever were two girls I worked with in a Wall Street law firm. They drove from New Jersey to the south shore of Long Island, were on time and brought a spectacular lunch. After Sue’s mother got up really early to make eggplant parm and went to the bakery so we’d have fresh rolls for lunch and donuts for our coffee break, she made us a quart-size thermos of coffee. The eggplant came wrapped in plastic, newspaper, a towel and a small blanket and was still quite hot when we had lunch. It was probably the best eggplant I ever had.
Another change in the last 100 years is the way we get our fishing partners together. When gas was cheaper friends got together, sometimes chipped in for expenses sometimes didn’t. Now it seems a lot of friends get together and all go out on one boat, use someone else’s boat the next time and nobody worries about expenses. It costs what you would have paid if you went out alone except for bait, so this is a lot easier.
Looking forward to a carefree day on the water, Jay arrived recently at his friend’s boat to find the bilge pump running. The water in the bilge picked up by the bilge pump went straight up into the air and into the cockpit where it ultimately left the boat through the scuppers. Did telling his friend what he thought of his sloppy approach to safety on a day they planned to fish offshore make him a bad boat guest?
Still friends, the next week they went fishing again in Jay’s boat which is kept in pristine condition – everything works and it looks and runs like a new boat. The friend finally found something he could complain about when Jay’s boat took some water in the cockpit from a big wave.
What else has changed with the times, work is no longer necessarily done in the office as it used to be done. For those who can work at home, often the location of home is less important and not necessarily anywhere near the work site. This means you can live on your boat or take extended trips on your boat as long as you process your work in a timely way.
Have these last 100 years been good for boaters? In the 1930s boat shows started up and after the War, they resumed as boat builders were able to switch back from wartime to peacetime production. The use of fiberglass and the flying bridge came during these 100 years. The first flying bridges for Chris Craft, Bertram and Hatteras were molded in Bayville, New Jersey. Harold Rickborn and his son made flying bridges and built consoles for Aquasports, Makos and other manufacturers.
It was during these 100 years that the technology for the joystick came about, bow and stern thrusters to help you dock in tight places, satellite phones that keep you in touch when you are out beyond the reach of cell phone towers, the autopilot, trim tabs, fire blankets and carbon fiber. The digital helm system replaces your anchor when you want to fish over a good spot and the helm holds you in place. We have been able to invent and fill needs we didn’t know we had but we have not been able to change our attitudes about wearing life jackets.
A recent study of life jacket use revealed that 85% of recreational boaters who were drowning victims were not wearing life jackets. There was agreement that a law like the seatbelt law would probably be effective, but most of the study participants felt wearing a life jacket indicated inexperience or poor swimming ability.