Yacht vs Boat - A Lesson in the English Language

The english language is a rich and colorful language, and that is one of the reasons it is so difficult to learn. Only the english language has numerous words that have the same meaning. It is a real expression of how we feel, and not a language to be used sparingly.

Back in the summer of 2010 someone asked about our "yacht". It was a person in their late 40's maybe early 50's. I just looked at them and said "Yacht?? We don't have a yacht, we have a boat". They asked if I could explain the difference.

A boat is a vehicle to carry people or cargo for pleasure or for business. It is kind of a general term to mean the vehicle used to convey someone or something over water.

Roman Abramovich's 538' Eclipse - ranked #1 as the largest privately owned yacht in the world

A yacht is a boat specifically built for the conveyance of people for pleasure in luxury. Over the years, pleasure boats have gotten larger and larger, and in the great marketing scheme of things more luxurious. Back in the 1930's & 40's any boat built for pleasure over 34' long was considered a yacht. Then in the 1950's & 60's it was boats over 45 feet long, in the 70's, 80' and 90's you did not get into a yacht unless it was over 75 feet long. Today, the modern classification of yachts is as follows: Personal pleasure yachts are 75 to 100 feet, mega yachts are 100 to 200 feet and super yachts are over 200 feet. Pleasure boats are measured by length, whereas ships are measured by gross tonnage.

And yes, even by today's standards, 200 feet is not a large private yacht. It is not unusual to see yachts ranging from 250 to over 450 feet. The M/Y Eclipse above is an example.

People that own yachts don't go boating....they go yachting. I compare those terms with the more common eating out and dining. Most of us eat out once a week, we rarely dine out and if we do we usually mean a 4 or 5 star restaurant. "We'll be dining out this evening". Who you kidding, we are eating out at Denny's.
Yachting is really for the more affluent and wealthy familes of this world. Actually 95% of the owners of mega & super yachts only board their boats once or twice a year for a week or so. Those boats are specifically purchased as a charter vessel....meaning that they are rented out, some for a mere 200-300K per week including crew.
See, there again another word for the rich....we rent a boat when we go away on a vacation, maybe for a day or a half-day of fishing or just playing around. The rich charter a yacht for a week or two.

That is another sign of a yacht...a crew. Usually a crew consists of a paid professional captain and at least one stewedess, who also acts as the chef. Paul Allen, the co-founder of Microsoft, owns 4 or 5 yachts. On his 416' M/Y Octopus, (pictured above) he has a permanent crew of 60 and a annual maintenance expense including salaries, of $20 million. Now...Thats a yacht, with both fore and aft choppers, 8 tenders (boats) and a slew of other toys. BTW, in 2007, Octopus ranked as the 3rd largest yacht in the world, in 2009 it is ranked as number 11. It doesn't take long to get outdone in the world of the Rich & Famous.

Our 27 year old boat, the Lucky Find III is a 38' trawler built back in 1984, and has a NADA book value equal to that of the price of a used two or three year old Cadillac....but remember, it's a boat, not a yacht.

Spring is just around the corner

Well, if it's not just around the corner, it's certainly not too far off. We set our clocks ahead one hour in just two weeks, and the calendar says spring arrives at 2AM on the 21st of March, which is just 3 weeks away. Of course, calendars are not written for upstate, NY.!...LOL

This has been one, long, cold and snowy winter. Temps remained under 20 for almost 2 months straight, it snowed 15 days straight in December, and every other day since then. But, by all counts, supposedly the accumulated snowfall is over, and we have just a few snow shower days left. We shall see about that,

Actually the winter was not wasted. Dottie and I decided on a few projects that we need to get done before launching the LF3 in April. You can check out our progress on these projects by clicking on this LINK.

I will keep this blog updated as we progress through Spring & Summer......although it may not be too timely.

The best-laid plans of mice and men often go astray

Well, as the saying goes...."The best-laid plans of mice and men often go astray"

Dottie and I, being in our late 50's have been planning the Great Circle Route cruise for 2 years now. We bought the boat, the charts, everything we would need to make this a memorable once-in- a- lifetime cruise. Dottie even retired back in February 2010.

Our 27 year old daughter, Natalie, the youngest of 3, was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis back in 2007. We were able to cope with this terrible debilitating disease. She really never had any outward signs of MS and looked to be the the normal 27 year old young woman she truly is.

On February 20th, 2011...a day we will remember forever, our daughter had a ischemic stroke. Unknown to any of us, including her doctors, we all thought it was an MS "episode", she was admitted to the hospital and treated for the MS.
However after 3 days of treatment she was not really coming around, so the hospital did more tests and brought in more neurologists and neuro-surgeons. The result of the test proved it definitely was a stroke.
Natalie cannot speak, nor can she walk and right arm and leg is completely motionless. Her prognosis is good....they say because of her young age her speech will be the first to come back, then her leg and finally her arm. She goes to physical therapy, occupational therapy and speech therapy thre times a week now and you can see the progress in her speech and leg.....but nothing in her arm or hand as of yet.

So to sum this all up, we have put our plans for cruising on hold for now....our daughter is back home living with us, and it is a full time job for Dottie and I to take care of her. All three of us are determined to make this better, but we are told it takes quite a bit of time and a lot of work.

That is where we are right now.......