Re: Maintenance
A lot of people assume boats are like cars; drive them and forget them. Or don't drive them much: unlike a boat, a car won't fall apart just sitting there. The result is in your shop.
Others lose interest in the boat and let them go. They find that the maintenance isn't "fun" like the pictures in the ads. They do not know, or underestimate, the time needed for maintenance. And many boats, and geographic areas, have increased maintenance requirements.
Some try but do it wrong. Some run out of money or time. On winterizing, some wait one too many weekends in the fall. Some have changed cirtcumstances, such as the children go off to school or summer camp, and it doesn't get used. Priorities change, and a boat becomes (or perhaps starts) as a low priority. or they buy a newer boat and keep the old one.
There is also a downward spiral, one I have seen with old boats and users such as daughters who don't appreciate the fun of having something go wrong out in the middle of the river and have to fix it or paddle home: As boats get tired, or unreliable, they don't get used, and they get more tired and unreliable. And no one wants to spend hours on maintenance and repairs, including catch-up maintenance, on a boat that isn't being used. Once the user loses confidence in the boat, it's stress, not fun, to use it.
Free time is tight. "If I want to go boating, I have to fix the gonkulator, which means troubleshooting, going to the parts store, figuring it out, wrenching on it, going back to the store, re-doing it, with a 50/50 chance it will work and a 80% chance I'll finjd somehting else wrong. Screw it, let's drive to the beach instead."
I can ride around my river and point to dozens of boats that haven't run in a couple of years, and more that have been barely used. They would be in the shop, too, but they are in the water at the piers, or on trailers with flats! I personally think it's a shame, but that is what it is.
But don't ask me about the old whaler in the driveway....
