100 Times the Cost, the View is the Same

There is an absolutely gorgeous sailing yacht anchored behind us today. It pulled in last night just as the sun was setting. It must be 80 feet long, dark blue and of the 'sailboatus elegantus' variety. Minimum crew of 5 and looks like it hails from the Marshall Islands (South Pacific). Probably one of the most beautiful examples of the species. Called S/Y Tenacious.

Steve figures it must have cost about 100 times more than our wee sailboat and the running costs are probably about 100 times more than ours.

We've been having a very interesting debate and a bit of analysis on these lovely palaces of the sea. There's been a lot of discussion of the differences between the two experiences, what would be different aboard an 80 S/Y versus the 41'6" version? Well, obviously space would be a big difference, interior 'poshness', and crew / wait staff. I guess it really comes down to what you like, space would be nice, but actually we have plenty of space for two with two 'stories', two bedrooms, a living room and a 'conservatory'. And 80 feet, twice the size of ours, with 5 more people on it, would it be more crowded? Probably not, but that's a lot of people in quite a small space (1 person per 11.5 feet versus 1 person per 22 feet on ours). The staff does the sailing, cooking and cleaning on the big boat, but we like to sail and cook (the cleaning could be done by someone else, but it takes all of 30 minutes to clean the boat from end to end so it isn't really much of a bother).

I think part of the reason there has been so much discussion about this is there is still some of that knee jerk, consumerist reaction, in me particularly, that when I see something nice I say, "Ooohhhh, I want that!" And it takes some time to analyse and thinking through to realise that, no, actually I don't want that. Steve and I have a debate about this, but I think if we wanted one of those big boats we could have one, but at what price? Probably another 15 years of work, another 15 years of going to the office, 14 hour days and being road warriors.

But when we sat up on deck last night, next to S/Y T, our view and theirs of the lagoon, the white sandy beach, the crystal clear blue water was exactly the same. If someone were to give us one, we wouldn't refuse it, but working for 15 years? I'd rather pass on the poshness, have the extra 15 years and be here now.

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