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How to Buy a Boat Part VI

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A lot of great stuff happens when you’re on the water. It’s usually the things that you don’t plan which end up being the best memories.

Like the time when I was shark fishing as a kid with my cousins, my uncle Ron, and my dad. My dad had a brand new pole. At one point he went down below to get some sandwiches and Uncle Ron began shouting, “Randy you’ve got a fish on your line!” Within seconds the pole was overboard. After lunch, Uncle Ron hooked onto to a sand shark and yelled, “Randy I’ve got something.” As it came into sight my dad said, “Ron! He’s got my pole!” The fish got away. But we got the pole back.

Or the times on our boat, the Tom Sawyer when people on other boats are waving to me and I’m smiling and waving back, and then I realize they’re pointing to the swim ladder that is still in the water. Or the time I ran out of gas and had to crawl back to port on one engine, or when we got stuck in the fog and had to sleep on the boat not knowing where we were, and on and on and on. Boating and stories go hand in hand.

Another great part of boating is hearing friends’ stories. I received a picture from a client with his cool fly fishing boat, custom built for the rivers out West. I also received some cool pictures from a reader building his own boat to fish the backwater flats of Florida. And another client emailed me about the time they lost their rudder sailing on Lake Michigan.

There is no owner’s manual for learning the ways of the water. It can get messy out there. It’s not always easy. It’s boating, in the same way fishing’s not called catching. But if you stick with it, you wake up one day and realize: I’m sailing!

Do you remember my childhood friend who threw the anchor and the line overboard?

Well, he’s a licensed captain now and can handle just about anything that floats. And when he’s not running one of those big ferries between Martha’s Vineyard and the mainland, he flies airplanes. Every time he spots my parents on their boat, he walks out of the pilot house, gives a knowing wave and a head-nod, and then gets back to his craft.

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E.J. Smith - Your Survival Guy

Preparing your investments and family for when disaster strikes.
E.J. Smith is the Founder of YourSurvivalGuy.com, Managing Director at Richard C. Young & Co., Ltd., a Managing Editor of Richardcyoung.com, and Editor-in-Chief of Youngresearch.com. E.J. graduated from Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts, with a B.S. in finance and investments. In 1995, E.J. began his investment career at Fidelity Investments in Boston before joining Richard C. Young & Co., Ltd. in 1998. E.J. has trained at Sig Sauer Academy in Epping, NH, where he completed course-work in Practical and Defensive Handgun, Conceal Carry Pistol, Shotguns, Precision Scope Rifle and Kidnapping Prevention. E.J. plays a Yamaha Recording Custom drum set with Zilldjian cymbals. His first drum set was a 5-piece Slingerland with Zilldjians. He grew-up worshiping Neil Peart of the band Rush, and loves the song Tom Sawyer—the name of his family’s boat, a Grady-White Canyon 306. He grew up in Mattapoisett, MA, an idyllic small town on the water near Cape Cod. He spends time in Newport, RI and Bartlett, NH—both as far away from Wall Street as one could mentally get. The Newport office is on a quiet, tree lined street not far from the harbor and the log cabin in Bartlett, NH, the “Live Free or Die” state, sits on the edge of the White Mountain National Forest. He enjoys spending time in Key West and Paris. Please get in touch with E.J. at ejsmith@youngresearch.com. Sign up here to receive all the best content from Richardcyoung.com each week.

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