Sunday 21 November 2010

1001 Boats?

I was browsing in bookseller Waterstone’s recently and spotted a series of books all extolling 1001 things I needed to do before I die.

On the basis of some simple arithmetic and the assumption that I have another 25 years left (fingers crossed) that means I would need to maintain and average of one thing per week which is going some. But what’s actually much worse is the range of subject matter.

The first volume, the one that caught my eye, was “1001 Buildings to See before You Die”, but according to the publishers while I get my weekly dose of architectural magnificence I also need to be eating “1001 Foods to Eat before You Die.”

For a creature of habit like myself who goes to various favorite restaurants, café’s and bars, each for a specific and favorite dish; that could be a challenge.

And of course not only do I need to eat and look at buildings, but there’s 1001 Gardens to see, Historic Sites to visit, Paintings, Albums, Inventions, Natural Wonders, it’s exhausting.

Mind you, a couple that I wouldn’t mind giving a go, was “1001 Beers to Before You Die” and 1001 Wines, perhaps as the ideal accompaniment to the 1001 foods!

Then I noticed that the one thing these publishers of morbid, serial nonsense had missed was “1001 Boats You Should See Before You Die”, which begs the obvious question are there really 1001 boats worth seeing, or even 101 for that matter?




There are certainly more than a few boats that I like, which is all getting to sound very much like one of Tillerman’s challenges – what are your “ not to be missed boats”.

Let me know.

18 comments:

  1. Never mind "seeing" them. I think you need to try them all. That would be a more exciting challenge.

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  2. I absolutely agree with Tilleman, adding only that you will have an opportunity to try No 1 on the list, The Solent Galley, next Saturday when we visit Hamble River Rowers.
    No 1002 is The Jetski.

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  3. Yes, sail or row them or just spend a few hours lounging in the cockpit on a summer morning. I have got to make it to Norway and Denmark to see and sail on the original and replica Viking boats. The Vikingeskibsmuseet in Roskilde, DK, is at the top of my list. They have the remains of several Viking-era boats they recovered from the Roskilde Fjord AND sailing replicas of each of them with other Danish and other Scandinavian boats you can sail.

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  4. The number one boat on the not to be missed list is the one you built yourself.

    Patrick

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  5. So many boats, so little time. DoryMan would narrow the search to classically designed wood vessels and even then there must be thousands.
    Given the time frame you've allotted, one a week should do the trick, even with time off for holidays.

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  6. I'm compiling a list of the 1001 things I must fix on my boat before selling it.

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  7. I have this crazy idea. We start a blog called 1001 Boats You Must Try Before You Die. We get all our boating blogger friends to contribute posts on boats in their area of interest. It becomes the most popular boating blog on the planet. Then we sell ads and sponsorship on the blog to raise money for boating charities - disabled sailing, community sailing , RNLI whatever - and raise buckets of cash for good causes. Some publisher gives us a book deal and we raise even more buckets of cash for good causes.

    What do you think?

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  8. O Docker: Selling it? What next?

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  9. We don't need a book deal to publish 1001 Boats - we could do it on one of the self-publish sites such as Blurb. Everyone contribute a few boats with pics, bung it on the web and set a 'you know it's for charity' price. I suggest a boating for the disabled charity.

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  10. I think between Tillerman and Chris it's a fantastic idea

    - so are we going to do it?

    and can we do it between now and Christmas?

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  11. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  12. Hi message from Mrs Bursledon Blogger - he is making great progress in collecting his own 1001 boats, if you stand in the drive and count them. Let's see what Santa brings x

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  13. Tillerman! Like I've always said. That's why you make the big bucks.

    I'm in too.

    doryman

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  14. Count me in too...

    Jim
    www.marlanindustries.com

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  15. just fixed 1001 things in your life. 1001 boats it looks very amazing.

    tim mccallan @
    http://www.timmccallan.com/

    ReplyDelete

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