About

Getting my first boat

Ever since I can remember I wanted a boat, but there was always a reason why I didn’t do it.  I think really, it was because I wanted a big cruiser or a huge sports boat and I was waiting to be “rich enough” to afford one.

Then a friend of mine bought a small inflatable with a 5HP motor, and we ran around middle harbour on it, and I realised:  you don’t need to be rich, and you don’t need to have a huge boat to have fun;  and if that’s what stops me from buying one I may never actually own a boat.

The family didn’t want to go out on an inflatable (none of us are very strong swimmers, another reason I put off buying a boat for so long), so I rented a tinnie with a 5HP motor at Pittwater.  $60 for two hours on the spur of the moment, some fish and chips and it was pretty clear that it wasn’t just me that would enjoy boating.

So, I decided to buy one, and my target was to have one by Australia Day 2011.  The hunt began, as did the process of making sure that the boat would be suitable for the family. I hit my target (got the boat the day before) and our first day out on the water was Australia Day.  The guy at the boat dealer suggested to me that perhaps a first outing should happen on a less busy day…  but that’s a story for another day.

Why I created this site

The main reason for creating this site was boat ramps!  Once the decision was made to get a boat, where would we launch it?  Is it hard to launch a boat? All sorts of things that we needed to look at.   The information available on boat ramps was disjointed at best, and really inadequate.  So I decided we’d visit them, take photos of them and review them.  I know other people are doing similar things, but the plan was to have a full list of boat ramps all over the country, with details of facilities and plot them on a map.  Australian Boat Guide was born.

The other thing is that during the process I realised there is just so much I don’t know about boating. People are friendly, and they’ll help you as much as they can, but I didn’t really see any good sites out there to help beginners get into boating.  Maybe I didn’t search google hard enough, but I decided to extend my boat ramps guide into the site you see today.

Yes, you can fit your boat in underground parking!

One of the “reasons” I delayed buying my boat was I had nowhere to park it, and was reluctant to park it on the street. This problem solved itself – put it in the car park, and park the car on the street!

Our parking here has a slight curve, so I need to be a little careful to line up right (and remember to put the bimini down ) and drag it in and out of parking.  Once it’s safely in place, I drive out and find a park.  Easy.