I started playing around with photography decades ago. I still remember the realization that every advantage came with an often-unintended disadvantage. Faster film speed could mean a grainy image film. The help of a wide angle, or telephoto lens in framing the image came with the penalty of unwanted distortion. Then there were shutter speed / aperture combinations. Each had it’s own advantage and disadvantage. Success meant maximizing things that made the picture better while minimizing things that could make it worse. To this day, I remember the realization that every plus comes with a minus.

No where is that life-lesson more evident than when buying a new boat. Of course we all understand the concept on some higher plane. Every boat is a compromise… Yada… Yada. Still we remain drawn to the expectation that one boat will meet all of our cruising goals. If our own tendencies aren’t bad enough, folks selling the damned things dial right into those laudable ambitions. You won’t be in a buying mood long, before you notice boats heralded as perfect for everything. Family of six, four, or two: this is the ideal boat. Planned cruising adventures: Open ocean, snorkeling the Bahamas, slogging the Great Circle, gunk holing the Great Lakes: here’s the boat for you (all the same one).

Sorry gang, for most of us the boat that will bring us to some waterborne Nirvana does not exist. What does, however, is a boat that combines the best features for the kind of boating that we actually do most of the time while minimizing the impact of a lot of things that we don’t. That’s the fuzzy but honest reality that frames the image of the "ideal boat". Unfortunately you are not likely to find that kind of common sense championed in boating ads. Like learning photography, it comes with a little bit of experience and a lot of practice.