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The Case for the Shantyboat


by Marty Kasteler To begin, I’d like to contrast two drastically different modes of multi-day water travel: Te houseboat and the small


sailboat. For me, the idea of a houseboat goes against most things I love about boating. Tey are fantastically expensive and cost every month to moor. Even renting one, for most of us, requires everyone on board pitching in. Tey use copious amounts of fuel. Tey are grossly over-the-top with accommo- dations that rival our own homes. Teir passage is so sedate that it can disconnect you from the actual experience. Once parked, they tend to stay parked on whatever beach was found. Like a floating condo timeshare. I get no sense of adventure or discov- ery from a houseboat. To me, their sole redeeming quality is the ability to bring a lot of friends and family together. Compare that to the sweet little sail and oar boat that took


you twice as long as you thought to build. Created with your own hands, it embodies everything you’ve idealized about boating. It’s a connection with the environment you are in. Te water, the land, and all its inhabitants. In passagemaking, it necessitates a symbiotic relationship with you, the boat, and the place. Everything has been distilled down to just the essen- tials. Maybe purity is the word I am looking for. And many of us crave this experience. But the very nature of it means that it is mostly a solo endeavor. At best you might find a foolhardy friend who is up for the adventure. And your spouse? For me the answer is usually “I think that’s a Marty trip,” meaning you’re on your own. It seems between these two craſts— small, open boat vs. large houseboat—there is very little middle ground. Before I started thinking about building our shantyboat I


was thinking about how to share water time with my wife. My wife’s family has a long-standing tradition of making summer trips to Lake Powell, which she dearly misses. Tis tradition stretched back more than 40 years. These houseboat trips came with a high price tag. We traveled in large and expensive fiberglass cuddy cabins that ticked off the miles at the same rate that they consumed gas. And the stories of off-water costs and maintenance are just as infamous. A boat like this was not something I wanted to be financially anchored to. Despite this I have many wonderful memories of these trips. It is in this place that I first looked at my girlfriend as someone who I wanted to share all of my life’s adventures with. Fast forward 20 years and that girlfriend is now my wife. We


are still sharing adventures, but not in the medium or the place where it all started. Over the years those who made the trip possible have grown older. Some are not with us. With no


SMALL CRAFT ADVISOR


OPPOSITE—Terrapin, a small “shanty” houseboat. ABOVE—View from the porch.


one to pass the torch to, these trips seem to have been enfolded in the past. Most of my water adventures since have been alone or with only a close friend on small boats. Something has been lost in the direction my boating has taken. I wanted more shared experiences with friends and family like we once had. These thoughts led me to building Terrapin, a small “shanty” houseboat. And the following arguments are meant to encourage you to consider if the shantyboat is right for you. My first argument is this: a shantyboat is a little home on


the water. And homes are made by friends and family. Now whenever I’m going out, there’s no shortage of people willing to come. Oſten friends drive down to beach camp, to be a part of the fun. What was once solo is now a community. With a head,


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