To think it can't be that hard to drive a boat?

[CatThiefKeith]

I've never really driven a boat, but I was a sea cadet, and I've done a bit of canoeing.

And today I bought a boat. A little (ish) cabin cruiser. With money my parents have given me, on the condition I take them out in it occasionally. (It was pretty cheap in boat terms)

Dh thinks I've finally lost the plot, and that I will inevitably sink it on my first outing.

Aibu to think it can't be THAT bloody difficult, given that hundreds of thousands of people manage it perfectly well?

If you can't drive it then you sell it. Ideally for £7,000.

But you will be able to so it ain't a problem.

'Course you can. It's tiny. Not like a big cruise ship.

Look at all the families driving huge 12 berth cruisers on the Thames for their holidays. You have got this.

And look! Saw this and thought of you: www.facebook.com/lidluk/videos/1012183185506166/

You'll be fine, its not like cruising the motorway at 70mph with cars 6 feet away from you!

If you get too close to something give the Secret Signal and they'll get out of your way.

Drive or pilot are used in terms of a motorboat not sail.

You might find this useful
www.gov.uk/owning-a-boat/overview

Best thing I have ever seen is a chap in a tiny boat on the south coast asking where he was. He only had an AA road map to navigate with and intended to follow the coast to Dover then go straight to France. He genuinely thought he was in France.

It's great you know instructors. My folks told us we needed the experience in a rib but we're still not sure why. Tuition in our own boat would have been much better. It was great it being just us too. DH hilariously needed several attempts at rescuing the man overboard. If I'd have had to watch another 8 people doing that it would have been very tedious!

I love that dh is as enthusiastic as me over it. I love us having a new hobby together but now he wants to add to it all the time, diving, fishing, towing inflatables etc.

I agree about families doing boating holidays but open sea is very different but that's a case of knowing your limits.

I'd had experience of rough seas before and also wanted to know the rules and to achieve something. I don't have a driving licence because I couldn't pass so getting my pb2 was a big thing for me but I kept thinking if my 60 year old mum can do this in Plymouth in winter so can I.

I've navigated this before. Forget to turn at the right time and you're on your way to Holland.

Yes, I will give myself a

This is more what I have in mind.

It'll be lovely Cat. You'll need a posh picnic hamper.

You'll be right. Tidal rivers can be a bit hairy, the sea is a Very Specialist Subject and must not be navigated until you have achieved your Advanced Pirating Badge - but little rivers and canals are fair game. All my childhood hols were on boats. They're not hard.

Wear your life jacket, kill cord (if she has one), and a spiffy hat and you'll be golden :)

I have a Jack Sparrow hat, can I come with if I bring my own life jacket?

Even the Costa Concordia or the Exxon Valdez captains should be able to manage that. Drunk.

There will only be one captain though Lockheart. I will not stand for mutiny on board my ship.

Our house backs onto a canal so we bought a cabin cruiser for trips to the pub. It's great fun although the narrow boat owners aren't particularly friendly.

One told us that their nickname for cabin cruisers is 'plastic pig'.

On the canal it seems like everyone likes to have someone to look down on. Happily we are not at the bottom however as I'm reliably told that kayakers are down there. (This is not my opinion)

You'll be fine. Just keep clear of big steel narrow boats in the locks- boaters don't just call GRP cabin cruisers plastic pigs, they call them crunchables.
When I was 19 I bought a 17ft cabin cruiser with a tiny outboard and went up the river Aire navigation with its enormous locks. Madness, but it was fine.

Cat!! How exciting!

You will be fine.

Although I find it terrifying how a boat keeps going when the engine has stopped. And about how reverse parking is all totally opposite of what things are like in a car. And how counterintuitive the whole boating lark is. But even I manage without any kind of certificate - DH is the Keen One

Have fun.

PD! Are you a boater? I had no idea! I am very excited. I'm sure it'll be fine, what's the worst that could possibly happen on the Medway?

I am a Reluctant Boater

I love water, I am a very competent swimmer/diver (not boasting, just sayin'), but anything with an engine leaves me cold.
Gie me a kaiak any day of the week over DH's baby but the DSs like being thrown off the back of a boat and being towed at high speed

Are you one of those darned, dreaded water ski-ing types who like to capsize everything in sight, Pacific? looks disapprovingly over pretend spectacles

We have the boat on a scottish loch (well, it's currently in storage otherwise storm Henry would have put it up a tree, I think - and we have already sunk one boat in our boating career . Well, a storm sunk it. At night. With nobody in it. But still….)

I think I could become a sailer, but I have never actually sailed a boat, other than sat in one while somebody else did all the technical ropy and sail-related stuff.

No! I am NOT!! I too disapprove wholeheartedly!! It is great fun though. Though it is 'wake boarding' - cooler, like

Oh, and now I can see the photographic evidence. When I was a boater I think I disliked water skiers even more than fishermen.

Luckily that was long ago enough for the trauma of nearly being capsized and drowned to have subsided.

So, all round for water folk.

Sorry, waterboarder. Clearly a much classier bread.

In all seriousness, I am actually really quite conflicted about the whole thing.

A gin palace cabin cruiser would be much more my cup of tea than a stupid wake boarding boat. DH otoh is a petrol head. Don't get me started on cars….

I v much approve of Cat's new acquisition.
Do you have a fridge on board? to keep the gin cold