Know what I think? Friends are a lot like boats. Yep. Take care of 'em, and they'll be around for a good long while. Friends, like boats, seem to come along - usually - one at a time. And, if you're like me; you're not so selective how you meet up with either of 'em. That's, boats OR friends.

It simply doesn't matter. Really.

I've got an advanced degree in the behavioral sciences. I can cite the studies, if I really have to. But, just for the sake of argument, take my word for it. I don't matter where or how you meet your boats or friends. It's how you treat 'em later on, that matters.

Know what else I think? The best kinda' friends are the ones who already have their own boats. Don't get me wrong. I love to share. Bet, you do too. It's the shared interest thing. After all, say you like girls, for a ubiquitous example. Say, you do. Say, you like girls with blond hair. Hey, lots of folks do. It could be what I mean by a "shared interest."

But, just try to go up to some strange guy in the grocery store parking lot with a pretty blond girl hanging on his arm, and say something like, "Hey, that's a good lookin' girl ya' got there. I got one like that at home. Maybe we could go do something with 'em sometime?" Try that, and you're likely to at least get arrested, more like, shot!

But. What if you take a nicely turned-out Welsford, or Michalak, for example. One you maybe spent a winter or more turning out from a stack of plywood, a mountain of sawdust, and considerable noise. Now, take that little girl to the same grocery store parking lot, and just see what happens.

People will leave ice cream and babies in their shopping carts, and make a bee-line over to check out your "cute/pretty/interesting/REALLY COOL MAN!!" creation. You know it's true.

One more thing, I think. While, most people figure they can never have too many friends. And, some of us would have you believe it's the same for boats. It's really best to be with 'em one at a time. Maybe, small groups, now and then.

Anyhow, that the theoretical underpinnings of this tale.

And, this past year, I've gone to considerable effort to make a scientific appraisal of my heretofore working hypothesis.

Over the past several years, I had become what I'll refer to as a boatbuilding recluse. I came to prefer the company of my table saw and clamp rack and orbital sanders to that of people. At least it came to feel like that. I was dragging these woebegone hulls and parts of hulls home in serial fashion. Kate finally turned a deaf ear to my standard dodge, "What new boat? Oh that. new. boat. yeah, looks pretty rough. but just wait'll I get 'er overhauled and back in the water. just you wait."

We've been living on the hard, here at 48N X 117W, for going on six winters. Each of those winters, seems like one, or two, or three of my "little floaty friends" came to live with us. Somehow, there's about, well, less than twenty hulls hanging, parked, stacked, and otherwise put out of sight someplace around here, now. Most of 'em have been overhauled, completely rebuilt, or more likely, transmogrified to something not even resembling the original designer or builder's intentions. But, what's the use of doing something like that, if you spend more time with a varnish brush in your hand than a mooring line or anchor rode?

I figured it was time to, maybe, make some people-friends. Mostly, people with boats.

The best place to find people-with-boats? For the sake of this discussion, I'll exempt the jet ski and the metal flake bass boat crowds. The best place to meet folks with boats. The very folks that could make the best enduring friends. Is, at one or more of the organized gatherings that have proliferated all over the country. They're usually called messabouts. It's not strictly required; but if you take a boat-or two-to one of these messabouts; all you have to do is smile. Well, maybe smile, and compliment some other guy on his "pretty little girl." Yep. That's about how it works.

Before you know it, you're working on making a new friend.

That's what this particular boatbuilding recluse decided to do. It was a New Year's resolution. I even wrote it down. "I resolve, in 2014, to actually USE these boats. I further resolve to make new connections with new people who have a shared interest in the general care and feeding of boatflesh." Actually, it was simpler than that. I simply decided to do more boating, and less fixing/modifying/building.

Somehow, all that new-found "doing" required one whole lot of DRIVING. Towing a boat trailer, that is. Somehow, since about the Fourth of July - it's right now smack in the middle of Octember - I have managed to pull various members of the fleet nearly 8,000 miles.

I explored all the lakes we later went to during the Movable Messabout that happened over 7 days in September. I took Lady Bug all the way over to Sucia Island, to meet up with the regulars at that quite famous boat people gathering. I towed Roughneck with Shenanigan in our local Fourth of July boat parade. I trailered Shenanigan and Limerick all the way to Toledo, Oregon for the wooden boat festival there - and met quite of few of those hale-fellow-well-met COOTS.

I took Punkin' Seed and Kokobot and Lady Bug and Shenanigan and Paint Bucket and Limerick and Roughneck and Old Salt to about half dozen local ponds, streams, lakes and bigger over the course of the summer. Lots and lots of trips to and from storage and the launch ramps. A regular, frequent flyer.

And, each time. Every trip. I met at least somebody who wanted to talk about boats. Usually at a launch ramp, or dock. Often in the gas station. Sometimes, even, at a stop light. I've got some new business cards shoved in my wallet, scribbled email addresses, and even had some follow-up meetings with new friends to show for all that.

But.

The very best place to meet folks most of us would want to keep as friends, is at the messabouts. Sucia was like that. Toledo was like that. Of course, our Movable Messabout was like that.

Then, the Big Daddy. I saddled up, and drove off to Sail Oklahoma 2014. I was privileged to travel in company with another boat folk who I met at the September Movable Messabout. A guy I'd like to keep as a friend. Dennis. We drove separate truck/boat combos close to 4,000 miles more or less in company. My rig is older and slower. But, we kept in touch by phone and met up for gas stops (about a bazillion gallons of gas to tow a boat to Oklahoma) meals and overnight camps. We each came away from Eufaula with a fistful of new friends, and put faces to names that we only knew from the forums, personal emails, etc.

We also met lots of momentary acquaintances who came over to check out our boats in those gas stations, restaurant parking lots, and camp grounds. Dennis got hurt, and I got sick. We also met any number of nice people in several emergency rooms and clinics coming and going. Not the best way to want to meet people. But, hey. People are people. And, you never know where a new friend - or boat - could pop up. In fact, I was offered a couple "free" boats in places like that. Fortunately, I got home with exactly the number of boats I left with. Shenanigan was sooooo damn popular, I'd be nuts to want to part with her.

So, there you have it. (Pseudo) scientific evidence to prove that all you have to do, to make new friends; is to drag a boat to a messabout. And, say hello. Maybe compliment somebody else on his or her boat. Of course, you might have to share. But, that's really what it's all about.

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