When You Are In A Classic Boat Does Time Move?
Is the clock broken, or is it working?
It’s that time of year when you are all cooped up with a fire and thinking about stuff. And in my case, way to much time. I can’t stop thinking, it’s my curse. I wake up thinking, and go to sleep thinking, I think in dreams. The only time I really enjoy not thinking, is out on my boat. Which got me thinking. When you are out on your Woody Boat does time stand still? Hold on here. You are out on, lets say a 1948 Chris Craft, in a an area that really hasn’t changed since that time. After all Woods are woods, water is water, and the only thing defining the time is the machine you are in, and your state of mind. Maybe, just maybe its possible for a brief moment..in time to transport your state of mind to the time you are in, by defined by what surrounds you. Since time is a human concept anyway.
Same boat, different time.
We can get deeper here, if in fact you are headed down a river that is flowing the oposite direction as you are, does that slow down time for you? Now, here I am not saying you are stopping time across the universe, but just for you in that moment. You will of course come back to the current time space you were in when you left. We are talking about almost like visiting a time warp, a moment where you get to see what a time was like.
These two photos could have been shot in the 1950’s
Timeless?
Lets get deeper, lets say you have a 100% correct original Classic Boat, or car, doesn’t matter, but its easier in a boat, because roads change, water is water. So lets stick to boats for this. You are on a 6 volt systyem, have all the original stuff. You get the joy of FEELING the time that was then and is now, well..now. That is you get to live, see and feel the time you are in. The varnish, interior, smells are timeless, the feel, the faults, concerns and joys of a smooth or not smooth running engine are all timeless. When you go out to see if your boat will start on a damp morning, is a old concept and feeling. Will the points need attention is a old feeling not felt now. There is a deeper appreciation for when your boat starts that modern people with there fancy modern boats don’t feel. So, see! If you are still reading this of course. Which by the way is a time thing. no reads more than 200 words on these sorts of sits. Then again, you are here and on the web. Which blows the entire point. Maybe we should set this in lead type and press it into paper and hand deliver it to your door step!
Einstein relative theory of old boating. Hopefully all that thinking will keep your head warm.
Way over my head!!!!
All I know is it is -4° this morning and I can’t think straight. Must have coffee.
If you go fast enough for long enough your passing time is different than those left behind. Of course this leaves Panther out. Maybe Miss America IX?
Hum, I want some of what Matt is smoking. 😉
Either that or perhaps he has been watching too many Twilight Zone late night reruns?
Here is a question for us: What is the relation of nostalgia to time consciousness?
My thoughts exactly.
Matt: Now I ask you to think about your TIME. If this Time that you spend out on WECATCHUM stops and becomes TIMELESS TIME, than just imagine a three day weekend or maybe even a full week on a classic cruiser. Leave the computer at home, turn the cell phone off and head for a quiet, TIMELESS, wildlife inhabited, cove somewhere off the beaten path in the estuaries of Chesapeake Bay. At this TIME in this TIME SPACE CONTINUUM even YOUR mind may slow to a snails pace and rest.
When you have nothing else to think about maybe you can answer the age old question: “If you eat pasta and anti-pasta at the same time, are you still hungry?”
Dammit Troy, now I have that anti pasta thing in my head all day!
WOW!!!!!
Well as of midnight last night recreational marijuana is legal in Massachusetts.
I am not saying whether or not I have indulged yet but the topic is far out man.
Maine is still doing a re-count.
So is Colorado, but they can’t remember why.
If Matt thinks modern boats are reliable, he is definitely smoking something!
And things have changed on the water. We no longer use desperate hand signals and CB radios to call for help. We now have cell phones to call our neighbors for a tow, or to receive their calls when it is our turn to assist.
And the person at the end of the rope now wears a life vest instead of a foam belt so they now mostly float with their heads up rancher than down.
Matt,
Since your thinking in the abstract, what would woodyboating be like in a parallel universe and would time still stand still for you on a wood boat? And most importantly would bacon have a different taste?
Bacon? Hope it taste now times.
We need to invent a timeOmeter that measure the time continum when out on a boat. First though, I need to figure out how to spell continumm? Continyouman? OK, this may take some time!
Just think Matt, on one parallel universe your spelling might be correct all of the time… Forget Webster, there may be a woodyboater dictionary in that parallel universe! (insert chuckle here)
Sorry but I tend to think time is not a human concept. Time=distance in cosmic physics. Time is a measure of distance/space traveled. Now comes the Century part, of course, Classic Century boats are known for high horsepower therefore they travel farther faster warping the time space curvature with radical radius. Buckle Up Johnny Ride a Thoroughbred .🚤
Who makes those wonderful nautical clocks your featuring today AND did a write up on some time back?
Today your boat is the oldest its ever been and it will never be younger than today.
OMG This morning I woke up thinking about my 1937 boat and its engine’s coil. That coil is original from 1937 along with the boat. I somehow think when out in my boat Helmholtz has total control. Who needs a clock?
Matt, your opening statement about this time of the year, when we “have to much time ” on our hands hits home. Boy, the last 3 to 4 weeks have been a bummer for me. We had fantastic weather most of November here in West Michigan, and I over did it, and twisted my right ankle a week before Thanksgiving. Had to cancel our trip the Charleston, S.C. and I have been coped up in the house since. Then the weather “Door” slammed shut, and we have been paying for all those above normal November temps. I can not drive and have been hobbling along with a cane.
So yes, it has been a LONG winter so far, and it just started. Now, over the past several years I always looked forward to this time of the year to plan our next boating season’s trips, and “Spend money on classic boat and car upgrades” (Damn Internet makes it so easy to find things you didn’t realize, you didn’t need). At 71 yrs old, my health has slowed me way down the past couple of summers on my summer travels, and my pocket book has no more “extra funds” to buy fun things.
BOY, it will be a LONG WINTER… Thank God, and Matt for my morning fix and a reason to get up. Bored in West Michigan !!!
Get that ankle back in shape Dennis my orthopedic surgeon says flexibility (or lack of it) is our biggest nemesis as we age. Wrap it with a heated microwavable gel pack to increase flexibility and then do your daily stretching so you can hop in and out of that boat. Hope you’re back in action soon.
“If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?” And if there is no one around to perceive it do trees really exist or is it just our perception. And if the existence of trees is just our perceived concept, are wood boats and woody boating just a figment of our imagination?.
Then I perceive myself with MORE wooden boats.
I went boating yesterday afternoon….not a surprise….and had a timeless time….woke up aboard this morning to a mine gale and temp dropping faster than the moon influenced tide…..great TIME!
even towed my Whirlwind home for the season and some pre Dora cosmetics! I am going to give Troy a ride this time!
John in Va.
So John, I guess when you say you slept aboard you weren’t talking about sleeping in the Whirlwind?
In the light of “old and new” How about a photo rehash of Paul Smith and Alice Cromer at their office on the 1950’s which is now my office in 2017? The IPhone has replaced the globe, Alice and the cool dial phone. Dont know how to do a side by side. Both photos were taken at the Commerce Department HQ located in downtown DC on Constitution Ave,, on 60+ years apart….
And teh “old photo” from the 1950s
HOLY CRAP! Thats amazing. Paul would be amused. By the way, that was his smile. The man was frugal with his jocularity!
Here are the two offices side by side!
so this is down the rabbit whole!
Oh, sorry for lack of context.. The lower photo is of Matts grandfather who was a Coast Guard Rear Admiral and the photo and I occupy the same office 60 plus years later…
Can’t believe you guys tracked all this info down, I can’t even find my car keys half the time.
No Walt, but I have done that. Makes a great summer camping boat. Slept on the Cruiser….heat on, blew a gale, moon low tide…..great time!
John in Va.
Boy…Talking about re living your misspent youth.
Matt is that Christopher in that newer picture of Grandfathers office.?.
I can’t believe you guys have pictures of the same office
My 1948 Chris Craft cruiser certainly does have a timeless quality about it and the harbor she lays in really hasn’t changed much in 70 years. I was born in 1950, so the memories and nostalgia are a big part of it for me, plus I have a real appreciation for beautifully hand built old stuff. Although being on the boat transports me back in time, actual time on the boat goes by way too fast. My wife and I call it “boat time”. It’s the best!
Totally on board with what you have said, what you have written and most of all what you are thinking about. It all goes hand in hand with what I have said all along…. people don’t restore boats, they restore memories…and every once in awhile, be it at the dock or wide open in the middle of nowhere I believe we all live for that one moment, and you have no idea when but it does happen – but for a split second you are right there back in 19__ (fill in the blank from childhood)