The End of Skill?

Two companies have just announced that they are going to build an autonomous motorboat. Yes, the crew will be able to sit aboard and do absolutely nothing…except drink their faces off…while the boat runs itself.

Never mind whether or not this is even doable (way past my pay grade to judge). The thing that gets me is said companies tout this as a huge advance in boating enjoyment.

But, to me anyway, the greatest enjoyment I have gotten over my 65 years in boats, and continue to get, is in learning, and then mastering, new skills.

The thought that I will learn something new today, and maybe make, or do, something better on my boat (or at AAC), is literally what gets me up in the morning.

And that never changes. In fact, the more I learn, the more I realize how much more there is to learn, and the more pleasure I get from that realization.

For example, in the past year:

• I finally got my head around how bolted joints work and the relationship between bolt pre-load and and the forces the joint is designed to take. No, not to the level of understanding an engineer has, but way better than I did, and enough to be a better boat technician. Thanks, Matt and Eric.
• I’m learning, all over again, how to trim and drive a high-performance boat. Still a long way to go there.

That’s just two of the scores, maybe hundreds, of things I have learned this year, on and off boats—at my age I have to relearn a lot, too!

Maybe I’m just an old stick-in-the-mud, but why on earth would anyone want to expend the money and time on boating without getting that pleasure of learning? Why not just stay home and watch a YouTube video of boating…and drink your face off? Way less expensive.

All that said, I can see benefits in this tech for people who are disabled.