How common are personally owned recreational water craft?

13 comments

1. Really uncommon due to the expense and lack of storage. Fishing/creeling boats are common on the coast and islands but those are for work. My mother’s uncle (minor celebrity, pretty rich) and a friend’s parents (also pretty well off) are the only people I’ve ever known personally with speedboats. I’d love a boat but I think I’ll have to stick with a kayak for now.

   We do have plenty of large bodies of water but you can’t take a powered boat on all of them, our “right to roam”/outdoor access code doesn’t cover motorised transport. You can take a kayak or whatever anywhere you want though, there are no permits or licences required.

2. Rather rare in most places. Boats are expensive, so only the rich upper class is able (or willing) to buy one.

3. Well, it depends on the region. If you live inland, obviously no boats. On the coastal areas and near big lakes owning some kind of boat is not that rare, I know a few who do. Often a family either has a cabin or a boat. We have one of the largest archipelagos in the world (by count of islands), and you need to have a boat if you want to travel there.

4. Personally I sail on a viking longship (reconstruction) 😉. Unfortunately it’s not “mine” though, it’s owned by a local museum.

   Watercraft are fairly common, we’re basically surrounded by water on all sides and no matter where you are you can be by the sea within an hour or much less. We also have quite a few lakes and rivers which are mostly suitable for smaller crafts.

   There are 300k active sailors (wind driven) plus I don’t know how many that own motor boats. Kayaks, canoes, dinghies and row boats are popular as well.

   Jet skis and the like are fairly rare, though you might see a few on a nice day at the beach. Surfing, especially kite surfing is fairly popular, not sure if a surfboard counts as a “craft” though!

   I’d estimate that maybe one in ten owns or co-owns some kind of watercraft. Might be more though. Couldn’t find any official numbers on it.

5. In Norway there’s everything from tiny sailing craft to enormous billionaire yachts and all ports in between. My local area near the coast has mostly pleasure craft that are normally driven within limits. Not seen as much waterskiing/Sea-Doo usage as in inland lakes in Canada, but I’m sure people do partake. In towns like Kragerø you get a mix of out of towners blocking waterways in high season and locals battling iced up passages in winter just to get to work.

   One fjord up the road from me has relatively high traffic, but a slow max speed. Not too many Rodney Dangerfields out on the water in summer.

   I haven’t seen any wakeboarding going on by me, I was more used to seeing NHL players relaxing in the summer with G25s and the like.

6. Very rare. They’re expensive to buy, expensive to store, and expensive to transport to a lake to use. We get a lot of windsurfers, kayakers, etc, on the coasts, but things with engines are far, far less common in my experience.

7. I know a bunch of people who own stuff like kayaks or small wooden boats. Don’t think I know anyone with a jet ski or speedboat.

8. Not exactly ‘common’, but plenty of people here who have enough money own a small boat.

   It’s a city on the sea, many of the better off inhabitants have a beach house somewhere outside the city, and quite a few of those also have a boat that they use in summer.

   Quite a lot have windsurfers too, it’s a very popular sport here.

9. Personal boats are common in the seaside, but I don’t think many people own jet skis. You can rent them though. We have lakes and rivers but people don’t ride jet skis on them, they fish instead.

10. Depending on area owning non motorized things like kayaks are a thing given how many rivers and lakes they can be used. It’s not extremely common to own them given the price tag and transportation issues, but it’s not unheard of. Many just rent them though, for example at the Mecklenburg Lake Plateau with it’s countless interconnected lakes. Motorized things like jet skis or boats are even less common – here, not only the price tag chimes in but also there are many lakes and rivers where you aren’t allowed to use them, and depending on the vehicle type you might need a license for them. Sure, in any German harbor / marina you’ll find many boats and hardly a spot to squeeze in another boat, but it’s still not nearly as common as other recreational things.

11. Along the coastlines there’s boats of course both for leisure, yachts and for fishing, we have a couple of big harbors a lot of beaches and we have all water-based things like jetski, waterski etc. I can’t remember how it is in our lakes, I live by the sea, but there are at least lakes big enough to have it.

12. We have a bunch of lakes and rivers where you can do all kinds of fun stuff with boats, and even at the smallest lakes you’ll see will have at least some small motorboats. But it’s expensive as hell, therefore even knowing a person who has a boat, especially in cities with big rivers / lakes is special and kind of a brag. The boat itself costs enough, but I think the real money eater are the docks. Bringing the boat with a trailer every time also isn’t a common thing, as most people don’t live in a house, and if they do, not one that’s big enough to store your boat trailer all the time. Jetskis are illegal here, but if they weren’t I think they could be a bigger thing.

13. There have been regulations like driving licenses for jetskis in Sweden so I think they have grown in popularity.

    As we have much archipelago and lakes there is many boats. Mostly small rowboats with an attachable motor or a bit bigger with a motor attached.

    There is 13 adults per recreational boat in Sweden. 7,7 in Norway, 8 in Finland, 25 in US, 33 in Holland, 124 in France and 236 in Spain. Yes the article said Holland and not Netherlands.