5 Boating Facts that may surprise you

Boating has been around for approximately 8,000 years, and as you can imagine there are some fascinating boating facts floating around! From the Stone Age dugouts to today’s tight knit boating community, life on the water is full of surprising moments. Check out a few of our favorite fun facts from all those years in between:

A couple stands at the rear of a boat, embracing the boating lifestyle, a testament to Dockshare's rich maritime heritage.
1. 14-year-old Laura Dekker was the youngest person to solo sail around the world
Dekker announced her plan to circumnavigate the globe in 2009 and started her journey in 2010 when she was just fourteen years old. Her entire trip took 518 days and ended when she was sixteen years old in 2012. Her forty-foot sailboat was named “Guppy” and her father was encouraging her every step of the way.
2. The English word “quarantine” comes from 17th century boating terminology
After our recent time spent in quarantine over the past year, it’s amazing to think sailors were doing the same hundreds of years ago. Quaranta giorni, or “forty days” in Italian, was the amount of time sailors had to stay on their ships after arriving in a harbor before they were allowed onto the mainland. This was to prevent the spread of plagues and diseases.
3. Ship speeds are measured in knots– literally!

One knot equals one nautical mile per hour. The term ”knots” comes from the 17th century when sailors measured the speed of their ship by using a “common log,” a rope tied with equally spaced knots. The common log would trail behind the boat for a specific amount of time before the sailors would count how many knots had passed. This estimated their speed.

4. Sailing has been in the Olympics since 1900

The Tokyo Olympics are in full swing this year and the summer games wouldn’t be complete without some boating! Sailing is one of the longest running Olympic sports with a debut at the world games in 1900.  Since then,the competition was omitted only once in the 1904 Summer Olympics. More boating facts — Sailing is one of the only sports where men and women compete simultaneously. Great Britain has won the most gold medals in sailing, which reflects its status as the country where the competitive sport developed. Close behind is the USA, while other perennial medal-winners include Norway, Spain, and France.

5. The COVID-19 pandemic created a boom in boat sales

As people spent increasingly more time at home, they began to see the value of buying boats and watercrafts so they could safely enjoy the great outdoors. An estimated $47 billion was spent in the US on buying boats in 2020. With boat sales skyrocketing last year, the trend shows no signs of slowing in 2021. As we welcome more boaters onto the waterways, we offer our services to connect eager boaters with private dock owners to safely rent out their docks while making some extra money.

The world of boating has so much rich history and we are looking forward to the future. Visit us next month for more boating facts. 

We hope to make private docksharing a part of every boater’s life, just like a common log in the 17th century. Let’s make history together! Happy boating!