this post was submitted on 12 Sep 2024
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There's still people into boats, but it's not very popular compared to trains/planes/cars. Which is kinda strange, there has never been a time with more shipping traffic. Maybe because ports these days are fairly inaccessible to observers
Super yachts in particular have a dedicated fan base, god knows why as most of them are monstrosities more in common with cruise ships than sailing vessels.
Pretty easy to track them online using their AIS transmitter too: https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/home/centerx:-12.0/centery:25.0/zoom:4
I used to live in an industrial city with one of the biggest inland ports in the world. The rivers are a pretty popular hangout spot. People get some portable grills and chairs and just watch the ships go by. I feel like they are a bit less interesting then old ships tho.
And numerous. A new ship docking would set a town into a flurry, bringing in trade and money for services. Now at today's scale of everything, one ship is meaningless unless it's something like a giant tourist ship to a small tourist town.
Where i grew up we could see tanker ships anchored in the bay. I would have loved to get familiar with them but we never stayed there long enough and i don't know if i would have seen the same ship twice anyway