Boat people tend to be a bit romantic, and as such, they tend to hate the concept of burning a boat. There is always someone, somewhere, who thinks a boat should be saved. I catch a lot of crap for burning boats. People look at the pictures and think "Hey, that's boat's not bad! It could be fixed in a weekend if someone cared!" What they don't see is the punky wood, that the boat has no bottom, or that a kayak that should weigh 30-40lbs weighs 200+ lbs because the builder thought 'Stouter is better." Much like the undertaker, January 1 Boat Burning fills a valuable, yet detestable, service, and we can approach it much the same way. Rather than live in fear and disgust of January 1, I choose to celebrate it, to honor the spirit of building/owning a boat, and to respect the craft and give it an honest, decent farewell.