Lacking a need, a need for speed 

Bugatti sells a street legal car that can achieve a top speed of 408 km/h. For a cool $1.3 million, two people could make it from Toronto to Lake Muskoka in around half an hour — given a few highways clear of traffic and police, and provided the tires held out and the 100 litres of fuel lasted.

If 30 minutes is too slow, try the American-built supercar SSC Ultimate Aero TT — at 412 km/h it is now the fastest production car on the market.

Even without a sports car it is amazing how many people are caught racing up to the cottage. Once there, I presume they fly across the lakes in high-powered boats, fire up the 60,000 BTU barbecue to cook steaks in record time and have a Sunday full of frenzied shopping at the local towns and art galleries before racing back to the city wondering why the weekend went by so quickly.

There is another way. In a society where everything has to be here yesterday, where food is served fast and where people complain if the Internet is not quicker than high speed, it is nice to know that some people are comfortable with a slower pace of life.

Although Muskoka has its fair share of people living life to the limit, we also have quite a few who have perfected the easy life.

Sometimes there is little choice but to take things slow. It is rare to have clear roads to the cottage, so traffic snarls through Barrie — north on Fridays, south on Sundays — are the norm. Lineups at Webers can seem longer than the line to get tickets for a Led Zeppelin reunion concert, and grocery store wait times on long weekends would make Cold War-era Soviets balk. People heading to the cottage can be a patient bunch. But some take this virtue even further.

This year the Antique and Classic Boat Society Toronto will be celebrating those who have an abundance of patience by honouring the go-slow boat.

In an age of high-powered, high-octane living it is comforting to know that some people can shake off the need for speed in favour of a more leisurely pace of life.

Whether they are propelled by a single-cylinder engine, steam, oars or the wind, getting across a lake quickly is not really on the agenda of go-slow boat owners. Enjoying the journey is.

I remember sitting in the cockpit of a 300 hp bass boat charging around islands and inlets of Lake Muskoka looking to photograph pike fishermen taking part in a local tournament. My pilot lamented the fact that there wasn’t a good stretch of open water around to really get the boat up to speed, yet we were zipping across the water at a breakneck pace. The trip was thrilling, but I’m not sure it was enjoyable.

Gracefully gliding across the water on some of Muskoka’s majestic lakes is a real thing of beauty. Go-slow boaters are a rare and dedicated bunch who really know how to make the most out of a summer. Don’t speed it up, they say. Slow it down.

Patience comes with a price, of course. Old, unreliable engines take a wizard to maintain and fix, and shelter can be a long way off when a fast-moving storm blows in. People understand this and yet they are still passionate about their sedate craft.

Mahatma Gandhi once said, “There is more to life than simply increasing its speed.” I think go-slow boat owners have a great understanding of this.