Regarding Clarkson's wholly accurate comment about boats and naked women, I think boating (of the kind that will attract women, never mind naked ones) is potentially a lot more hassle than flying. Serious boating, as far as I can see, tends to be done by people who are obviously working at most very part-time, and have funds which only a TBM700 owner would match in aviation terms. One has no chance at all of pulling a bird with the sort of boat one would get with a PA28 type of budget. And the utility value of a boat, even the fastest one, is close to zero unless you live in say the Greek islands or Croatia.
He could have written an essentially similar article about any pastime you care to name
That's very true too, but GA is the one pastime which really needs a better image with the public.