Interesting idea.

I also don't enjoy the long boat journeys, insomuch as I built a massive 20,000 block long railroad to be able to largely afk navigate from my home town up north to the spawn mainland. Personally, I don't think much would be lost from the hardcore feel by having hardcore teleport harbors as defined by Heptagon_ru, since afk railways can be constructed to perform largely the same function.

If they are implemented, I also think the harbors should be limited in use to a person who has made the journey once by boat already, or has contributed at least one port to the infrastructure, or something. Since journey validation may be difficult to accomplish, maybe the harbor station has a room, protected by a locketted door accessible to a group of contributors? Maybe a set of unused color steel armor could buy the player a "ticket" to use the system? I support the idea, though I think it should be limited to those who have put in the time and have escalated through the tech levels, so it doesn't affect the new players hardcore feel. Everyone needs to know the pain of boating in MC1.7 before being allowed to avoid it. :P The most difficult part will probably be finding a good cost/reward ratio and a feasible method of implementation that doesn't burden the admins.