May 25, 2003

• Twenty Small Sailboats to Take You Anywhere by John Vigor Lin and Larry Pardey, who have circumnavigated twice in sailboats less than 30 feet in length, argue that small and simple boats are better for voyaging couples. They have noted that large vessels are often the cause of abandoned cruising dreams. They’re too expensive and thus steal too much from the cruising couple without the assistance of additional crewmembers or power devices that can fail at the most critical moment. Larger, more complicated, sailboats have more systems that break, testing the skills of even the handiest. Their advice in sum is to go small, go simple, and go with the confidence that comes of handling it yourself. Editorial Reviews by Karen Larson and Jerry Powlas,Publishers of Good Old Boat magazine

  
  
  Again, this reiterates my conviction that big-boat sailors (who like to call themselves yachtsmen, although they don’t really know how to sail their boat and instead hire people to sail it for them) are kind of a clueless lot with plenty of money to burn. Kind of like the Kennedy’s, although the original Kennedy’s were good sailors. They had to be! They were bootleggers during Prohibition. Someone had to make those rum runs to Jamaica. (“Don’t forget the ice!”)
  
  My sailing buddy says he met John Kennedy, Jr. once at his glider club in Massachusetts. He was a nice guy, and so was his wife.
  
  If you thought the ship in my previous post was ugly, here’s another interesting ship design from a guy who has developed fold-away sails, and hopes to promote them for use on oil tankers. I think it’s a pretty nifty idea to save on gas, but it’ll never take off because people like their gas. There are more motorcruisers these days than there are sailors on the lake.
  
  
  

  • 11:56 pm
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