I was setting up our new propane grill today and stocking the fridge with
weekend goodies when I was overwhelmed with a wave of sadness.
When did this terrible raging rift occur between Scotty and I? When did the
cheerful chiding on his part graduate to criminal hatred?
I thought long and hard as I inflated my Zodiac and took her for a test row.
There was a time when Scotty actually e-mailed me nicely about sailing and
boats. He can deny it, but it's a fact. Why I even sent him a wedding pic,
which later on he decided to post.
Then I remembered...
It was the Catalina 30 troll. The terrible troll that dragged Sailing.asa
around the nose for week after week. But the realization was not contained
within the troll, but the nature of it.
Scotty was HAPPY that I was getting a Catalina 30, a boat he felt was somewhere
in his ballpark of trailerpark sailboats. Like the low-end Siedlemann, an old
Catalina 30 is a modest toy to say the least. He liked that, and he imagined
that we were kindred spirits.
And then the roof caved in for Scotty. I trolled and it was a beautiful and far
more valuable and upscale C&C 32 that I had bought, a veritable Rolls Royce to
his Pinto. He wasn't mad about the troll. He was mad about the subtle manner in
which he imagined he'd been degraded. If I used a catalina 30 as troll bait,
where did that rank him and his poor boat? At the very bottom.
To add to his anger and bitterness, I was complimented on the troll by many. It
was the final insult, indirectly supporting (in his mind) the bashing of his
position in life...and in sailing.

Well, the grill works well, though the Force 10 was better made. I think my
newer quicksilver rows better than the Zodiac.

Ah well...

Capt RB
C&C 32
City Island, NY