DSK wrote:
Frank Maier wrote:
But to address the issue, unlike Jax's imaginary friend who sails
upwind under bare poles and motors for months on a gallon of gas, I
have crossed the Atlantic on a Folkboat clone. I recommend against it.

What would you say were the main plusses and minusses of the boat? What
rout did you take and what season was it? Sounds like a cool trip, and
obviously you survived

Hi, Doug,

Our trip originated in England. We started right after New Year's from
the Canaries to Barbados. Two 21-year-old college graduates venturing
out onto the deep blue. Oh yeah! Look out, world! Twentieth century
argonauts loose on the Panthalassa. Our previous experiences included
racing and cruising from New Orleans to Florida, the Yucatan, the
Bahamas, and parts of the Caribbean. My friend had been living in
England for the past four years while going to school, getting in some
local daysailing and racing. He bought the boat the summer before our
trip (summer of '68).

In retrospect, that year I wish I'd stayed in New Orleans and crewed
on one of the boats Charlie and Ginny sailed from New Orleans to
Tortola to start a charter company they decided to call "The
Moorings." Wonder how different my life would've been?

Folkboat:

Pluses: It crossed the Atlantic without sinking; but then, so did Thor
Heyerdahl on a boat built of marsh reeds tied into bundles. The Ra, or
at least Ra 2, may have leaked less than the Folkboat. And I think
they were about as fast.

Minuses: Everything else.

Oh, you wanted more detail? Ok, some commentary:

I've never been to jail. Well, ok, let me be more precise (honest).
I've never spent more than one night in a holding cell; but I'm
certain that a regular two-person cell would be roomier and more
comfortable than a Folkboat. What's the old quote? It's either Boswell
himself or him quoting Johnson saying something like, "Anyone smart
enough to get into jail will do so rather than go sailing because
sailing is like being in jail with a chance of drowning. And the
company is better." Anyway, that's the gist. And that's a pretty good
description of an ocean passage on a Folkboat. A jail cell in the
clutches of a maniacal giant paint-can shaker.

My experiences with that boat, and others, helped me decide that I was
a "modern" sailor. The 60's were a time of great change in the sailing
world as well as in the society around us. For me, the Cal 40, a
"plastic" fin-keel sloop, vs. "traditional" designs was equivalent to
Galileo telling the Papacy that the Earth goes around the sun, not
vice versa, and y'all just better damned well get used to it. It was
Darwin looking objectively at the reality around him and accepting
that species evolve; they were not created directly by God as-is and
intended by Him to remain as-is forever. Of course, there are still
religious traditionalists, like sailing traditionalists, IMHO, who
ignore reality in favor of their chosen philosophy. De gustibus... , I
guess.

So, you're perfectly welcome to go to sea in a Folkboat, or a Westsail
32, or any other "retro design" boat with a D/L ratio over 350. God
bless you. Have fun. I'd be happy to buy you a rum punch if we meet in
some island bar. We can savor our drinks and while away the evening
arguing tracking, acceleration, comfort-motion, politics, religion,
.... whatever. grin

But me, since the early 70's, I've been essentially an
anti-traditionalist. Mind you, I can walk the docks and admire the
aesthetics of 'em; but when it comes time to actually go sailing,
gimme a fiberglass fin-keel sloop. And please keep the D/L ratio under
250!

YMMV,

Frank