On 2 Feb 2006 12:46:13 -0800, "Bob" wrote:

Hi:

Pasco: Love him or hate him? Just another opinion to consider.

Personnaly I am sitting in a 27 year old boat. It has 1 1/2" of hand
layed glass at the turn of the bilge. Its 39 LOA. That 1 1/2" came in
real handy when a Tidewater tug bounced off me two years ago. Still
have the green pant on the hull as a reminder.
The Captain was reall appolgetic. Invited me over for a tour and even
gave me a free soda. Pretty good deal. Nice guy too. Although, he
seemed a bit woried about somthing. Go figure.
Bob

A master of understatement!

I had at one point a J/29 to the east, me, a Viking 33 from '73, a
Chriscraft 33 foot 1965 sailboat (yes, they made 'em), and a Hunter 33
under three years old.

Kinda like having four approaches to boating just sitting there.

The J/29 was a nice boat, all right, but seemed skittish in a strong
blow. My boat is solid glass in the hull and has a old school raked
fin keel holding about 50% of the weight. It's stiff, but fast, but
modern conveniences and even 10 feet of beam ain't happening.

The ChrisCraft is about four inches shorter LOA than me, 19,000 lbs.
(twice me) and has about 15 inches more freeboard. The mast height
looks about the same, and it has a load of painted wood below and a
center cockpit and the smallest aft cabin you could imagine. It's
comfortable for two who aren't in a hurry, and I bet it's got way over
an inch of solid glass at the bilges. I know it's a bugger for the old
feller who owns it to dock, because it turns poorly and wants to keep
going. When it was being blown into its slip, it took two on the boat
and two on dock and three tries to get it in, and this hulk had to be
fended off my boat.

The Hunter 33? It's a plastic condo with loads of fixed portlights and
hatches, the most freeboard of all of us, and a boom eight feet off
the water. I get the heebies looking at the thing, frankly, but I can
tell you that every year, there's less of what I sail and more of
them.

R.