A QUOTE FROM STERLING HAYDEN'S BOOK, WANDERER

To be truly challenging, a voyage, like a life, must rest on a firm
foundation of financial unrest.

Pure malarkey.

Bart would sail with a skipper whos said, "I couldn't afford to outfit
this boat properly so I bought the cheapest stuff I could find" ??
Would you sail with a skipper who said "We are sailing tonight
whatever the tide & weather because I have to dodge some sheriffs" ??

No.

Fiscal responsibility is one facet of being a responsible adult in
other aspects.




"I've always wanted to sail to the South Seas, but I can't afford
it." What these men can't afford is not to go. They are enmeshed in
the cancerous discipline of "security." And in the worship of security
we fling our lives beneath the wheels of routine - and before we know
it our lives are gone.


I could agree with this.


What does a man need - really need? A few pounds of food each day,

Less

Besides, water is more important.

heat and shelter, six feet to lie down in - and some form of working
activity that will yield a sense of accomplishment. That's all - in
the material sense, and we know it.

I guess the difference between the 1930s and 1940s, with the
comparatively low level of advertising and consumerism, are as
different from the 1960s and the 1960s are from now. Except that
during the 1960s and '70s, credit wasn't as easy and there was a
backlash against the hucksters.


"Wilbur Hubbard" wrote:
........ Ask yourself do you
have time payments, mortgages, preposterous gadgetry and playthings that
divert your attention for the sheer idiocy of the charade?

Other than the boat(s) you mean?

.... If anybody
but myself answers negative on all the above then he is a liar.

That's right, pat yourself on the back.

..... I'm
willing to wager that I am the only asa subscriber who has and never has
had time payments, has and never has had a mortgage in his entire life.

So what? What si the point of *never* utilizing credit? That would be
every bit as stupid as *always* using credit.

There are times when it is cheaper to borrow than to pay cash.



..... My life is my own, all my own.

That's great. Pat yourself on the back some more.

I count
myself the superior of Sterling Hayden.

Maybe, but he wouldn't agree.



h..... You people worship and gush all over the sentiments
of a Sterling Hayden

Actually, many of "us" don't.

Sterling Hayden was a braggart and a blusterer, a poor father and a
worse businessman. He knew how to sail the old fashioned way but never
learned anything new. He also ruined two very nice schooners.

If you look further in Heyden's book, he talks about how he bought his
second schooner on credit; so he was false to his own principles (and
that wasn't the only time). If you want to worship hypocrisy, go right
ahead.

Heyden was a fine schooner sailor when young and I don't blame him for
trying to recapture that. His book "Wanderer" is basically an attempt
to spin a romantic adventure out his fleeing legal and financial
troubles caused by his own irresponsibility. However the best & most
honest part of the book is the earlier chapters where he talks about
the great schooner races. Now that is an experience to brag about!

Fresh Breezes- Doug King