Wilbur Hubbard wrote:
Some people make statements such as, "Why don't you give Skip a
break, he's out there doing it." Other people make much the same
statements about Capt. Joe of the sunken "Red Cloud." They say,
"Well, at least he tried, he deserves credit for that, doesn't he?"

Not and not! If you agree with the above statements then you should
have some serious doubts concerning your education and thought
process. Giving people credit for "trying" and "doing it" is the
mentality of a liberal. It's exactly what they teach in public
schools these days. There are no winners or losers, there are only
those who try. Trying is the goal. Trying is everything or at least
the most important thing. Winning or losing, amateur or professional,
shoddy or workmanlike, etc., are just some inconsequential results
of trying. This is such destructive thinking. Yet many of you have
bought into it as evidenced by your comments.

When somebody like Skip is given credit for being out there doing it,
where's the consideration of HOW he's doing it and if he's doing it
successfully or doing it sloppily, dangerously and ineptly. Is he a
credit to manhood and seamanship or is he an embarrassment?

When somebody else give Capt. Joe credit for trying, even in the face
of abject failure, they don't take into consideration the FACT that
trying without success is
failure. In effect they give credit for failure. A liberal
brainwashing seems to have rearranged priorities to sap the will of
individuals and to take away the importance of individual initiative,
professionalism and success. Those satisfied with having none of
these are mere shadows of men. It's a crying shame.

Wilbur Hubbard

My father threw me into a sailing dinghy at the age of seven, and told me to
"learn sailing". Not everyone has such an early or intense initiation into
the pastime, nor do the ones who are smitten later in life all assimilate
the know-how by sailing for some time with other more experienced sailors
before setting out on their own.

Later, much later, I raced as a crew member for quite a few years before
buying my own sailboat. Racing is the lifeblood of the sport, whether you
agree with this statement or not. You learn more about sailing in a days'
racing than in a year's pottering about. in boats.

To criticise someone who tries hard to learn by (often bitter) experience is
unfair, since luck and circumstance play a big part in gaining experience in
any pastime or profession. I will say one thing about Skip, he's a brave man
for choosing to share the learning process with his wife, I would never dare
to have done that, I get the feeling that my wife is glad to see the back of
me when I go sailing. So be it! You can have too many "experts" in a family,
and they become tiresome bores methinks!

During my lifetime I have taken out many beginners of all ages. Some take
the helm and can steer as though they had been sailing from birth, others
are simply hopeless, yet I would never cruiticise a newcomer because he or
she found the experience a challenge too many.

I, too, have grounded a sailboat many times, but never, thankfully, with the
dire consequences described in some of our postings. Maybe I have been
lucky? Or perhaps I spend more time studying the charts than some people!

Give the guy a break, Slocum had a few bad experiences too, and they weren't
all down to bad seamanship!


Dennis.