wrote

I'm sure I'm missing an important bit of your argument ...

You did and it's my fault for sloppy writing. I wasn't trying to say he
isn't welcome or shouldn't be asking questions here but that he would get
better and more considered answers here if he provides enough information to
assure people that they are real issues and enough data to provide
reasonable answers.

For example, his current question is whether he should take his 28 foot
sailboat down the coast. There is no answer to that. There are 28 foot
boats that shouldn't go across Long Island Sound and 28 foot boats that
could make a safe circumnavigation. All we know is that it has a mast
(maybe). Since he provided links to hundreds of pictures of old VW's and
none of the boat, I'm not inclined to give him any time.

I agree that, "I don't have a boat and have never sailed but think I would
like to try the cruising life.", is an excellent and legitimate question for
this group. You'll notice how few answers Neal got about his refrigeration
problem BTW. If you had asked that question, the thread probably would
have gone half a page.

I was just trying to give him some advice.

--Tom.