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Best 34 foot blue water cruiser
On 26 Mar 2004 11:53:18 -0800, (Frank Maier) wrote:
Sorry to be late in responding, I just "discovered" your post in the
confusion of this complex thread.
Well,. that's understandable. In my news reader, I try to spot a flash
of red (unread) among hordes of black (read or ignored) type.
My only response is that I think the OP is really getting his money's
worth out of this one. Your opinions and experience are certainly as
vaild as mine and now the OP has pretty much a full spectrum of
opinions and commentary to pick through.
Ah, the beauty of Usenet. Loads of information and critical thought
and none of it paid for.
I certainly agree that sailing *anything* is better than sitting home
not sailing.
I once heard a similar justification for sleeping with ugly, stupid
people. Sometimes sitting at home is better than going out with loud
morons who haven't a clue and let the hoses rot off the rusted open
thru-hulls. But that's, thankfully, the exception.
Even after all my pro-sloop ranting, I do still include
the Freedom 39 cat-schooner on my short list. Wouldn't it be amusing
if, after all my sloop propagandizing, I wound up with a *schooner* as
my next boat.
Hey, if I find a deal I won't quibble G I might very well change my
thinking, particularly if I decide I want to circumnavigate east to
west G But a ketch still has, in my mind, some advantages,
particularly with a hefty inner forestay and a functional staysail. I
mean, I have a sloop, but one of my favourite points of sail is a beam
reach using a No. 3 on a pendant and my barely used, wire luff "genoa
staysail", a big light thing the original owner evidently couldn't
figure out. I had to reference a brilliant 1975 book called "Sail
Power" by Wally Ross to learn how to set the thing. (It involved the
toerails!)
But in ten knots, that amount of sail will trounce even the biggest
No. 1 and mainsail combo. Anyway, I still have some things to learn
about sloops, so I hope I live long enough to master the ketch. When I
SEE a cat-schooner, I'll try to hitch a ride. I think I saw exactly
one here in Toronto...at a distance. It seemed to move fine G
R.
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