On Mon, 31 Jan 2011 10:17:53 -0500, "Wilbur Hubbard"
wrote:

"Bruce" wrote in message
.. .
Ah Willie, I see you've been reading the Pardey's. If you read Lynn's
earliest stories you world have discovered that the major reason for
building Seraffyn (24'7") was lack of money to build bigger and the
Pardey's first published exercise was a letter to the editor of a
sailing magazine, in response to a published article, in which they
argue that a little boat can be as seaworthy as a big boat.

But your argue that a 27-30 ft. boat is ideal is just a pipe dream. A
VLCC or Box Carrier will be doing 30 K in weather that will keep you
in the harbor. Obviously you (once again) don't know what you are
talking about.

As for being pooped, boat length has nothing to do with it. If the
wave travels faster then the boat you get pooped, if the boat is at
wave speed, or faster, then you don't. But then, you don't have to
read a book to discover that little gem... just go sailing.


Boy, you sure display your sailing ignorance with each and every post.

If you have a boat that is fifty feet LOA and she is in a wave train that is
45 feet crest to crest just imagine what happens when running. Yes, the bow
goes up the wave in front and the stern drops just in time for the crest of
the following wave to poop the hell out of the transom. A 25-foot boat is
totally unaffected.

Good thinking.... and true, however...

A wave that was only 45 feet from crest to crest is a pretty small
wave. In fact, I can't even find a calculation that can be used to
calculate the dimensions of a wave this small. The closest I can find
by interpretation from the charts I have is:

A wave with a velocity of 10 M/S (36 MPH) in 10 M (~32 ft.) of water
would have a wave period of less then 4 seconds and a length of 200 M.

In other words your example is a highly unlikely (perhaps impossible)
situation.


How so Backwater? Are you comparing your S. Florida cove with Bali,
Jakarta, Singapore, Port Klang, Pinang, Or any of the Thai ports, and
that just covers a fraction of the places I've anchored in the past
few years.

Proof? How about some photos.

Sure, as soon as you post your log books along with proof that you
didn't concoct them out of thin air. Shoot! You can't even prove who
you are.

snip


I'm beginning to wonder about your continued rabbeting on about goals.
What ever are you going on about? My "goals" have been varied over the
years but have never been to sail a boat somewhere. It isn't a "goal"
to somehow be accomplished any more then driving to the convenience
store to get a can of beer. You just get in and go.

You see Willie-boy, you are romanticizing a subject that is just an
everyday occurrence. One of the shortcomings of reading rather then
doing.


Like I said, I have thousands of miles under my keel. I regularly sail in
more challenging conditions than you dream of. I've been on the open ocean
several times and it's nothing. Piece of cake and a rather boring one at
that. The real challenge is coastal cruising. The real enjoyment is coastal
cruising.

You are perfectly correct that you claim to have sailed thousands of
miles. In more challenging conditions then I, and you again claim that
conditions were more challenging, and all of it coastal, i.e., never
out of sight of land. But that is your claim.

I've actually done it.


Says the ground-to-a-halt voyager (since 35 years) who doesn't even
understand simple wavelength concepts. Says the dock dweller. Pah!

But, as I wrote above, I do understand wave dynamics and that is why I
don't listen to fools like you.


Boats are not some sort of Everest that has to be conquer. It is just
a form of transportation. Like your bicycle, a motor-car, even shoes.
Go you rabbit on about riding your bike to the 7-11 to get a tube of
toothpaste? Or extol your shoes and how you walk from house to house
reading the water-meters?

Now I think I begin to understand why you failed. Modern sailboats to us
real sailors represent a lifestyle. A sailboat is a home, a time machine, an
interface dancer, a compilation of systems the sailor must be intimately
familiar with and able to repair and modify when necessary. A sailboat is
FAR more than transportation.

What absolutely ignorance.

A Home, is it? Well, I've lived on a sailboat for most of 20 years
now.

A time machine? Well, I'll admit I am getting older.

An "interface dancer"? what in the world is that?

A compilation of systems? What are you going on about?

Sailing a boat is hardly as difficult or challenging as flying an
airplane and I could do that, albeit with an adult in the plane, when
I was 12 years old.

I sailed a 28 (FOD) Miscongus Bay Sloop (you may call it a "Friendship
Sloop, but that is wrong), with no engine, for several years up and
down the Maine coast with a one burner kerosene stove, a compass and a
Mobile Oil road map. No electrics except for a flashlight; no radio.
Canvas sails, manila ropes and a lead line.

I built my first boat when I was 12 years old (with my father's help.
It was only a small row boat, but it was a boat.

I have always made my own repairs, wood, fiberglass hulls, Wood and
aluminum spars, I can (under duress) splice wire rope from 1 X 19
through 7 X 7, and could do that since I was 19. I was a code welder
and can weld most metals including aluminum and titanium.

So don't go blathering on about the romance of boating. The essence of
a boat is "another way to get there".

If you don't believe read Bill Tilman, CBE, DSO, MC and Bar, was
rather famous mountaineer and sailor who when asked why he took up
sailing replied, "There were a lot of mountains I wanted to climb that
were only accessible by boat... So I learned to sail one in order to
get to the mountains".

Your attitude that a sailboat is just
transportion tells me you weren't ever able to appreciate what a sailboat
really is by virtue of the fact of your self-centeredness and ungodliness
where you place yourself in the center of the universe. This arrogance is
why you failed - you failed to appreciated the beauty of the machine and the
lifestyle. You viewed it as just another way to move your sorry fat carcass
around. This is so sad.

Failed? I'd say that I succeed. After all, I got to exactly where I
was going.


Willie-boy you go on about the romance and mystique of boating just
exactly like all the other wannabes. Try talking to someone who has
actually sailed to somewhere and you will be surprised at the lack of
romance there is. Just load the boat, check the mail, and go.


Perhaps you are to be pitied because you are too staid to ever appreciate
the beauty, romance, utility and connectedness of sailing. But, now all our
readers understand why you failed - one cannot master something one does not
understand.

You have a rather overheated imagination. Try talking to anyone who
has actually sailed somewhere and see whether your ethereal and
romantic outlook finds a soul mate.

The usual "sea story"of a real sailor after a trip is more like, "The
damned autopilot broke down about a week out and we had to hand steer
all the way". Or, perhaps, "We didn't have a breath of wind and had to
motor for two weeks". Another I heard was, "a damned storm hit us
about 200 miles north of Chagos and we layed a-hull for three days
before we could get going".

I have never heard a real sailor rabbit on about romance,
connectedness or any of the other platitudes heard from the romantic
dreamers who's maritime experience is measured by how many books
they've read.



Wilbur Hubbard


Cheers,

Bruce