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Mark Borgerson

In article s.com,
llid says...

"Jessica B" wrote in message
...
snip

OIC... well, I guess a really small boat going fast or slow wouldn't
be as safe as a bigger boat in bad weather?

Depends on the seaworthiness of the boat. Any size boat can be seaworthy as
long as it is built stoutly and has a crew that knows how to handle her in a
blow. A ships life boat is a good example. The ship founders in a storm and
the crew takes to the life boats which are very small in comparison and
expects to survive the storm conditions in them. Sometimes small is better.

snip

I believe you. I just thought this was about sailing not using an
engine. What about on a slightly longer trip.. wouldn't you want to
use sail power as much as you can, so you don't run out?

One would think so, but . . .

Most of the people posting here NEVER sailed a boat that didn't have an
engine. An engine on a sailboat is supposed to be an auxiliary which means a
secondary means of power. Sadly, most of the Rubes here run their diesels
even when the sails are up. And should the wind die and they can't do hull
speed, they 'supplement' the sails with the diesel. It's shameful! Why don't
people like that just admit to themselves that they are not interested in
sailing and just sell the poor sailboat to somebody who would appreciate it
for what it was designed to do and buy a motorboat such as a trawler?

That's good advice----particularly for people in the Pacific Northwest
where the winds are unreliable and the currents a lot higher than
in Florida. In addition, you can actually get far enough off the
water so that you can stay dry in a blow and actually see where you
are going. As I've said before, a majority of the sailboats I see
in the PNW have their engine running.

However, part of the problem in that conversion is that you can
get a 36' sailboat in decent condition for about half the cost
of a 36' trawler.

Mark Borgerson