"paulthomascpa" wrote in message
...
"Wilbur Hubbard" wrote
Do you think he could have sold as many books writing a book
about his auxiliary sailboat in which the first thing he talked
about was how he burned 363 gallons in what amounts to a
short hop from port to port?

Yup. It's done all the time these days. People buy - key word - what they
want, sometimes what they need even. While we all enjoy a good fantasy, the
closer-to-home version would be about sailing with some power or motor
boating, or some variation in the middle.

I disagree. People who mostly motor their boats around know it's boring so why
would they want to read about somebody else's boring motoring?

The reality is that motor power is a necessity these days, and if someone is
going to really contemplate boating, then a motor is going to be part of
that mix. To deny it is not only foolish, but downright ignorant. To
proclaim "it can be done" is going to be harmful to the readers, if not
deadly.

A motor is not a necessity theses days. A motor is not needed. A motor is a
convenience in a sailboat. Anybody who really knows how to sail and knows his
sailboat's perforamance can do anything under sail that he can do using a
motor. It is rare that there is no wind at all. On those rare occassions when
there is absolutely no wind one can drift deep water or anchor if necessary in
shallow water. Readers need to understand what auxilliary means. Readers need
to be weaned off the false notion that a motor is a necessity in a sailboat.

You can sail without an anchor. After all, the act of sailing relegates the
anchor to dead weight off the bow. Just leave it behind. Real sailors
don't need no stinkin' anchor. That'd be anchoring, not sailing.

An anchor is used to stop and stay put. A motor is used to move. BIG
difference. Sails are for moving, too so a motor is redundant. An anchor is
not redundant so you have, in effect, created a straw man argument here.


No harnessing the elements and living in harmony with the sea but
plenty of bull headed burning of fuel and polluting the air and water?

On a boat made by destroying the environment, if for no other reason than to
get the wood for the hull and mast.

So, by your reasoning, if some pollution is necessary to produce a boat then
more pollution running a diesel is then justified. LOL. That's not even
logical.


Power was used to create that boat, in it's entirety or in part, for every
component on it and in it. And unless you compost yoru crap, you pollute
the water, and unless you eat raw food, you pollute the air while consumong
fossle fuels in the cooking process.

So, one needs to stop breathing, food prep, eating, defecating? OMG. You dare
compare these NECESSARY things with burning diesel which pollutes both air and
water in huge amounts compared to the crew's bodily necessities? Bottom line
is your argument is a non sequitur.


Most certainly not!

I bet I can sell more books and magazines that is chock full of useful
information about how someone can realistically enjoy boating, and all that
goes along with it, than you can sell about a spartan lifestyle of "living
in harmony" that no one really wants to do.

Go buy a few sailing magazines and mostly all you will see regarding accounts
of voyages and cruising are what I call 'tales of woe'. These are compendiums
of how NOT to sail or cruise as they consist of a compendium of incompetent
ways and means resulting in mishaps and disasters in many cases exacerbated by
trying to use a motor to 'brute force' one's way to a destination instead of
'finessing' one's way under sail eschewing the deadlines and schedules that
motor heads get themselves in trouble with.

A good book describing harmonious voyaging and cruising under sail will
outsell those describing the disharmony of motoring. Motoring is for dullards
and lubbers who value destinations over time enjoyably, reasonably and
responsibly spent getting to a destination. For motor heads the cruise begins
at the arrival. For the sailor the cruise ends at the destination. Time spent
on the motor boat cruise is something to get over with as quickly as possible.
Time spent on a sailboat is something to enjoy and savor in and of itself.
That is perhaps the major difference between sailing and motoring. Sailing is
rejecting schedules, deadlines, brute force, pollution, noise, vibration,
fumes, maddening crowd, expensive marinas and all the other negatives motoring
entails. Sailing is living in harmony with the environment and motoring is
being at odds with and selfishly abusing the environment. Books about living
in harmony with the environment will sell better than books about being at
odds with and ultimately destroying the environment.

Wilbur Hubbard