I had a chance yesterday to take a friend who is an ardent power boater for
a sail after he inquired about it. He has never been aboard a sailboat
before and knows nothing about them at all. He has always had a powerboat.
He wanted to get a grasp on the abilities of "rag baggers" so he could
better prepare himself for their "antics as he called it. I arranged to take
him out for a sail yesterday morning.

His concerns before going.... " will we be out there all day.. I only have 4
hours to spare".... "how much work is involved to get those things
moving?".... "will we be able to get back if the wind is wrong?"....
sheesh!

We got out to Overproof at the mooring and I went through the basic names
for the "ropes" explaining it was a way to avoid confusion and while we
talked over a coffee I unbagged and hanked on the foresail and prepped the
main. We retired to the cockpit and had another cuppa joe with a shot of rum
to calm his nerves.... I then proceeded to raise sails despite his pleas to
start the engine. All sheets slack.... I hoisted anchor and stowed the
chain/rode in the locker with my buddy nervously looking around. I walked
back to the cockpit and adjusted the sheets.. caught the wind and we were
off on a nice beam reach.... " so what do we do now?" was his question.... I
said relax and turned on some tunes. I explained we were moving 5 tons of
boat along at a nice speed with no fuel consumption. He had believed that
sailboats always have an engine running despite the sails being up.

He was amazed at where we could go and how easy and relaxing it was. I
explained the attitude of enjoying the trip rather than the destination. We
sailed around some islands and I let him have the tiller. He said he could
"feel" the boat and it was evident in his eyes he was awe struck. We covered
capturing wind and sail deployment and he felt comfortable enough to walk
around the boat under sail within a half hour.

I switched to chilled beer for the downwind run back to the mooring to make
him feel at home. He looked at me and said.."why I bet even the ole' lady
would get off on this". We sailed nicely to my anchoring area and dropped
the hook under sail. He helped me bag and pack the sails and we sat back in
the cockpit for another beer.

His new found knowledge when he left... "this is a really nice way to enjoy
the water"... "It's so quiet"... "you can really go anywhere with one of
these"..... " we never even started the engine"..... " we used no fuel at
all and went out for a long run" ..... " I've got a better idea of what you
guys are doing out there now".... "I'd like to try this again, do you mind
if I bring the wife?".....

So there you have it..... I got a call that he is going out on a Hans
Christian 38 tomorrow and was asking about a sailboat that was for sale. I
told him to stick with full keelers since fin keelers are so lame!

CM