Bart wrote:

Sometimes the USCG takes safety too far. 50 years ago this
would not have happened. But today, most of the people in
the USCG can't even sail--they are powerboaters and unable
to comprehend what seamanship really is.

I was talking to a charter schooner operation down south
that had a pretty schooner for sale. I liked everything about
the boat. The one issue that really irked me was the USCG
would not allow them to fly all their sails when in charter. The
were limited to just four sails. Jib, staysail, foresail, and main.

No top sails were allow. No fisherman sail.

How could they take such a pretty boat and then handicap it
so that the experience was not authentic.

Authentic? On a tourista charter?

I've been on some of those "sailing" excursions where they motor out of
the harbor, hoist a sail or two for show, motor around for an hour, then
pull the sails down and motor back.

Hey, I wouldn't waste my time complianing about not having every stich
of canvass flying, if you could just get them to turn off the frickin
motor you'd be way ahead on the authenticity scale.