I guess its time for another repost of "Jaxiemorons," first posted in
2002:

This is a sampling of the wisdom of Jax. Most of these are from last
Winter and Spring. All of Jax's comments are taken verbatim, and I've
tried to include enough of the discussion so that they're not out of
context.

On Navigation (or is he talking about snakes?):
This one kept us going for a month or so - Jax insists that piloting
skills are not needed in sight of land.

"scootss, you need *piloting* to "get around" in the Cheasepeake? All
that water and land and islands and markers and lights and boas
confuse you?"

---------

Just to make sure he meant that:

you claimed that
piloting skills are not needed for sailing waters like LIS.

"They are not. You can see everything easily. Getting lost on
western LIS is impossible (unless you're dumb enough to
go out in one of the rare fogs.)"

-----------
... Somewhere in there you implied
that taking a course on navigation was a total waste of
time and money.

"You need a nav course to see a daymarker a half mile away?
(besides, one of the **serious** problems of a nav course --
as taught by the USPS -- is that a compass and knot
log is all you need to avoid hitting the rocks in a fog.)"

------------------------
on compasses and navigation:
Jax has a pathological fear of using a compass. Since he never
learned any piloting skills, he believes the compass is useless:

"a compass never has told you anything other than which way is North
and so never was worth much as a "navigation" tool."
---------
"no, jeffie, this the point that JAX with the experience tells you
without that you can't navigate with a compass."

--------------------------------
On variation & compasses:
Since he never uses a compass, he doesn't understand variation:

I think it's about 14 degree east here in nyc.

That's strange, my chart of New York City says
"Var 13 degrees 15 minutes WEST"

jeff, if you say it's west instead of east, I say okay. I use charts
of nyc area to know where the rocks are. Compass isn't much use
there, is it?

--------------------------
On compass dip and variation, he thinks dip is built into the compass:

"markie, dip is a function of the compass construction. Variation is
a function of the Earth. Anyone who claims to be "The Navigator"
should know this, don't you think?"

--------------------------
Jax believes navigation on a boat is the same as on a plane:

And why do you keep citing the FAA as the authority on nautical
navigation?

"maybe because they are?"
----------------------------

on currents:
Jax claims that currents always slow you down, even when they're
behind you.

"any cross current ALWAYS slows you down."
-----

here is one situation where the concept doesn't hold - when
the cross current is tidal and reversing. When the current
reverses, it
will pull you back to the original course.

No.

.. There is no loss.

there is. Always.

----------------------------------
On the concept that tides sometimes help, sometimes hurt

"dognuts, tides NEVER "cancel each other out in any 12 hour period".
Mathematically they can't. Can't."

And then he falls into a novice fallacy:

"per, think this through. You're going east 6 knots against a 2 knot
current, how long will it take you to go 20 miles? Now, 6 knots
_with_ a 2 knot current, how long will it take to go 20 miles?
What's your average speed? (hint: it's NOT 6 knots)"

--------------------------
On Einstein's Theory of Relativity:
Einstein's Theory of Special Relativity is generally remembered for
stating:
"In any inertial frame, the velocity of light c is the same whether
the light is emitted by a body at rest or by a body in uniform motion."
This led to interesting stuff like time dilation and the clock
paradox, and, several years later, the proof of e=mc**2.
Jax has redefined it for us, claiming it had to do with relative
motion, a concept first explored by Galileo, and then fully developed
in Newton's "Principia" in 1687. Einstein himself said that only
simpletons thought this was what relativity was about.

In Jaxie's words:
"Let me make it simple for you. Einstein Theory had to do with the
relativity of motion, i.e. without outside references, there is no way
to tell if one or the other or both are moving."
------------
"In regards to the world of sailing? Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeell, he
showed clearly and to the utter satisfaction of the physicists
of the world that motion is relative and therefore there can
be no valid attempt to measure distances or position except
in the context of ourside references."

------------------------------------
When it was pointed out the Galileo had published a "Theory of
Relativity" long before Einstein that actually described the
phenomenon being discussed (when on a boat in the fog you
can't tell if the current is moving you) Jax
totally crosses the line, claiming that anyone who
disagrees with him is an anti-Semite:

"your arguement that the "Christ killer" Einstein was an
interloper who just claimed ownership of ideas developed
by "good Christian" scientists decades and
centuries earlier is the *only* arguement made against Einstein's
thoughts since the early 20th century. It is the arguement
of religious bigots. Nothing more."

----------------------------------------
Jaxie claims to be a expert in physics, but he seems to have
missed the day when acceleration was defined:

That's funny! Here I thought acceleration was the increase in
velocity with respect to time ...

stevei, if you a couple deviations brighter you'd under enough
so you wouldn't think it funny at all. btw, the term "with
respect to time" is redundant to the term "velocity".

------------------------------------
On inertial navigation & guidance systems:
Jaxie misses that point that acceleration can be detected locally,
without the need for any outside reference.
How did the Nautilus know it was at the North Pole in '58?

"The Nautilus used an inertial navigation system, a system that uses
the totality of the universe as its reference."

And how does an ICBM find its target?

"An Inter Continental Ballistic Missile is "ballistic" and thus has no
navigation system."

--------------------------------------------------
The helpful side of jax - someone asks for advice on nice places
to stop in the ICW:

"very **seriously** suggest you sell the boat and take a Greyhound
bus. **Seriously**. Anyone who asks the questions you did doesn't
begin to even the remotest idea of what they are doing. Give it up.
**Seriously**"

When the person suggested he was planning to go in spite of jaxie's
opinion:

"gar, pay your life insurance premium."
---------------------------------------------------
The "Thin Water Chesapeake:"
Jax was trying to make the case that the Chesapeake is too shallow to
cruise in. His argument was best stated as:

"To a LIS sailor where one can 100 east/west without hitting
anything, and nearly up to the shore along most of Long Island's
north shore, and nearly so along CT (with some care for the
rock near shore), needing "local knowledge" to go with a 5 foot
draft from Balto to Norfolk is damned thin water."

-----------------------------------------------------
Jax on equipping his own boat:

"jeffies, you missed (completely, it seems) the point, that is
for a 30 foot boat on western LIS (a rather sizable piece of
nice sailing water) you don't need anything but a Danforth
with a little bit of chain for completely effective anchoring."

-----------------------------------------------------
Jax on the location of Manhattan:
"I live on an island in the Atlantic"

---------------------------------------------------
How many errors can you spot in Jaxies description of a trip
up the coast? He actually got the Miami-Norfolk distance
right, but going to Miami would be a 200 mile diversion for
this trip. Jax seems unaware that many people sail in
Pamlico and Albemarle Sounds, the Chesapeake Bay, and Delaware
Bay. He doubles the length of the Hudson River and the canals, not to
mention forgetting that sailing is permitted on the Great Lakes:

"the guy wants to set off from Ft Meyers Fl (not sure how far it is
to Miami, but I think the cross Florida canal is 300 miles? 0,
then from Miami to Norfolk 1095 miles (according to a guide I found),
then 600 (?, estimated) miles to NYC, (all miles except about
100 up the Jersey coast are motored, much of it in constrained
channels and/or shoaling) then 180 miles up the Hudson River to
Troy NY (adverse currents and contrained channels), then 524 miles
through the Erie Canal (locks, constrained channels) to Buffalo,
then a couple hundred miles more to Toledo."

-----------------------------------
Jax tells people to go through Hell Gate at high tide. This is
particularly egregious because anyone that takes this literally
going Northbound will be fighting a 2.5 knot current. The tide
books are quite clear that the time of high tide is not the same
as the time of slack - they can be as much as an hour apart
depending on which reference point you take and the lunar cycle.

"no, jeff. it means high water at Hell Gate (you know, when
the water at Hell reaches it high mark on the flood and then
starts to ebb)"

"The trick is to arrive just east of Hell Gate at high
water (this happens twice a day most days, just once on some days)."

"through Hell Gate (best taken at high tide)"

---------
On the concept that Hi water and Slack Water aren't the same time:

"Are you saying that water has different physical properties when it
in in and around NYC, or are you saying you don't understand what's
going on? Either one has to be the case."
----------
At one point he tries to bluff his way through, but simply proves that
he doesn't have Eldridge (which he admitted later). On the day of
this post (Feb 11, 2002) Hi at the Battery is 7:41, so his time for
Hell Gate is 9:01. The truth is that slack was at 9:23, and hi
water at N Brother was at 11:25, two hours later. Jax actually says
"slack at N Brother" trying to change the discussion from hi
water to slack water. Eldridge doesn't list the current at
N Brother, only the time of Hi.

"you dumb ****. I have Eldridge in front right this moment and I
checked once again (just in case I mis-remembered). The current
is slack at Hell Gate one hour and twenty minutes or so high water
at The Battery, just like I said before. highest (average) current
(3.8 knots) at Hell Gate is 5 hours after _low_ water at the Battery.

"btw, Eldridge shows slack water at North Brother Is just after slack
water at Hell Gate, not hardly the 1-1/2 after you've been claiming."

--------------------------------------
And can you go on either the flood or ebb, as in:
"The ONLY time to go through Hell Gate in a sailboat is an hour either
side of slack water with the current turning in the direction you want
to go."

But then he decides lo tide is a bad time to go:
"It also shows slack water at low tide as well, but nobody wants to be
at Hell Gate at this time for you have to fight the current all the
way in and all the way back out."

-------------------------------------------------
Jax on engineering -
Jax doesn't believe the published tables that state that 2 inch hole 2
feet below the water line takes in 111 gallons per minute.

"jeffies, putting 150 gallons of water into a boat through a
knotmeter hole 2 feet below the water line would take most of two
hours. That only way that is going to happen is to have a
boater who isn't watching."

--------------------------------------------------
Jax doesn't think much of being safety conscious. He usually has a
one word response:
On the requirement for carrying 200 miles of fuel when going offsho
"BOO"
On the danger of gas engines in old barns:
"BOO"
On the dangers of lightning:
"BOO"
On the danger of storms at sea:
"BOO"
On the danger of propane refrigerators:
"BOO"
On the danger of gasoline generators:
"BOO"
On the danger of gasoline engines:
"BOO"
On the declining state of education"
"BOO"

--------------------------------------------------
And perhaps the all time classic, on exercise, 27 Nov 2001

oxzy, you stupid cluck. what you don't know about the scientific
facts of exercise is even greater than what you don't about
sailboats.

Bwaahahaaaa!
You sell em Jocks?

Not now, but I did write a definitive book on the subject some time
back. I had unlimited access to the research available in a Big Ten
university's sports department.

you forgot that he backs up each declaration by reminding you he is a
member of Mensa and has written a definitive book...

Has anybody else here met Jax? I have, he even signed a
copy of his definitive book for me.

Scotty





"Jeff" wrote in message
. ..
I guess its time for another repost of "Jaxiemorons,"
first posted in
2002:

Scotty wrote:
Has anybody else here met Jax? I have, he even signed a
copy of his definitive book for me.

Scotty





"Jeff" wrote in message
. ..

I guess its time for another repost of "Jaxiemorons,"

first posted in

2002:




Wow! And you survived the experience? Did you stand in awe of his
majectic intellect?

"Scotty" w@u wrote in message
. ..
Has anybody else here met Jax? I have, he even signed a
copy of his definitive book for me.

Scotty





"Jeff" wrote in message
. ..
I guess its time for another repost of "Jaxiemorons,"
first posted in
2002:




I remember the time Booby and JAX met on the LIS. Booby was quite taken by
him and even complimented his Hunter.

--
jlrogers±³©

jlrogers±³© wrote:
"Scotty" w@u wrote in message
. ..

Has anybody else here met Jax? I have, he even signed a
copy of his definitive book for me.

Scotty





"Jeff" wrote in message
m...

I guess its time for another repost of "Jaxiemorons,"

first posted in

2002:




I remember the time Booby and JAX met on the LIS. Booby was quite taken by
him and even complimented his Hunter.

and here I thought he sailed an Irwin all this time....

katy wrote:
jlrogers±³© wrote:


I remember the time Booby and JAX met on the LIS. Booby was quite
taken by him and even complimented his Hunter.

and here I thought he sailed an Irwin all this time....
Yes, RB claimed it was an Irwin, but Jax denied that.

On Sun, 11 Feb 2007 09:51:32 -0500, jlrogers±³© wrote
(in article ) :

"Scotty" w@u wrote in message
. ..
Has anybody else here met Jax? I have, he even signed a
copy of his definitive book for me.

Scotty





"Jeff" wrote in message
. ..
I guess its time for another repost of "Jaxiemorons,"
first posted in
2002:




I remember the time Booby and JAX met on the LIS. Booby was quite taken by
him and even complimented his Hunter.



There is a good reference.

--
Mundo, The Captain who is a bully and an ass

I was going to jump in - in full support of Jax. I figured that with some
thought I could twist anything he said into something that made everyone
else look like fools. About a quarter of the way through I realized it may
not be possible. I continued reading, now I have a real bad headache and
must lay down.

Glory!

"jlrogers±³©" wrote in message
et...

I remember the time Booby and JAX met on the LIS. Booby was quite taken
by him and even complimented his Hunter.

--
jlrogers±³©



You didn't happen to take a picture of this celestial event?


--
"j" ganz @@
www.sailnow.com