Poor Joe. Woe is Joe.

It is an historical fact that Joe sunk his beloved motorsailer "Red Cloud"
in the Gulf of Mexico about 200 miles off the coast of Texas during a cold
front passage. Actually, his boat was afloat when he and his hapless crew
was airlifted from the vessel. She drifted off, left to her own devices, and
eventually foundered later on at some indeterminate time. If ships have a
soul then Red Cloud's is a forsaken soul.

Cold frontal passages are pretty common in the Gulf of Mexico in the
wintertime and there is plenty of advance warning so they are easily
avoided. But, where poor Joe went wrong is he tried to motor through the
cold front in order to keep on schedule for a delivery of coffee beans. In
other words he's no sailor as a sailor does not attempt to motor north and
northwest during a Gulf of Mexico cold front passage into the teeth of wind
and wave. A real sailor would have hove-to and allowed the front to blow him
downwind in a comfortable and safe manner. What's fifty or sixty miles in
the long run? But, it appears that Joe's motorsailer had an inadequate
rudder and heaving her to would have knocked the rudder clean off and he
knew it. So he presented the bow to the wind and motored in a vain and
failed hope of protecting the defective appendage from the elements. Well,
his ignorant scheme failed. His rudder broke due to poor and weak design.
Part of it holed his transom.

Now, close to eight years later he still hasn't managed to scrape together
enough cash to replace his sunken vessel. He continues to ship his coffee
via conventional motor freight methods. His 'green' coffee company is a pipe
dream and a lie. Some competitor needs to sue him for false advertising
until he actually manages to ship his freight under sail. Until he can ship
his coffee under sail, he's a failure and a liar and he's duping his
customers who believe they are being 'green' when purchasing his wares.

In my opinion, if Joe hasn't managed to secure financing for a new sailing
freighter it indicates his idea is simply not viable and nobody is dumb
enough to loan him money on an idea that's been a proven failure since the
advent of steam drove the last of the clipper ships from the world's oceans.
Joe is trying to turn back the hands of time and it's just not gonna happen.
Sailing freighters are history. Joe's business model is doomed to fail. It
has demonstrably already failed with the sinking of "Red Cloud". The only
way Joe has any chance of succeeding is to secure a seaworthy sailboat that
is stout enough and roomy enough to carry freight and to HIRE a competent
and experienced sea captain who is then empowered to hire a competent crew.
No women, dogs and relatives on deck who don't have what it takes -
experienced seaman only.

With this in mind, I offer my services as captain at a reasonable rate.
(But, Joe must stay ashore and I insist upon Ms. Terry as ship's cook and
bottle washer)


Wilbur Hubbard
25GT Near Coastal Master Mariner

"Wilbur Hubbard" wrote in message
anews.com...

Poor Joe. Woe is Joe.

It is an historical fact that Joe sunk his beloved motorsailer "Red Cloud"
in the Gulf of Mexico about 200 miles off the coast of Texas during a cold
front passage. Actually, his boat was afloat when he and his hapless crew
was airlifted from the vessel. She drifted off, left to her own devices,
and eventually foundered later on at some indeterminate time. If ships
have a soul then Red Cloud's is a forsaken soul.

Cold frontal passages are pretty common in the Gulf of Mexico in the
wintertime and there is plenty of advance warning so they are easily
avoided. But, where poor Joe went wrong is he tried to motor through the
cold front in order to keep on schedule for a delivery of coffee beans. In
other words he's no sailor as a sailor does not attempt to motor north and
northwest during a Gulf of Mexico cold front passage into the teeth of
wind and wave. A real sailor would have hove-to and allowed the front to
blow him downwind in a comfortable and safe manner. What's fifty or sixty
miles in the long run? But, it appears that Joe's motorsailer had an
inadequate rudder and heaving her to would have knocked the rudder clean
off and he knew it. So he presented the bow to the wind and motored in a
vain and failed hope of protecting the defective appendage from the
elements. Well, his ignorant scheme failed. His rudder broke due to poor
and weak design. Part of it holed his transom.

Now, close to eight years later he still hasn't managed to scrape together
enough cash to replace his sunken vessel. He continues to ship his coffee
via conventional motor freight methods. His 'green' coffee company is a
pipe dream and a lie. Some competitor needs to sue him for false
advertising until he actually manages to ship his freight under sail.
Until he can ship his coffee under sail, he's a failure and a liar and
he's duping his customers who believe they are being 'green' when
purchasing his wares.

In my opinion, if Joe hasn't managed to secure financing for a new sailing
freighter it indicates his idea is simply not viable and nobody is dumb
enough to loan him money on an idea that's been a proven failure since the
advent of steam drove the last of the clipper ships from the world's
oceans. Joe is trying to turn back the hands of time and it's just not
gonna happen. Sailing freighters are history. Joe's business model is
doomed to fail. It has demonstrably already failed with the sinking of
"Red Cloud". The only way Joe has any chance of succeeding is to secure a
seaworthy sailboat that is stout enough and roomy enough to carry freight
and to HIRE a competent and experienced sea captain who is then empowered
to hire a competent crew. No women, dogs and relatives on deck who don't
have what it takes - experienced seaman only.

With this in mind, I offer my services as captain at a reasonable rate.
(But, Joe must stay ashore and I insist upon Ms. Terry as ship's cook and
bottle washer)


Oh, and Ms. Terry is needed to be the representative of the el lago coffee
company to take care of business dealings ashore while the captain readies
the ship for the northbound voyage. AND, Ms. Terry MUST take a vow of
chastity and promise to keep her mitts off the uncommonly handsome captain.

WH

On Thu, 21 Oct 2010 18:16:14 -0400, "Wilbur Hubbard"
wrote:

Ms. Terry MUST take a vow of
chastity and promise to keep her mitts off the uncommonly handsome captain.

Barf bags will be distributed as soon as the flight attendant gets a
grip on herself.

On Thu, 21 Oct 2010 19:34:32 -0400, Wayne.B
wrote:

On Thu, 21 Oct 2010 18:16:14 -0400, "Wilbur Hubbard"
wrote:

Ms. Terry MUST take a vow of
chastity and promise to keep her mitts off the uncommonly handsome captain.

Barf bags will be distributed as soon as the flight attendant gets a
grip on herself.

Agreed. There's a reason most fantasies should not be revealed.

--Vic

On Thu, 21 Oct 2010 18:44:22 -0500, Vic Smith
wrote:

Agreed. There's a reason most fantasies should not be revealed.

--Vic

Vic, did you see the pictures of the Mahi Mahi that we caught earlier
this year?

On Thu, 21 Oct 2010 21:19:19 -0400, Wayne.B
wrote:

On Thu, 21 Oct 2010 18:44:22 -0500, Vic Smith
wrote:

Agreed. There's a reason most fantasies should not be revealed.

--Vic

Vic, did you see the pictures of the Mahi Mahi that we caught earlier
this year?

Yep. I posted about that when you first gave the link.
Said I was jealous.
But I'm over that now.
Seems you just can't forget though (-:

--Vic