There are two main kinds of cruising sailors. There's my kind of
cruising sailor which is somebody like myself who cruises and has
cruised for decades. This breed lives aboard, avoids marinas like the
plague they are and has no other home. We are sensible, thrifty people
who view our cruising boats as a boat first and a home second. This
means not a lot of lubberly junk aboard and few troublesome systems.
This means constantly keeping in mind that, "first she's a boat." This
means no finicky women folk aboard except perhaps when we have company.
This means reliability above all and ease of operation. This means
sailing more than motoring. This means thrift, economy, fortitude,
stamina, some hardship, manliness, independence and much more. It's all
about taking charge and doing things in a trouble-free and unobtrusive
manner. It means a voyage or a cruise that would be quite boring to
report on in writing. This means not even wishing to report on it in
writing because the satisfaction comes from the doing and not from the
pretentious bragging or recounting of one senseless predicament after
another. This is called the Capt. Neal philosophy of sailing.

Then there's the Capt. Skippy philosophy which runs mostly counter to
everything espoused by the good Capt. Neal. Skippy is a relative
newcomer who lacks insight and experience and has had a long litany of
full-of-trouble cruising fiascos up to and including severe damage to
his hull from groundings. While Capt. Skippy does live aboard and has
sold his home ashore, he still has not cut the umbilical cord because
his wife's mother lives ashore and her house is their house when
necessary. Skippy is almost as concerned with shore side birthday
celebrations and weddings as anything else. This also means a woman and
sometimes more than one woman aboard. (and a mother-in-law to boot,
yuck!) This means probably an extra TWO TONs of useless lubberly crap
that goes along with a woman and caters to a woman's fickle desires.
This means more systems and more maintenance and less reliability and
less sailing time. This means schedules and lots of motoring to meet
schedules. This means great expense, cramped spaces, inefficiency,
encumbrance, dependence and a willing, weak-spined, male attitude. It
also indicates shared responsibility and delegating to an inferior
sailor and betting your life on the fact that the inferiority won't put
you under. It practically guarantees that every cruise or voyage will
become a comedy of errors that any magazine would relish publishing to
make modern sailors all appear a lot of fools.

Poor Skippy!


Wilbur Hubbard