On Mon, 15 Oct 2012 14:19:18 -0400, "paulthomascpa"
wrote:


"Wilbur Hubbard" wrote
Do you think he could have sold as many books writing a book
about his auxiliary sailboat in which the first thing he talked
about was how he burned 363 gallons in what amounts to a
short hop from port to port?


Yup. It's done all the time these days. People buy - key word - what they
want, sometimes what they need even. While we all enjoy a good fantasy, the
closer-to-home version would be about sailing with some power or motor
boating, or some variation in the middle. The reality is that motor power
is a necessity these days, and if someone is going to really contemplate
boating, then a motor is going to be part of that mix. To deny it is not
only foolish, but downright ignorant. To proclaim "it can be done" is going
to be harmful to the readers, if not deadly.

You can sail without an anchor. After all, the act of sailing relegates the
anchor to dead weight off the bow. Just leave it behind. Real sailors
don't need no stinkin' anchor. That'd be anchoring, not sailing.


No harnessing the elements and living in harmony with the sea but
plenty of bull headed burning of fuel and polluting the air and water?

On a boat made by destroying the environment, if for no other reason than to
get the wood for the hull and mast. Power was used to create that boat, in
it's entirety or in part, for every component on it and in it. And unless
you compost yoru crap, you pollute the water, and unless you eat raw food,
you pollute the air while consumong fossle fuels in the cooking process.



Most certainly not!

I bet I can sell more books and magazines that is chock full of useful
information about how someone can realistically enjoy boating, and all that
goes along with it, than you can sell about a spartan lifestyle of "living
in harmony" that no one really wants to do.


Practical Boat Owner, an English publication is exactly that.
Advertised, I believe, as "Britain's best selling yachting magazine".

--
Cheers,
Bruce