Modern gear is better. It isn't necessary, of course, but much of it (if
intelligently chosen & properly installed) makes life while
sailing/cruising SAFER as well as more comfortable.


rhys wrote:
Absolutely. Slocum probably didn't have lifelines, but probably *did*
rig preventers, etc.


The ironic thing about Slocum is that his boat was an old-fashioned
anachronism, backwards to the point of comedy, even at the time he was
sailing it. And he did it that way because he couldn't afford better...
if he hadn't been flat broke, he wouldn't have gone on his solo voyage.


I have no argument against modern equipment: modern materials
(Spectra, carbon fibre, etc.) are clearly superior in almost all
respects excepting price G. But there are multiple cut-offs, in my
opinion, between modern and useful and modern and (potentially)
dangerous gear and ideas in the bluewater yacht world.

Well, don't blur the line between the gear & it's potential, and the
actual use to which many people put it.


... One such
break-point, for me, are assistive devices like electric winches or
windlasses: if you are older and/or weaker and/or short-handed, and
the only way you can handle that big beautiful boat is via such
devices, you are pretty well stuck if they break.

Yep- and unless you have the technical knowledge to maintain them well,
they will break constantly. Another bit of irony, if you *do* have that
knowledge then you can probably fix it yourself as well.

In this hi-tech age, it's still good advice IMHO to not have anything on
your cruising boat that you can't fix yourself. And it's a still a very
achievable goal.




I am rather more distressed, if not surprised, at the lack of basic
seamanship in said bigger boats than I am worried at expensive and
possibly superfluous gear that breaks. We hear more and more of
GPS-piloted boats running onto reefs, of crew unable to stop the boat
to do a MOB, with subsequent loss of life, of bozos with zero
knowledge yakking to their fellow bozos on VHF, etc.

Right, but you seem to want to blame it on the VHF, the GPS, the
autopilot, etc etc. This is like blaming forks & spoons for obesity.

The real problem here is one of cultural relativity... when we go
cruising we want to "get away from it all" but many try to take it all
with them... including their consumer-based cultural values. Those of us
who plan our lives with a bit of common sense don't fare so poorly!



Watching the news last night, for instance, I saw several shots of
nice big yachts in (presumably) the Florida Keys, riding out Hurricane
Rita at anchor.

Fair enough. But under what part of basic seamanship do you leave a
foresail on a roller-furler or a mainsail on a boom (in one instance
unlashed and with the sail cover already shredding and straining the
rode)?


Doesn't bother me a bit, except that they drive up insurance rates for
the rest of us.


This month's Ocean Navigator has a "future of voyaging" section which
is in parts a bit pessimistic in this way: it's not terrorism or high
fuel prices that will cut back on voyaging, it's the unwillingness of
a lot of cruisers to learn the basics of navigation and boat-handling
because they are focused on the gleaming saloon or the wonderful
washer/dryer in the forepeak...G


A regular poster here had an answer for that, can't remember the exact
phrase. Something to the effect of "If you think learning to navigate is
boring, just imagine how exciting it is to hit the rocks!"

Don't worry, a lot of these boats will be for sale cheap. Lack of
interest will bring down marina prices too.

Fresh Breezes- Doug King