Ruskie wrote:
On Thu, 20 Jul 2006 10:37:47 -0400, Wayne.B
wrote:

On 20 Jul 2006 02:27:02 -0500, Vallie wrote:

poor, poor pitiful me,
Yes.

She or he has a point.

Not much of one.

People who use all the "stuff" never really
become sailors.

But people who have sailed without the conveniences for 30 years have
certainly earned the right to use them. I'm a bit offended by people
who use a chartplotter but don't know how to read a chart. On the
other hand, it seems like the number of groundings I see in the harbor
has gone down a lot since GPS.

They may think they're sailors, but they would
probably die or head for land if their engines, windlasses, chart
plotters and other gadgets were taken away. They would choose another
hobby because they are not really interested in sailing. They want to
play, not work. Perfectly understandable. The art of maneuvering and
anchoring must be reduced to the push of a button.

So they're not sailors if they don't live up to your standards?


It takes little or no skill to 'even circumnavigate' with that stuff.

If you think that, then you're certainly not a sailor!

Not a flame, just a fact.

The fact is, its a flame.

And if someone who loves the ancient
vanishing art is disgusted by the laziness of slovenly cruisers who
like to discuss how best to anchor in coral and must have air
conditioning and windscreen televisions, well, I can understand the
feeling.

I can sort of agree, but unless you sail a wooden boat with flaxen
sails, hemp lines, and a rock killick you really can't criticize which
conveniences somebody picks. I'm certainly old enough to remember
when lots of people claimed that real sailor would never sail a
fiberglass boat.