I just want to thank you all for your informative posts. I am an
aspiring cruiser (no boat yet--can't even sail, but I'm slowly
learning), and this group is a great resource.

It is also a great resource for cracking me up as I read old threads
of Jax vs. World. The refrigeration ones (1kw / 1.4kw) and the color
of light are funny as hell. I myself do aspire to enjoy cold beer on
the boat someday.

Thanks again.

Charles

On 19 Aug 2003 13:20:03 -0700, (Charles A.
Thompson) wrote:

I just want to thank you all for your informative posts. I am an
aspiring cruiser (no boat yet--can't even sail, but I'm slowly
learning), and this group is a great resource.

Charles, wanna go sailing, now? Hang out around the docks and help
the sailors work around their boats. They benefit from your help and
will show you appreciation by taking you sailing as crew where you'll
very quickly learn the ropes....er, ah....lines...er,
ah...sheets...(c; Get the picture?

If you have any skill that's valuable on the docks (I'm an electronic
technician with almost 40 years of experience.) you won't have ANY
trouble making friends, believe me....

What can you do a sailor might be interested in? Are you a mechanic,
electrician, electronics tech, painter, carpenter, diver, any skill
like these? If so, you're a shoe in!

I just got back a few weeks ago from my $6 Florida cruise vacation,
helping a friend I've been helping with his old boat for several years
bring home a 41' French ketch. He called me on the road from Atlanta
(his home) to Charleston (my home and where his boat is) to make a
date to meet up about noon tomorrow so we can continue the electronics
suite installation on the ketch, now that the mechanics have our new
autopilot actuator installed. Time to get cracking with the Nav
installations....radar, chart plotters, radios, electronic chart
table, computers, sailing instruments, autopilot....

It's gonna be a helluva great summer sailing with him when I get all
the damned cables pulled through the bilges....(c; Somebody's gotta
operate all these new toys!



Larry W4CSC

Maybe we could get the power grid fixed if every politician
regulating the power companies wasn't on their payrolls.

(Larry W4CSC) wrote in message ...
Charles, wanna go sailing, now? Hang out around the docks and help
the sailors work around their boats. They benefit from your help and
will show you appreciation by taking you sailing as crew where you'll
very quickly learn the ropes....er, ah....lines...er,
ah...sheets...(c; Get the picture?


Well, I live in Kansas, so there aren't too many docks around. There
are a few sailing clubs on the lakes around here, so that's where I
will probably get my first-hand experience.

Right now I'm reading books, newsgroups, etc.

After that, probably chartering a cat in the Caribbean with a captain.
Then with no captain...

Charles

At the beginning of the summer I was like you, Charles. Reading and lurking
but no experience. I did what you say you are planning to do. Now I have my
CYA (Canadian Yachting Association) 'Basic Cruising Standard' for skipper
and crew. This means (so I am told) that I can Skipper a sailboat up to 10
meters in length (about 30 feet) during the day, in ideal conditions, in
areas I know.

I also joined the sailing club. They have sailing every night of the week
and I can take boats out at other times (included in the membership).

My plan is sleightly different from yours in that I'm going to take the
Intermediate Cruising course which rates me for bigger boats and should be
good enough to rent a boat for extended cruising. So, I get to be the
Captain.

What i'm really saying is, don't wait to take those lessons. It is pretty
easy to learn to sail on a lake.

Charles A. Thompson wrote:

(Larry W4CSC) wrote in message
...
Charles, wanna go sailing, now? Hang out around the docks and help
the sailors work around their boats. They benefit from your help and
will show you appreciation by taking you sailing as crew where you'll
very quickly learn the ropes....er, ah....lines...er,
ah...sheets...(c; Get the picture?


Well, I live in Kansas, so there aren't too many docks around. There
are a few sailing clubs on the lakes around here, so that's where I
will probably get my first-hand experience.

Right now I'm reading books, newsgroups, etc.

After that, probably chartering a cat in the Caribbean with a captain.
Then with no captain...

Charles

--
due to a significant increase in scams being sent to my e-mail address, I am
no longer makinging it available for direct replies.

On Thu, 21 Aug 2003 22:50:56 GMT, Ean Kingston
wrote:

At the beginning of the summer I was like you, Charles. Reading and lurking
but no experience. I did what you say you are planning to do. Now I have my
CYA (Canadian Yachting Association) 'Basic Cruising Standard' for skipper
and crew. This means (so I am told) that I can Skipper a sailboat up to 10
meters in length (about 30 feet) during the day, in ideal conditions, in
areas I know.

One of our "problems", as boaters, here in the USA is the
manufacturers and especially dealers have been quite successful in
keeping any kind of "licensing" from ever happening in the boating
business. Boats are sold on impulse buying. If they had to go get a
license to drive it, they'd not buy it in the first place.

It is perfectly legal in SC for a totally blind many with $$$$ (the
only thing the boat dealer is interested in, obviously) to buy a 60'
motor yacht and drive it away for the $$$$$$$$ alone.

I have a friend with $$$$$$$$$ whos first boat was bought in Hilton
Head Island, SC, from a yacht broker. He had never owned or even
driven a boat before the broker handed him the keys to his new 43'
sport fisherman with twin diesels. The guy helped him crank the
diesels before leaving the boat casting off his lines. Miraculously,
he made it up the ICW to Charleston, going aground only twice before
figuring out how the ICW is marked cryptically. He did nothing wrong
or illegal in doing so.

I'm for "driver's licenses" for boats, 100%......



Larry W4CSC

Maybe we could get the power grid fixed if every politician
regulating the power companies wasn't on their payrolls.

Brian Whatcott wrote:

The strange thing about boating deaths is - they are rare - and
usually affect people who exercised free will ...

Moreover, all licenses are, in effect, "Titles of Nobility" because they
grant the licensee special priviledges and, as such, are specifically
forbidden by the US Constitution. Unfortunately, our government is a
scofflaw.