Like many of you, I am sick and tired of being misinformed and disinformed
by Mr. Skip Gundlach. That's why I'm writing this post, to ensure that the
sailing values for which we and our forebears have labored and for which
many of us have fought and sacrificed will continue in ascendancy. The full
truth of my conclusion I shall develop in the course of this post but the
conclusion's general outline is that statements like, "Skip's simplistic
reasoning follows the same fallacies as so many other treatises on similar
issues," accurately express the feelings of most of us here. If Skippy
wishes to be taken seriously, he should counter the arguments in this letter
with facts, not illogical panaceas, personal anecdotes, or lame insults as
is his usual wont.

Honest people will admit that Skip is as opposed to the COLREGS as he is
ignorant of them. He also abhors individual responsibility, safety for
himself and his crew and other nearby vessels. Not to mention, even such
seamanlike notions as paying close attention to the job at hand.

Concerned people are not afraid to acknowledge that Skip fits the
description of a vapid publicity hound. And sensible people know that Skip's
friends and associates resist realizing that Skip should be forced to accept
responsibility and conduct himself with a modicum of concern for his fellow
boater. Skip's is a case of arrested development and envious malevolence.
Skippy and his like resist seeing such things about themselves because to
see them, to examine them, to think about them and draw constructive
conclusions from them is to insist on a policy of zero tolerance toward
incompetence and sloth.

This will never do. Skip's past posts have evidenced periodic episodes of
depression. He has a victim mentality. Should tragedy occur, of course it
won't, in any way shape or form be HIS fault. No, he will just be an
innocent victim! We all know his life seems to revolve around these two
undesirable traits. Despite his evident lack of grounding (other than when
he goes aground which is every other time he sails) in what he's talking
about, my task now and for the immediate future -- our job -- is to insist
he straighten out his circus act before he further embarrasses the sailing
community with his clown show. I put that observation into this post just
to let you see that any rational argument must acknowledge this. His nerdy
opuscula, naturally, do not.

While Skip's semi-literate ramblings might be of some interest to addicted,
female, "Cruising World" magazine readers who revel in tales of woe and
ineptitude said ramblings serve no constructive purpose here where many
folks expect some level of professionalism at the very least.. The real
question is, "What would his response be if someone suggested that human
life is hardly something to play with." But, he does exactly that with the
lives of others he constantly endangers with his shenanigans. To answer that
question, note that history provides a number of instructive examples for us
to study. Loss of life at sea is often the result of poor judgment and
inexperience.

Another observation, it has long been the case that it's easy to tell if
Skip's lying. If his fingers are typing, he's lying. He seems to think
nobody will be able to notice it but those of us who sail and know sailing
like an intimate friend can't help but notice his way tall tales and obvious
amateur attempts at sailing that are on par with his attempts at journalism.

In essence, sometime in the near future Skip will leach integrity and honor
from our souls and our sailing lives if we listen to and emulate him with
his continued stupidity on parade. Fortunately, that hasn't happened...yet.
But it will doubtlessly happen if we don't catalogue Skip's cock-ups and
perversions and call him to task. We simply cannot allow his base, flippant
attitude toward sailing to be accepted as the norm because it is so far from
the norm even in these days of monthly payemnt, week-end, sailing warriors
who know next to nothing about sailing.

All of the lame, uneducated and unprofessional discussion that is currently
going on here are little more than a justification of why Skip's acts like
he does. They are not a cause; they are an effect. So we're supposed to give
Skip permission to fix blame for social stress, imagined personal stress
disorders or loss of the ability to prioritize on a target group whose
constructed guilt provides a simplistic explanation and hope he's rational
enough not to do so? How incredibly naive!

I've tried explaining to his sympathizers in this group that agree with him
that a search for common ground is both a fruitless exercise and almost as
suicidal a strategy as how he goes about sailing. Unfortunately, it is clear
to me in treating with many of you that you have no comprehension of what
I'm saying. I might as well be talking to creatures from Mars. In fact, I'd
bet Martians would be more likely to discern at an earlier point that Skip
maintains that two wrongs make a right. Perhaps it would be best for Skippy
to awaken from his delusional, narcoleptic fantasyland and observe that he
truly believes that he can be trusted to judge the rest of the world from a
unique perch of pure ignorance. It is just such sleazy megalomania, socially
inept, complacent egoism, and intellectual aberrancy that stirs Skip to fill
our minds with acts of depravity couched in terms of "This is how sailing is
supposed to be done, nowadays."

I don't care what others say about Skip. He's still a snippy pea-brain and
he intends to lead an active disinformation campaign. He keeps saying that
he can achieve his goals by friendly but immoral conduct. Isn't that claim
getting a little shopworn? I mean, he believes that cruising success comes
from whims, irrationality, and delusions. That's just wrong. He further
believes that he has achieved sainthood. Observe how he writes like he's the
life of the party on several discussion groups. Wrong again!

To state it in stark and simple terms, if Skip is going to talk about such
low standards does he really need to live by those low standards (or should
I say, die by them!). This seems to be the one area where Skippy is somewhat
honest. Low standards are something the man has obviously embraced.

Pusillanimous hoodlums can go right ahead and convict me for doomsaying
suggesting Skippy and crew will come to a bad end, and sooner rather than
later, but history, acting as the goddess of a higher truth and a higher
justice, will one day smilingly render the real verdict, acquitting me of
all guilt and blame. Can you believe that he actually stated that those of
us who oppose him would rather run than fight? I was stunned until I
remembered that no one has a much lower opinion of Skip than I, and I think
Skip's a muzzy-headed slob. His communiqués are shrouded in a fog of
delusional, self-serving, self-aggrandizement. We must fight this sleaze.
We must decidedly make pretentiousness unfashionable. Does that sound
extremist? Is it too cut and dried for you? I'm sorry if it seems that way
but that's life. These days, more than ever, no man is an island. Skip's
blunders could well be the downfall of some innocent bystander.

At this point in this post I had planned to tell you that my attempts to act
against injustice, whether it concerns drunk driving, domestic violence, or
inept cruising have so far served only as a divertissement for Skip and his
blowhard camp followers. However, one of my colleagues pointed out that
letting inhumane-to-the-core reavers infringe upon our most important
constitutional rights (life) is unthinkable. Hence, I discarded the
discourse I had previously prepared and substituted this discussion in which
I argue that Skip is like a magician who produces a dove in one hand while
the other hand is busy trying to stuff his pockets with buffoonism.

If you're still reading this post, I wish to compliment you for being
sufficiently open-minded to understand that Skip managed to convince a bunch
of the group's silly ninnyhammers to help him violate the basic tenets of
seamanship and professionalism. What was the quid pro quo there?
Unfortunately, I can't give a complete answer to that question in this
limited space. But I can tell you that he has been trying for some time to
convince people that he can walk on water. Don't believe his hype! Skip has
just been offering that line as a means to persuade many of his opponents to
enter into a one-way "dialogue" with him. His greatest need is to be the
center of attention. His method here seems to be to seek idolization via
infamy rather than accepted sailing protocol and being applauded for doing
something right.

Skip's indiscretions are utterly mutinous regardless of the way, shape, or
form in which he presents them. That is to say, he wants to recruit and
encourage other sailors to emulate his dangerous ineptitude. Why he wants
that, I don't know, but that's what he wants. I don't know if Skip is
consciously and purposely evil or merely moonstruck. I do know, however,
that if my memory serves me correctly, we can't change him overnight. It
takes time, patience and experience to throw down the gauntlet and challenge
his Bozoness to fight to the end for proper sailing ideas and ideals. Skip
wants us to believe he provides us with adventure, travel on the high seas,
liberty, and fraternity. Instead, he gave us hedonism, onanism, and
Bulverism. I suppose we should have seen that coming, especially since Skip
has never disproved anything I've ever written pointing out his obvious
lies. He does, however, often try to discredit me by means of flagrant
backhanded insults, by attributing to me views that I've never expressed.

In the end, Skip drops the names of famous people whenever possible so I
guess I understand his abuse. That makes him sound smarter by association
than he really is and obscures the fact that Skip reports things selectively
in order to advance his own warped agenda. There's no need here to present
any evidence of that; examples can be found all over the World Wide Web. In
fact, a simple Google search will quickly reveal that Skip's ramblings
always follow the same pattern. He puts the desired twist on the actual
facts, ignores inconvenient, dangerous truths and invents as many new
"facts" as necessary to convince us that he actually has a rational plan.
But, since when has blundering become a plan, or rational?

Let me close where I began: The fallout from Mr. Skip Gundlach's
self-centered and lawless notions has encountered an increasingly predatory
environment here consisting of at least three or four real sailors who are
now calling him out and objecting to his dangerous blunderings. This will,
by virtue of its omnipresence, lend an air of realism that counters his
pie-in-the-sky. By, virtue of this fortunate fact, those who are gullible
might not be so easily lead astray.


Wilbur Hubbard

On Sat, 19 Jul 2008 13:37:23 -0400, "Wilbur Hubbard"
wrote:

Despite his evident lack of grounding (other than when
he goes aground which is every other time he sails)

I used to run aground everytime I went out. I would sail that Sunfish
right onto the beach. The rudder kicked up. The boat was designed to
run aground that is, be operated from the sand, no dock or whatever.
Fun was launching into 2 to 3 foot square waves, the kind 25 kt of
wind gives you in a shallow lake. A Sunfish will fly with enough wind.

Casady

"Wilbur Hubbard" wrote
I am sick
That's why I'm writing this post
I shall develop in the course of this post
illogical panaceas, personal anecdotes, or lame insults as a vapid
publicity hound.

life seems to revolve around these undesirable traits. I put that
observation into this post just to let you see no constructive purpose
here
We simply know next to nothing about sailing.

I've
no comprehension of what I'm saying. I might as well be
shrouded in a fog of delusional, self-serving, self-aggrandizement.

I had planned to tell you that my need is to be the center of attention.

I don't know if
anything I've ever written
actually has an air of realism

Wilbur Hubbard

'nuther masterpiece, Neal...

On Sat, 19 Jul 2008 13:37:23 -0400, in message
s.com
"Wilbur Hubbard" wrote:

Like many of you, I am sick and tired of being misinformed and disinformed
by Mr. Skip Gundlach.

Without expressing any opinion about Skip and Lydia's skills, I am
glad that they are posting about their (mis) adventures and would like
to encourage them to continue. I think that's the free speech thing
that "you and some of your forebears" have "fought and sacrificed"
for.

I have certainly done dumb things while sailing.

Ryk

"Ryk" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 19 Jul 2008 13:37:23 -0400, in message
s.com
"Wilbur Hubbard" wrote:

Like many of you, I am sick and tired of being misinformed and disinformed
by Mr. Skip Gundlach.

Without expressing any opinion about Skip and Lydia's skills, I am
glad that they are posting about their (mis) adventures and would like
to encourage them to continue. I think that's the free speech thing
that "you and some of your forebears" have "fought and sacrificed"
for.

I have certainly done dumb things while sailing.

Ryk


Ah, but therein lies the difference between you and Skippy. You realize
you've done dumb things and are not overly proud of them while Skippy seems
to bask in the bright rays of dumb. Thinks it's good for him and everybody
else. . .

Wilbur Hubbard

On Sun, 20 Jul 2008 15:52:55 -0400, in message
s.com
"Wilbur Hubbard" wrote:
Ah, but therein lies the difference between you and Skippy. You realize
you've done dumb things and are not overly proud of them while Skippy seems
to bask in the bright rays of dumb. Thinks it's good for him and everybody
else. . .

All stories are useful on the water. I regret that you are stuck at
the farm as an invalid. I hope that is only temporary.

Ryk

On Sun, 20 Jul 2008 15:41:19 -0400, Ryk
wrote:

On Sat, 19 Jul 2008 13:37:23 -0400, in message
ws.com
"Wilbur Hubbard" wrote:

Like many of you, I am sick and tired of being misinformed and disinformed
by Mr. Skip Gundlach.

Without expressing any opinion about Skip and Lydia's skills, I am
glad that they are posting about their (mis) adventures and would like
to encourage them to continue. I think that's the free speech thing
that "you and some of your forebears" have "fought and sacrificed"
for.

I have certainly done dumb things while sailing.

Ryk

Whether Skip and Lydia are accomplished sailors or not they are out
there doing it, and I can only assume, learning every day.

As an aside, Lin and Larry Pardey were not old salts when they built
their first boat and sailed off into the sunset. Lin was a bookkeeper
and Larry drove a forklift, in a lumber yard (if I remember
correctly).

Bruce-in-Bangkok
(correct Address is bpaige125atgmaildotcom)