Quote:
Originally Posted by capt-couillon
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Yes, in my little fantasy world with unlimited funds and power I would have a radar that puts the USN to shame, but in my world AIS is a god send for seeing the stuff (by international law) that could run over me at 30 Kts and never know it. The rest of it I can deal with.
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A friend of mine wrote this in the good olde daze: Some things change, some don't.
ONE MAN'S OPINION
Cruising World August 1995
I can no longer remain silent. At first I thought it
was just a few eccentrics, but I am now afraid that
I am beginning to see a pattern. I think that the
final straw was the recent article I read on sailing
in fog that said that if I didn't have a radar on my
boat, perhaps I had misappropriated my
boating
budget. I must confess: I have no radar. Not only
do I not have a radar, but I have no intentions of
buying one. My new
gear priorities list does not
even contain this item.
I must go on: I do not have a GPS. Can you
imagine that I actually sail - even
cruise - without
one?
There's more. I do not have
roller furling. Yes,
that's right. I actually have more than one
jib and
what is more, I have to hank it on - one hank at a
time - every time I go sailing. Wait! When the
wind is up and the seas build I actually go forward,
on the top of the
deck and - now get this - change
to a different
jib. Can you believe that anyone can
be so primitive?
More. My only
electronics are a
Loran (recently
purchased), a speed/log, a depthsounder and a
cheap VHF. Yes, I will admit it. My VHF is a low
priced model! Furthermore, my
electronics are not
interlinked or whatever fancy jargon aficionados
use to indicate that their electronics talk to each
other. No, I do not have an anemometer. At times
I can be caught standing on
deck estimating the
wind speed. I even go so far as to make sail
changes based on the boat's sailing
characteristics. I have never told anyone this, but
I am ready to bare all: I don't have an apparent
wind indicator. I am not lying. We use a piece of -
I am so embarrassed - a piece of cassette tape
tied to the
shroud. I do believe it was from
"Smurfs Do the Whitbread" or something like that.
At any rate, we survive and make port without
calling for assistance. We enjoy wonderful
meals
cooked on the Weber that hangs off the stern
pulpit and corn on the cob cooked on, of all things,
an alcohol
stove.
I could go on and on. By now you must have
figured out that my boat is OLD (1973). Heaven
forbid!
It's hard to imagine that I could enjoy sailing under
these abominable conditions, but the truth is that
I am as addicted as the guy who has all the
equipment. I am proud to say that my boat is not
a marina queen - she lives on a
mooring - from
which it is easier to sail her. Her name is Trav'ler
and I make sure she lives up to her name.
We have
lost sight of what this sport is all about.
We have
lost sight of nature, of ourselves, and our
God, unless your God is powered by 12 volts.
Mine is not. Once - and I remember this - an RDF
was considered a luxury. I remember a trip in fog
so thick (you know the cliché) and we made it
home with nothing more than a
compass, a
depthsounder, a sumlog and a VHF. Once we
even did a fog run without the sumlog, as it had
broken. We just estimated our speed. I know my
boat so well that I could estimate her speed within
a fraction of a
knot. What tremendous satisfaction
there is in reaching your port using the true skills of
a seaman.
We often hear the lament of how nonsailors
perceive our sport to be one that is reserved for
the wealthy. Is it any wonder when we read
articles about how we all should have radar, or
how our latest
mast project only cost $1,200?
These are elitist statements made by people who
know nothing about the lives most of us live.
Sailing can be done safely and enjoyably on a
budget and I feel it is about time that those of us
who sail on a budget speak up.
Higgs
Crystal Lake, Illinois