Quote:
Originally Posted by Vancouver Pete
As for what makes a Blue boat only the individual can say, it's what he is prepared to sail in. I know someone that has circumnavigated via the great capes and seen storm conditions in a Contessa 26, is that a Blue boat? for him yes for me NO.
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While I understand and truly do appreciate that idea it is helpful to me to look it a little differently.
A little scene setting.
Supposed I am an experienced backwoodsman. I love to jump in my truck and go camping. I have done it for 50 bajillion years and I know exactly what I can do with what I have and I can get places you would not imagine. Yet there are places my truck won't safely get me.
My friend buys a military surplus tricked out hummer. It has intake and
exhaust piped up into the air and can go through water above the doors. It has 36 inches of clearance, and yet it is real balanced clearance, not some "jacked up about to capsize" clearance. It has gearing and tires that will get him safely up (and down) the sides of shear cliffs covered in trees.
His hummer will simply flat out go places that my very rugged 4X that I have driven for 20 years, know and love, simply won't go, never mind go safely.
My friend goes with me on a journey, and even though he doesn't have 20 years of outback experience, he laughs hysterically when I am forced to stop. He just leads the way, breaking down a path for me and tows me up the mountain.
That my friends is what I really wanted to discover in this thread.
It is not that one can't grab a 12 foot dingy, throw a sail on it and
head off to
Hawaii. He MAY get there, or may not. It is simply that the dingy surely is NOT as safe for such an undertaking as boat xyz, which we consider "blue" for the following list of reasons...
So to throw out "sailor J sailed to location asdfg in boat qwerty and that proves zxcvbnm" is not useful to me. All that it proves is that "sailor J sailed to location asdfg in boat qwerty". It in no way proves zxcvbnm, in fact it doesn't prove anything, other than perhaps the man (or woman) went off his meds and was feeling suicidal.
It absolutely is quite feasible to discuss the relative merits of MY 4X relative to the tricked out Hummer. We can compare the horsepower, the gearing, the ground clearance, the intake /
exhaust venting, the ...
And we can discuss that, sitting in the parking lot, simply anticipating some theoretical trip across the wilderness.
So no, the fact that sailor J managed to survive some trip in boat qwerty most assuredly does NOT make it a blue water boat. It just means he didn't sink on THAT trip, though it is entirely likely that he will sink on the next trip. And it proves that he is an Adrenalin junkie.
IMHO neither of those things is really relevant to this discussion.