Back in the dark ages, when I was living on a CAL 20, I went to a lecture by Herman Daly who really blew my mind with his thoughts on economic growth. Sadly. he passed away recently.
I mention this here because his take on economics has a whole lot to do with my thoughts on living within a finite resource envelope, growth for growth's sake, and the process of swimming against the prevailing current.
I'm pretty sure that if I had not found myself in a economics lecture all those years ago I'd be going along with the great unwashed hordes thinking that one can buy one's own slice of happiness by spending more for a bigger boat. Which makes Daly one of my major influences in terms of boat mindset.
I'd seriously check out some of his books and lectures if you have the chance.
Truth is, I never feel very comfortable with the concept of rules and there's a line from a book I read in high school that has stuck with me even though I no longer remember the name of the book or author who wrote it...
"Rules and regulations are just stop signs on the roads I like to travel"
Words to live by or, at least, an apt line for a t-shirt. Maybe not an exact quote but I'm pretty sure it's close.
One of the reasons I'm attracted to the whole concept of VolksCruiserish mayhem has more than a lot to do with the fact that by its very nature flies in the face of what people say you can't do. Maybe it's just me but nothing whets my interest in doing something like someone telling me it can't be done.
Over on that hive of negativity, idiotic one-upmanship, and consumerist blather, there is a current thread about cheap boats which just makes me want to go out find a funky, free, derelict fixer upper to rehab just to prove it is doable and that the nay-sayers have their heads up their asses.
That said, the fact is that lots and lots of people have spent small fortunes trying to rehab old boats and wound up with nothing to show for it but heartbreak, tears, and an empty bank account. So, though I hate to admit that the nay-sayers have a point, I have to say that some of their arguments are valid.
It's just their conclusions that are wonky.
Which, sorta/kinda, brings us around to my saying the word... RULES.
In my mind I see rules as being somewhat flexible. Yield signs rather than Stop signs if you will. Yield and stop signs are not so much rules but warnings. My last post was/is really about warnings that in rehabbing an old, cheap boat you're on a road that is part and parcel going to take you deep into Robby the Robot territory...
Which is a place you need to consider your options seriously and look both ways before jumping in.
You can do just about anything you want to and, where boats are concerned, I've seen so many impossible projects happen successfully against staggering odds that I never ever say something can't be done.
Of course, I've also seen an equal or greater number of total disasters and failures. Almost always not because the projects were impossible but simply that there was a general lack of critical thinking and an excess of rose-colored vision in the situational awareness zone.
Just because some folks have been successful is not a reason you will be too...
The fact that others have failed does not mean you will as well...
Every project is going to be unique and it's up to you to sort out your path to making it happen in a positive or negative outcome.
Is it just me or am I the only one who's noticed the somewhat alarming fact that you can now buy cans of gas for your outboard for $7.99 a quart?
While I get the whole ethanol is bad for outboards and suchlike, the idea that we're reduced to buying gas for more than I pay for decent rum is just frelling nuts.
That said, barring someone coming up with a hack that allows me to run my outboard on cheap rum, it is a pretty good argument for dinghies you can row or sail...
Tad Roberts has a new design in the works which, I expect, I'll be telling you a lot more about in the next week or so, but for the moment, I'd just like to point out something important about it and boats in general...
Speed: 6.5 knots with 15HP outboard, 9 knots with 40HP
A little extra speed's expensive, isn't it?
Not only is the cost of a 40HP outboard a lot more expensive than a 15HP outboard, it's going to use a whole lot more fuel in the process and its upkeep will be costlier as well.
Of course, everyone wants to go just that little bit faster... Don't they?
Offhand, it seems to me when the gain seems meager compared to the cost of attaining it, you might want to take a long hard look at your priorities.
The other day while avoiding some needful sanding of fiberglass I found myself intrigued by one of those never ending threads on a forum about sailboat gear...
As usual, someone popped up and stated categorically that if something costs more it's better and the old chestnut "you get what you pay for" is a stone cold fact.
Being bored by such stupidity (but still unwilling to sand fiberglass) I found myself reading another thread about anchoring rights (or lack of) in Florida and found myself confronted by another idiot person of strong opinion who seemed to think that rich people's rights to an uncluttered view from their palatial shore side homes free of mythical derelict boats was more important than a boater's right to anchor...
All of a sudden the idea of sanding fiberglass and the resulting itch waiting for me was looking a lot more entertaining than reading the forum in question.
Now, truth be told, I actually enjoy working on the boat and even sanding fiberglass, once I've actually got started it's, if not enjoyable, at least a great way to clear your mind and think...
So, while sanding all of a sudden two words popped into my head.
All of as sudden I knew why so many otherwise smart people who sail and cruise tend to take the side of the 1%, greed heads, and exploiters even when it is against their own best interests...
Not a bad day when you come to think of it...
That bit of hull is now fairer, I have a bit of clarity on why a certain group of boaters seem to be idiots, and I've discovered that a little talcum powder makes the fiberglass itch a lot more bearable.
There are times when reading the yachting press (in those rare times when my scum sucking zinio app actually works) that I feel that we're not looking at boats anymore but some crazed rendering of the "Blind men and an elephant" sort...
A while back when I was talking about the Columbia 26, a lot of folks wrote the blog asking why I liked it because it didn't have one feature or another that some other blog or sailing magazine had told them that a proper cruising boat had to do or have any number of things that a simple 26-foot boat was simply never going to have or do... Because, you know, it's a 26-foot boat.
The Columbia 26 MK2 for its size delivers, as far as I'm concerned, a pretty impressive list of stuff you need in a cruising boast for someone on a budget...
It sails well
It's well built
Has a well thought out ergonomic interior that works
Has better than average stowage
They're available
They're cheap (as such things go)
From where I sit the only downsides of such a boat are that it's a boat of a certain age and it's more than likely that it will need some TLC factored into the program. That said, it is a small boat so there's not going to be that much work or expense compared to something bigger.
In other words, it pretty much nails the whole need list for a boat of the VolksCruiser ilk...
An alarming number of people seemed to think that the Columbia 26 MK2 was somehow lacking and I got numerous emails comparing it to other boats that were either substantially bigger, more expensive, or completely different...
The elephant is much like a snake...
The lesson I learned a long time ago is that you can't look at sailboat design as a group comparison thing or as a this boat vs that boat contest. Every boat is different and needs to be looked at with eyes wide open and taking it all in. The question you need to ask whether it's about the Columbia 26 MK2, a CAL 34, a Morgan Out Island 41, or a Whatever 38 is whether or not this particular boat will do what you need it to do.
That's it. Trust me, spreadsheet feature comparison shopping for a boat will leave you just where it did the guy who said...
The elephant is quite like a a wall...
Fact of the matter is there are so many good boats and designs floating around it's pretty easy to find a good boat that will do what you need. The problem is mostly not about the right boat it's almost always about the person looking for a boat having insignificant focus to see what their own needs actually are...
The elephant is much like a tree...
So, the keyto what boat works for fulfilling your needs is to not look at boats or listen to people talking about boats (including me) but to simply look in the mirror and sort out what you actually need.
One problem with buying into the out-of-control-consumerism gig is that the first thing to go is anything that passes for critical thinking. Or, in other words, you quit thinking...
For instance, here are two anchors...
The Bruce (or clone thereof)
And what seems to be the current nextgen flavor of the month...
They're actually both good anchors.
From where I sit the main difference between the two designs is really about cost and a whole lot of hype. As far as price goes, the current street price for a Lewmar Claw (the Bruce clone) is about $130 for a 44# anchor while the current hip nextgen is around $520 for a 45# anchor.
Where anchors are concerned there has always been a lot of hype of both the positive and negative type which roughly translates to the "Our anchor is better but if you use the other guy's anchor you will die because..." approach. Which is then backed up by anchor tests that bear no resemblance to how anchors actually work in the real world and done in such a way to show their anchor is better. Of course, if that doesn't work then plain old lying about the competiors anchor with made up horror stories is not unheard of (something you might want to keep in mind when you hear word-of-mouth about failure rates and suchlike).
No real science involved but a whole lot of very impressive con-artistry.
The yachting press with no inclination to actually do research or test such things like anchors tend to rely on what the anchor companies give them and regurgitate whole press releases as fact. There are exceptions to this but they are far and few between. The lesson here is if the folks who review gear are less than critical you're going to have to do it on your own.
Anyway, the real test of the pudding is using stuff in the real world and, being an interested observer (spelled not a big fan of boats dragging down on me), I do pay a lot of attention to how people anchor and what sort of ground tackle they're using when they do it. As such adhoc research goes my findings are that the nextgen folks don't seem to drag any less or more than those with older design anchors providing they anchor sensibly.
The sad part of that last sentence is there seems no shortage of folks anchoring senselessly...
So, as far as I'm concerned, the real difference between the $130 anchor and the $520 anchor is just $390 and not so much about performance at all. If you really want to improve your anchoring spend an afternoon working on your technique and sorting out some bad habits you may have acquired.
The Swallows pretty much said all that needed to be said about anchoring back in 1951...
Forget the money. Seriously, as anyone who has taken a couple of college level economics classes knows, money is really just an artificial construct and, at best, is simply a means of counting virtual beans. Now if you stop to think about it, what exactly does a pile of virtual beans (or oil futures/pork bellies/whatever) have to do with the important things in your life?
Now, on the other hand...
What we're really talking about here is getting the most value for your boating dollar and the only real way to measure that is in terms of value.
Money just confuses the issue...
So, here's a question...
Two boats in an anchorage, both about the same size with the same comfort level and doing the same stuff. How would you rate their non-monetary/real world value if one cost $100K the other $10K?
Hipness, what it is! Hipness, what it is! Hipness, what it is! And sometimes hipness is What it ain't!
Or so goes the refrain from Tower of Power's best known song (as well as being one of my all time favorites).
If you were to read today's modern yachting rags you'd think that ever bigger and ostentatious catamarans were the epitome of Hip and, in some circles, you'd probably be right.
Of course, that trend has already peaked and even in the yacht press they're casting about for the new h
Hip thang. Tower of Power pretty much nailed it...
There's one thing you should know What's hip today Might become passe
I expect that, sooner, rather than later, overly conspicous consumer products are not just going to become no longer Hip but decidely UnHip... The signs are already there if you have your ear to the ground.
Big changes are coming...
That said, while smaller more frugal boats may never be the epitome of Hip they'll never be the more dreaded UnHip. I can live with that...
Just something to think about while you listen to the band...
You live on a rock with a finite number of resources and there's plenty of proof that a lot of important resources are either running out or will become too expensive to use in the not too distant future.
What do you do?
A. Bugger all and continue as normal.
B. Bugger all, continue as normal, and hope someone smart comes up with an answer.
C. Bugger all and radically expand your use of depleting resources...
Not much of a choice is it?
I don't know, but somehow the headlong plunge into bigger and bigger boats just seems a kiss problematic.
I'm pretty sure what appeals to a lot of people in the whole sailing off into the sunset scenario has a lot to do with, depending on your social perspective, either freedom or escape.
What was it Kris Kristofferson and Fred Foster had to say on the subject of freedom?
"Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose..."
That's always kind of worked for me.
Which sorta/kinda brings me around to the whole being slave to The List thing...
I suppose I should mention that I also have a list which is long and, truth be told, I'll never get to the end of. Which, as it happens, is OK because if I finished the list I'd have pretty much zip to do and I like keeping busy on projects and suchlike.
The fact is you'll never finish the list either and you need to embrace that knowledge...
The other day I noticed there was a Bolger sharpie for sale up in Alaska on Craig's list...
It got me thinking.
First the idea of buying a boat for cheap up in Alaska, sailing it around for the season, and then selling it or even giving it away makes for an extremely cheap five to six month vacation.
The second thing that came to mind was how it would be just the sort of experience a lot of people should have before they decide to spend copious amounts of money on the perfect boat for cruising.
Thirdly was how nice it would be to do some serious fly fishing in out-of-the-way places and camp...
Yeah, I just said the word camp as in camping and you know what?
I'm not ashamed in the least.
The word "camping" has become something of a negative word where cruising sailboats are concerned. Sort of the worst thing someone can say in polite society in fact, and at best, damning with faint praise.
Folks of a VolksCruiserish nature and bent already know what I mean but anyone with a smaller than 40 something sailboat is going to hear it used often...
"Oh, we used to have a CAL 28 and loved it but we got so tired of camping"
A while back someone asked me what sort of washer/dryer we had aboard and when I mentioned we didn't, I got the old...
"Oh, you're camping..."
The thing is I LIKE camping. Some of the best moments I've had in my life have been in little tents or sleeping under the stars as far away from what passes for civilization as I could get. Whether I was backpacking and climbing in the Himalaya, Patagonia, Alaska, or the Alps, I never felt I was having an inferior experience because I did not have a washer/dryer or some other appliance.
What's more is the lack of a lot of baggage and its inherent problems/upkeep makes me a happy camper...
Jay Fitzgerald (whose book should be on every VolksCruisers bookshelf) has mentioned that boat size should reflect muscle power and as far he could figure that 1 to 50 was the ratio that made sense.
Offhand, I expect he's pretty close to being right on the money...
So, what does that work out to in real terms?
Let's start with someone who weighs in at 180 pounds and (giving the benefit of the doubt) is a lean and mean machine. That gives us a displacement number of 9000 pounds... A nice round number.
By today's standards, a 9000-pound displacement boat is not very big and you'd be hard pressed to find one over thirty feet in length. Just for a sense of what some popular VolksCruiserish boats displace...
CAL 34... 9500 pounds
CAL 28... 6000 pounds
Pearson Vanguard... 10300 pounds
Pearson Triton... 6930 pounds
Columbia 34... 10500 pounds
Coronado 32... 11800 pounds
Well, you get the idea...
Where Fitzgerald's numbers work is that they give you a pretty good idea of what's within your physical abilities without resorting to some sort of problem prone auxiliary assistance like powered winches and suchlike.
Maybe it's just me, but I'd feel nervous about sailing a boat where such needful acts like sail handling or picking up an anchor is beyond my physical ability.
There's a beat up fixer-upper for sale down here that I've had my eye on for a while... a Kenner Skipjack to be precise. As boats go, it is something of an odd duck...
Of course, half the reason for my interest is the word "skipjack" which is a hull form that makes all kinds of sense if you happen to be an aficionado of shoal draft design. But, like I said, the Kenner is still something of an oddball...
... with a poorly thought out rig, a confused use of interior space, an LOA of 49 feet, and the sort of pseudo-salty styling that is just a hair's breadth from screaming "theme park", it's at best sorta/kinda problematic. Still, it does have a hull that whispers something to me...
Yeah, I could see myself in some out of the way thin water location building a surfboard on its bridgedeck with a smile on my face... Though, I should add, it would more than likely be sporting a different rig, less bowsprit, and a completely different interior.
The other day I heard that a boat I knew who anchored not far from us in St Martin was in the South Pacific...
I mention this because the boat in question was a Belgian canal barge drawing a couple of feet converted into a sailboat/art studio/gallery so hardly what comes to mind when folks are thinking blue water sailboat.
Color me impressed but not really surprised...
It does raise the question if we put too much store in the whole "perfect" or "right" boat and whether or not we'd be a whole lot better off putting our energies into simply sailing capable boats.
In Rodger Martin's recent IBEX talk about sharpies he said something that resonated for me...
"In the last couple of years while cruising in the Bahamas I’ve seen that the great majority of sloops motorsail upwind or close-reaching with only the mainsail and downwind with only a jib set. In a month in the Bahamas a couple of years ago out of hundreds of boats I saw only two other boats sailing with both sails up and no engine running..."
Which is not to say I think that engines are a bad thing but for a lot of people they do become a crutch that seriously gets in the way of developing into better sailors.
Just out of curiosity I was looking at the list of this year's ARC Rally boats and it makes some interesting reading...
I'll sum it up this way... Lots of big expensive boats.
Now, I'm on record as being a non-fan of cruising rallies. Partly because I don't feel a lot of folks sailing towards the same place at the same time is safer (the case could be made that it is actually less safe) and partly because I feel that the rallies distort the economics of cruising/cruising areas and insulate the participants from the cultures they're visiting.
That said, cruising rallies are an excellent support tool for those who make use of them. Which is not to say that they are a real support for getting from one place to another like the ARC but more in a way that it supports the socioeconomic niche of the folks who do the rallies while hurting the other niches in the process. Not unlike the way interesting and artistic people move into a low rent area, change/evolve the area so it becomes hip, then find they can no longer afford to live there because, now that it's HIP, wealthier people have moved into the area, distorted the property prices and, as a result, it's no longer affordable.
Shoestring, limited means, or fixed income cruisers find it very hard to cruise and live in areas once those areas start catering and basing their prices and rates for folks with big expensive boats and price-is-no-object budgets. The big problem is that since the rallies are organized that it compounds the problem.
People who do rallies seem to love the experience and it is a good time (for that kind of money it should be) but not so much for those non-participants who have to pay the inflated rates for goods and services or are shuffled aside because the rally folks come first...
