Nobody (important) really cares...

Face it, a lot of folks put far too much importance on what other people think...

Ya think?

I've lost track of the number of times someone has told me that they'd love to go cruising but they can't afford to do it in the style and fashion they believe is required to fit in comfortably in what they seem to believe is some sort of high school fashion clique from hell.

Or, to use a more concrete example, that if you show up in an anchorage with a funky classic plastic or homebuilt that you'll find yourself in the equivalent of social hell or limbo, people will point in derision, and you won't get to hang out with the cool kids...

Of course, none of us ever want to repeat our angst-ridden high school experiences so I do get the fear of not fitting in and it's understandable.

But...

Here's the thing, most everyone is so busy worrying that they won't fit in and you'll be judging them, that they really don't give a shit what sort of boat you show up in at an anchorage.

Really.

Which is not to say there are not a few patheticly insecure folk whose only coping mechanism is to try and make other people's lives miserable. Lucky for us they are a tiny minority of the folks out cruising and tend to posse-up with other like-minded damaged souls and, since they pretty much stay amongst themselves, they're really not all that problematic and not important at all.

Yeah, just like high school.