Don Casey
at Sailnet
had some profound words on this topic: "When you have a modest, simple
boat, you can sail at the drop of a hat, no small advantage for a pastime
entirely dependent on the vagaries of wind.... Smaller sails and lower stresses
make smaller boats easier to sail and arguably safer for a small crew.... Small
boats are handy, tacking easily through narrow waters. They can also traverse
thin water. In fact, given seaworthiness, a small boat can take you everywhere
its larger sibling can go and lots of places beyond the big boat's reach.
Small boats are also more economical to own, operate and maintain.... The ploy
I favor is to own a boat substantially smaller than what you can afford."
This is all
true, of course, and as a lover of small boats myself I have no quibble with
it. But it does overlook one important point.
When I look
at a full marina, especially on a cold and miserable winter afternoon, I wonder
how many unseen people there are aboard those boats. Are the boats really as
deserted as they look?
Just
because they're not out sailing doesn't mean they're not being used. I have
spent many happy hours down below on docked boats. Some of them were bigger
than I could really afford, but they offered comforts that smaller boats could
not match.
Nothing
feels more cozy than the cabin of yacht when the wind is howling from the
southeast and cold rain is drumming on the skylights. What better way is there
for the harried city worker to relax than to stretch out on a bunk with a
favorite book or good music on the stereo?
To go below
into the womb-like confines of a cabin smelling of teak and lemon oil is to
shut out the worries of the weekday world. And alone, or with a loving companion,
there is a satisfaction approaching bliss in doing nothing in peculiar, in
simply relaxing in a snug little vessel floating on a highway that — if you
wanted to — would take you to all the exciting, exotic places in the world.
Even in
summer, an afternoon spent in the sunny cockpit, happily tying a Turk's Head on
the tiller, or lazily re-varnishing the little spot where the jib sheet rubs on
the teak coaming, revitalizes the spirit and feeds the soul.
You may
sometimes feel the pressure to go sailing when you don't particularly want to,
simply to fall in with the popular notion that you have to leave your slip to
prove that you're a proper sailor and not a veranda yachtsman.
But you
don't have to fall for that. How you enjoy your boat is up to you. And if you
can afford a big boat in which you can goof off standing upright, why should
you make yourself miserable in one with no more than sitting headroom?
Today's Thought
The bow that's always bent will
quickly break;
But if unstrung will serve you at
your need.So let the mind some relaxation take
To come back to its task with fresher need.
— Phaedrus, Fables
Tailpiece
Confucius say: "If man think by the inch and talk by the yard, he will be kicked by the foot."
(Drop by every Monday, Wednesday, Friday for a new Mainly about Boats column.)
