ONE OF THE MOST fascinating things
about cruising under sail is the vast extent of knowledge required. By that, I
mean you have to know at least a little about a very wide range of subjects.
Enough, anyway, to keep you out of trouble.
Maurice Griffiths, a sailor and
yacht designer who was editor of Yachting
Monthly for 40 years, once described it this way:
“Cruising in small craft embraces a
very large field of knowledge, and those older men who have devoted the greater
part of their lives to its study have acquired a knowledge that embraces
weather lore and sky and clouds, a knowledge of deep water and shallow seas, of
tides and winds and currents, of astronomy and geometry in navigation, of ropes
and ropework, of canvas, sails, rigging, paints and varnishes, of timber and
its infinite variations, of wood preservatives and decay, of theory in the
designs of boats, and their construction . . . in short, many subjects that
competent seamen can discuss for hours without touching on . . . the actual
sailing.”
To that list we can now make
additions, of course, including the field of electronics, from GPS and chart
plotters to wind, and speed instruments, depth sounders and fish finders,
radar, AIS, radios of all kinds and, in the field of chemistry, the various
uses of urethanes, polythanes, epoxies, polyesters. And then there are the fields of diesel
mechanics, steering hydraulics, electrolysis, and the fancy synthetic cloths
and lines that are now the backbones of modern sails and rigging. In short,
there is a lifetime of learning here if you are so inclined, including such
subjects as cooking, first aid, anchoring, and much more.
Another famous yachting editor,
Thomas Fleming Day, of The Rudder,
got everything in perspective, though. He knew very well that no-one can be an
absolute expert in every phase of cruising under sail.
“Know this,” he said, “that
three-quarters of what you read in trade
papers and technical magazines is written by people who don’t know any more
about the subject they write about than you or I do.”
Today’s
Thought
The
true secrets of the sea cannot be learned upon the shore.
— Captain F. G. D. Bedford, The Sailor’s Pocket Book, 1898
Tailpiece
From the Associated Press:
LONDON — A former meerkat expert at London
Zoo has been ordered to pay compensation to a monkey handler she attacked with
a wine glass in a love spat over a llama-keeper.
2 comments:
It would appear obvious it was the primate handler that was monkeying around, but it's possible the Llama handler was the Cheetah, although he'd then be a mere cat too.
I like to think Thomas F Day would have said the same things regarding politicians if he was alive today. Day was a 'doer' not a big note talker and fantasist as some who are contesting the Domocratic and Republican nominations this time round.
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