Seriously considering a power boat!

[BlowinSouth]

I just spent 3 weeks at Block Island. I just sailed back yesterday and it took 13 hours to go 30 miles! (From Block to Niantic, CT.) The wind was on the nose and the current in 'The Race' (between Fishers Island and Plum Island) was ripping and we were doing about 5 knots through the water but were going backwards at about 1 knot. My motor is on land being rebuilt so I had no engine to power through it. My knuckles are scraped, my toes are stubbed and my back is killing me! Oh and an accidental jibe hit me in the head and spilt my ear wide open!

Then we ran aground twice in the Niantic River about 2:00am, kedged off then 2 minutes later ran aground again!! The channel here is a zig zag maze and in the dark is almost impossible to stay in!

Power boaters have always wondered why we sailors want to work so hard to go so slow and now I'm starting to wonder the same thing. it would have been a 2 hour trip at the most in a power boat.

Come on sailors, talk me out of this power boat craving, tell me why we love this so much!

[sailhog]

Blowin,
Your sailboat is a motorboat. It's just that your engine isn't working at the moment. Now, if you'd been a motorboat, and your engine **** the bed while you were underway, you'd be on your way to the Azores by now. You'd be wishing you only had a thirteen hour slog instead of a $1,200 tow home.

Take a deep breath, Cap'n.

[Stillraining]

I have a Very nice 30' SeaRay for sale...

[BlowinSouth]

Originally Posted by sailhog

Blowin,
Your sailboat is a motorboat. It's just that your engine isn't working at the moment. Now, if you'd been a motorboat, and your engine s---t the bed while you were underway, you'd be on your way to the Azores by now. You'd be wishing you only had a thirteen hour slog instead of a $1,200 tow home.

Take a deep breath, Cap'n.

Excellent point sailhog, thank you for that!

[sailingdog]

Nope... sounds like a good sail over all. You just need a better boat... NOT A POWERBOAT. You should also plan your passages better... try going places where the current is with you, not against you. Makes the boat go a lot faster and your life a lot easier.

Hog's got a very good point about the engine... a Powerboat without a working engine has NO OPTIONS...and have you priced fuel recently.

[nolatom]

Deep breath, relax, repeat whatever your mantra is, and all that west-coast stuff...

Feel better? Okay.

You didn't have your aux engine, and got caught in the worst combo of adverse wind and current, and you went out anyway. Sailboats often have to wait out such conditions. If you go out and "sail" in them while losing headway over the bottom, extreme frustration will result.

The converse is a nice day, fair tide, fair wind, and the miles click by while you steer with your toe, sip a beer, and read a book, while spending nothing on fuel.

Now let's talk about a bad day on a powerboat. You're spending a small fortune on fuel, exhaust fumes are making your crew ill, and the engines (note plural here) are acting up. Or the weather gets really snotty, you have no sails hence nothing to dampen the rolling motion, and your crew is now beyond ill and into full convulsions and are grabbing at your VHF to call for a medevac.

Next, a good day on a powerboat. Everything is wonderful, and the world goes by while you spend almost $5 per gallon of diesel.

Powerboats are a means to some other end (meaning getting somewhere so you can do something more fun than just motoring along). Sailboats are an end in themselves, the joy of sailing (when it's not the drudgery of sailing, which you've described, but is fairly infrequent) is an end in itself whether you go anywhere or not. Don't let one of those "I gotta get there, and can't get there under sail, and the engine's down" days put you off your feed..

Does this help? Friends don't let friends get powerboats. You won't respect yourself in the morning.

[Stillraining]

There goes my sale...Thanks friends

[BlowinSouth]

Originally Posted by nolatom

Friends don't let friends get powerboats. You won't respect yourself in the morning.

Thanks! I'm feeling better now! Just what I needed, some good old sailor logic!

[sailhog]

Blowin,
You can take this for what it's worth... Harvard University recently did a study that found that over 99% of all powerboat owners are perverts. A lot of people found this hard to believe, but then Yale University conducted a similar study, and they came up with the exact same results. Now, you seem like a nice young lad... why on earth would you want to get mixed up with a bunch of perverts?

[knothead]

Originally Posted by sailhog

Blowin,
Now, you seem like a nice young lad... why on earth would you want to get mixed up with a bunch of perverts?

Little late for that isn't it? He's already hanging around here.