Beauty and The Beast, What is Either To Sailnet Members?

Noah2 · #1 (**permalink**) 10-09-2003

Is it really 2003? Just how far have we come to understand the notion of BEAUTY? Are we really free to make our own choices or was that last choice we made, an ''emotional deposit'' for a friend or loved one?

Particularly where boats and the visual is concerned, I am curious to know, just exactly how SAILNET members arrive at making up their minds, what is beautiful and what is beastly?

Boating is beautiful. I have always thought that it is the diversity of choices and freedoms that makes boating very beautiful. It is colourful and yet can be drab and dull, vibrant and yet murky and overcast, always and forever changing. Then again, just like each owner, each boat, is different and unique. It keeps life interesting. Imagine if we were all the same!

Whether your preference is wood, plastic, aluminimum, concrete, steel or whatever, would it be civilised to eject someone because the value of ''Beauty'' has been determined to have been undermined? What is this beauty?

Do you sail or motor, are you left or right handed, are you black or white, rich or poor, the list is endless.

Please SAILNET MEMBERS take a look at my photo album. This is my Beauty and my Beast. It may not be what you see that is either beautiful or beastly. I am however certain, that with the acquaintances I have made over the last 13 years of life aboard our ARK, BEAUTY is not to be found, exclusively, on the outside, of either boats or people.

"Love thy neighbour as thy self". Is your neighbour BEAUTIFUL? Perhaps it''s the notion of our own sense of ''Beauty'', deep inside each and every one of us, that really is the BEAST?

SAILNET MEMBERS, Please share your thoughts, what is beauty?

http://aol.photobox.co.uk/public/detail.html?c_album=425352

Thanks to all for messages of support received in our campaign to protect our BEAUTIFUL way of life.

Regards,

NOAH

Vince And Marie Louise Shalom ''Noah''s Ark'' Houseboat Picton Penarth Marina Wales

flicker · #2 (**permalink**) 10-10-2003

Noah 2,

I was just talking to a broker about a particular cutter-rigged ketch we both had seen and he said that he thought it was ugly. I said I thought it was salty. He said one man''s salty is another man''s ugly.

Personally I love the look of a ketch, referably with a raised aft deck. Rat lines help. I know this goes against all modern views of sailing efficiency, but it''s breathtaking to watch one run in front of a sunset.

Chas

pirateofcapeann · #3 (**permalink**) 10-18-2003

When I bought my Columbia 22 in ''86 I thought she was just about the ugliest garbage scow afloat! She lacked shear, aspect ratio and, through the eyes of a son of Gloucester, a second mast and some gaffs! Six years later, I sailed her to the mooring of her new owner. As I rowed ashore, I stopped to look at her, afloat for the last time. As I drifted there, I thought of how beautiful she really was. I thought of the miles we sailed together, how she had served as my home for five years and how, if it hadn’t been for the pride and honor she had instilled in me, I may not have survived the depression that other aspects of my life had cast upon me. Olde Blue was more then just a boat; she was my best friend. I cried.

Form follows function and “old salts” may look upon a vessel with a critical eye but don’t confuse seaworthiness with beauty, or lack of it. For each and every boat there are those that will find her attractive as well as those who find her ugly. What is pleasing to your eye matters only to you. If you buy a boat because she appeals to someone else, you’ll have just that, someone else’s boat! Don’t be sold on a J24 when what you have in mind is a Westward Ho!

pirateofcapeann · #4 (**permalink**) 10-18-2003

When I bought my Columbia 22 in ''86 I thought she was just about the ugliest garbage scow afloat! She lacked shear, aspect ratio and, through the eyes of a son of Gloucester, a second mast and some gaffs! Six years later, I sailed her to the mooring of her new owner. As I rowed ashore, I stopped to look at her, afloat for the last time. As I drifted there, I thought of how beautiful she really was. I thought of the miles we sailed together, how she had served as my home for five years and how, if it hadn’t been for the pride and honor she had instilled in me, I may not have survived the depression that other aspects of my life had cast upon me. Olde Blue was more then just a boat; she was my best friend. I cried.

Form follows function and “old salts” may look upon a vessel with a critical eye but don’t confuse seaworthiness with beauty, or lack of it. For each and every boat there are those that will find her attractive as well as those who find her ugly. What is pleasing to your eye matters only to you. If you buy a boat because she appeals to someone else, you’ll have just that, someone else’s boat! Don’t be sold on a J24 when what you have in mind is a Westward Ho!

pirateofcapeann · #5 (**permalink**) 10-18-2003

WOW! Interesting things happen when the server screws up, ea?