a little help?

[Giulietta]

Quiet.....cheap......good investment.....

[sailingdog]

Giulietta-

Given recent fuel prices, I think the head makes you buy a Sailboat too nowadays...

[Giulietta]

T'was a rectorical sentence....my friend....just rectorical......

[tommyt]

Loewe,

Thanks for those extremes and the fact that in between there are a lot of people of both persuasions that are happy going about what they love. As one who does both sail and power I hope I am the same guy on both. Different strokes for different folks; different boats for different purposes.

And as much as I love some of the lines of sailboats, I have to say that yes I have seen beautiful powerboats as well. Sometimes it is soothing to know that you will be there when you want and need to be, not whenever you can. Most times I try not to be on any schedule anyway.

[sailaway21]

Puttering about. In my opinion, once you've got the motor running on the average power boat there is little else to do but go someplace and come back. I think most sailboat owners, on the other hand, have a continually renewed list of things they either "need" to do, or want to do, and are very willing to spend the time "puttering" about on their boats when the weather or other factors do not allow for sailing. I think most sailor's wives are hardly surprised when their mate announces he's going to make a run down to the boat, even though it's raining cats and dogs, knowing he may just spend two hours sitting there mulling over the prospects of fitting a thermos holder on the bulkhead next to the companionway. The sailboat owner must consider such weighty matters such as whether or not to fabricate such holder of teak, steel, or unobtainium. The powerboat owner just tosses the thermos on a seat and there it is. I think the sailboat owner actually regrets his electrical system for the most part. The powerboat owner, if he thinks about it, wants more of it. Too simplistic, perhaps.

[Giulietta]

God invented Power boats, so idiots wouldn't sail.....plain and simple

[Sailormann]

..a little known study conducted by a group of Maritime university students, courtesy of a Canada Council grant, determined that the IQ of boatowners was inversely proportional to the number of horsepower their craft boasted.

While researching, they also formulated the hypothesis that the need for big engines and excessive noise was a defense mechanism engendered in response to the threat felt by men suffering from feelings of inadequacy, as they confronted tall, firm masts pointing assuredly skyward. The students submitted an application for a further Canada Council grant the next spring to follow up on their theory, however by that time the Trudeau government had been ousted and their work was lost to us forever ....

[yotphix]

Saiboats are good. Sailing makes you feel good. I spend lots of time on power boats. Going from a power boat that cruises at 30 knots, to one that maxes out at 15 knots is excruciating. Going from there to a sailboat that makes only 6 knots and not quite in the right direction is blissful.

On a power boat you pass through a pod of dolphins with just enough time to tell everyone on board to look up befor they are gone. On a sailboat they follow you for an hour.

On a powerboat, folks on the dock are surprised when you are friendly and talkative. On a sailboat, you are expected to be so.

I can sail a dinghy for eight hours and never be bored. I like jet skis...for about half and hour at a time.

When you get a sailboat really going fast you feel as though you have accomolished something...nuff said.

[denby]

no matter where or how far you are going, as soon as you set the sails you are there

[pigslo]

I motor down the channel in with my loud awkward diesel pushing the boat along. With each wake I go thru the boat rolls oddly and more than it should. We finally approach the part of the channel where we unfurl both Jib and main. For a moment the boat makes one last roll as the sails begin to grab while I simultaneously starve the diesel of fuel with a slow pull on a lever. Then.... all is quiet till a loud "womp" corresponds to the boat flattening out, digging in and making the final metamorphosis into a sailboat. Someone on my boat or my best friends boat traditionally says (i don't know why, we have just been saying it for 15 years now) "We be sailing now!"

That's how beautiful the day starts, don't ask about some of the comedic endings.
pigslo