a quick thought on cruising rallies...

I've never been a big fan of the cruising rally thing for a variety of reasons but I'll be the first to admit they seem to fulfill a need for some folks. A while back, a friend asked me that if I didn't like the idea of any of the plethora of cruising rallies, then what sort of rally would appeal to me.

It's funny how some ideas or questions will gnaw about the edge of your thoughts and the whole what sort of rally would appeal to someone-who-is-not-really-very-social has been one of them. Over the course of the last year or so I have come up with something of a shortlist of rally scenarios that seem to appeal or at least seem somewhat less odious (to me) than what is out there at the moment...

For instance, something historical comes to mind... I've always enjoyed books like Thor Heyerdahl's "Kon Tiki", as well as Tim Severin's "The Sinbad Voyage", and "Brendan Voyage" (as well as his others) but, then again, maybe recreating some famous voyage is better left to a single boat as getting into the head of some ancient navigator just does not seem like a group gig.

Of course, there is the cheap seats element which might interest me as sort of a classic-plastic-your-boat-has-to-cost-less-than-$10,000 sort of rally might have a certain appeal... Especially if it could run along side the sort of rally that looks down its nose at anyone with less than a Swan. Beating the consumer yachting kids at their own game would be a serious inducement for me to get into the rally spirit! But, after a second thought, while the daydream of a rally based on revenge is fun, actually doing such a thing, is just way too much karmic damage as well as hard work for me to seriously consider it.

Lately, a new sort of rally, the pirate alley boondoggle sort, has come into the picture which in my mind is highly suspect... if I were a pirate, the idea of a bunch of slow-moving wealthy (by third world standards) yachts in a group spells P-R-E-Y with a bow on it, and not Danger-Danger-Will-Robinson to my somewhat pyratical mind. On the other hand, said slow moving convoy with a couple of gunboats would be a whole different kettle of fish and actually make some sense...

Which leaves what? To be truthful, I think the sort of rally that would appeal to me would be a round the world geo-caching treasure hunt of some sort with a lot of really difficult mysteries/riddles to solve in the process...

Yeah, I'd like that!