Sunday, October 28, 2012

a shift in perception...

The storm I'm worried about, about those weather satellites, and a whole different kind of storm coming our way...

It really all depends how you look at stuff...

Yesterday morning I was swimming next to the boat when I looked at my transom and, all of a sudden, I had one of those moments of clarity which solved the current problem I was having coming up with a cunning yet inexpensive means of mating my new self-steering gear to said transom. The thing is, I never would have come up with the idea by looking at the transom from the deck level looking down.

Perception really does have a lot to do with which direction you're looking and your vantage point of choice...

Around boats it's pretty easy to see that tunnel vision is the norm more often than not. Take wood for example... You need some wood for a boat project and teak springs to mind when all sorts of other wood species may do the job just as well, better, or at a fraction of the cost.

Want to know something interesting? Teak became popular as a boat building wood not because of magical antirot properties but because it was CHEAP. There once was a time when, for bespoke yacht building, teak was looked down on and Douglas Fir was considered the decking of choice... But, I digress.

On the self-steering front the change of vantage point just made mounting my new gear a couple of hundred bucks cheaper (saving money is always happy making), a whole lot stronger, and, as such things go, will look a little prettier as well. What's not to like.

Listening to Kasey Chambers

So it goes...