A simple test that works, shit's getting real, and a very interesting interview...
Maybe it's just me, but sometimes when I peruse West Marine's offerings I find myself saying over and over...
"People really can't be this stupid... Can they?"
For example, let's look at the Plastimo (affectionately called Plastishit by my French friends from the boat yard in Meaux where I built LM2) Omni-Directional Wind Scoop that sells for the mind-boggling price of $177.99 which you have to admit is a lot of money for what amounts to five or ten dollars of material and a few minutes of time on a sewing machine. Of course, it is the hip deluxe Plastimo wind scoop but you can always buy the equally mind-boggling priced standard version for a paltry $99.99 if you're one of those lesser folk who needs to count pennies...
A wind scoop is actually a goodly thing to have but you really have to do a need/want and value/cost benefit analysis to things you put on your boat. Of course, if we all did that and shed the consumerist monkey riding our backs, the cost of something as simple as a wind scoop would cost a whole lot less than the silly high prices that are now deemed normal.
So, here's the scary thing, I'd put money on the fact that some reader (or three) will sit down in the next day or so and write me an email pointing out that, where boats are concerned, you get what you pay for, only an idiot would compromise safety for frugality's sake, and how dare I say otherwise. Which is nuts on so many levels that it really makes you wonder about little things like sanity and the current educational system that produces such thought processes.
So it goes...
