Random thoughts and rants on boat design, boat building, and other boat bits for those in the 99%...
Some more folks on sailboats who happen to be Firefly fans, the Rude Pundit making some sense, and something about two 14-year olds lost at sea...
Chuck Wendig (an author well worth reading) has a very good take on fear that you really should read and, while not so much about boats, cruising, and suchlike, it really does have everything to do with boats, cruising, and suchlike.
Go read it.
Listening to Tracy Bonham
So it goes...
This really made me stop and think, so did this, and, as it happens, this did as well...
The other day I was thinking about the stumbling blocks to being able to build or rebuild a boat and I surmised that most of them begin with the words "fear of"...
As in fear of spars or rigging... Lots of folks have a phobia of building spars or doing rigging work. I know a guy who is a real artist when it comes to making cabinets in a boat but when confronted with the idea of building a mast, which is a lot easier than cabinets, he goes all pale and trembly.
Another friend has certain issues with anything electrical, while someone else I know breaks out in a cold sweat whenever anything mechanical is called for on his boat. Then there's another guy who built a steel boat because he was was afraid of epoxy.
The funny thing is that all of these folks are actually smart and handy but so many people have told them that some stuff on boats is just too difficult to attempt for mere mortals so that irrational fear takes hold and rather simple skills and tasks take on nightmarish qualities that makes even strong, smart, and talented people go weak at the knees...
As it happens, having built a lot of wood boats myself and, since I tend to run with folks of a like mind, I've come across a lot of people with an irrational fear of scarfing pieces of wood together. Like most irrational fears it really doesn't make any sense but it's still problematic. Made worse because most of the people who do not have a fear of scarfing tend to make it all sound more difficult than it is and 99% of the time they're piss poor at teaching...
Which is why I'm more than happy that Russel Brown has put together "Scarfing Basics" which is a clear, concise, and simple booklet about scarfing that anyone with an IQ of room temperature or above should have no problem digesting the content and putting it into practice.
A hurtful thing, some good advice, and your tax dollars at work...
I was just reading the other day about someone on his way to Hawaii who abandoned his boat and was "rescued", you might say it was depressing reading. I mention this because it is something you really should read as it is something of a wake up call about stuff we mostly gloss over when discussing cruising and long passages.
I know it made me stop and think...
Listening to Sons of Bill
So it goes...
1001 Boats tells us about a VERY important plywood boat, fools, incompetents, and people of limited vision continue to discuss electric propulsion, and the world is still getting scarier...
A friend of mine had a near knockdown the other day and he is a bit frazzled.
Like most of us he felt that a squall, zephyr or microburst big enough to knock down his boat would be visible from a distance and he'd have some time to sort stuff out, reduce sail or somesuch. The realization that when shit happens it can happen fast with no warning, like I said, has him a bit frazzled...
A few years ago when we were leaving Antigua all sail up, in all of three knots of wind in the harbor, we got hit by a microburst that (measured at the airport there at 11:00 @ 92MPH/148KMH) putting us on our ear and putting us in serious FUBAR land... So you might say I have a basic understanding of my friend's bit of frazzlement.
Not that there is a lot you can do to avoid stuff like this... though, having your sheets set up so you can throw them off pronto (one reason we do not have self-tailing winches) is no bad thing... as you simply have to consider the chances of being hit by such a microburst are pretty iffy and you simply rely on luck.
That said, shit does happen...
On the other hand, the things to be really scared of are those very obvious and slow moving issues/dangers we tend to ignore in spite of being right there in front of us full of menace and intent... You may scoff at those worrying about an economic meltdown, peak oil, global warming or (dare I say it) zombie apocalypse but being forewarned and forearmed is no bad thing.
By the way, is this tomahawk the perfect anti-zombie boarding tool or what?
Listening to Great Big Sea
So it goes...
I get a lot of email in the vein of "what is the perfect boat to cruise/build/buy" and most of the time I get the distinct feeling that the folks asking are disappointed with my answer... So to save some folks time and effort here is the stuff they don't want to hear!
Interesting facts I came across today ...
The chance of my being hit by lightning is 1 in 500,000 which are odds that seem pretty good, but as most of you know, we lost our last boat to a lightning hit... As it happens a friend of mine has been hit by lightning TWICE! That said, I don't know anybody who is too panicked about the idea of getting hit by lightning.
Now the chance of coming to grief in an act of terrorism on a plane is about 1 in 10,408,947. When you think about it, those are seriously long odds and hardly enough to make you raise an eyebrow much less a sweat.
Now the asteroid Apophis that I have been following has recently been downgraded to a 1 in 250,000 chance of hitting earth (and if that does not excite you, you might want to consider that a couple of years back they were predicting the chance of a direct hit to earth at 1 in 37...) Seriously scary stuff!
So to recap...
1. Airplanes are real safe!
2. Less safe to be outside on a boat in a storm.
3. Much, much, much more likely to be hit by an 885-foot chunk of rock falling from the sky!
Now if somebody could give me the current Vegas odds on zombie apocalypse, I'd feel a whole lot better!
