old, wood, and gaff-rigged...

Senator Tammy Duckworth with everything you need to know about transgender folks in the military,  something on the Arpaio/tRump pardon idiocy, and in the "tilting at windmills but still a good cause" department...

Yesterday I saw a mention of a Tahiti ketch for sale in Southern California that the owner was asking just short of $5K for. The mention had very little to do with the actual boat other than to say that someone would have to be an idiot to buy such a boat because it was old, wood, and sported a gaff rig so was not a proper cruising boat at all.

As it happens, I'd also just downloaded the newest issue of Cruising World and read an enraptured review of a new Jeanneau cruiser for a couple that cost more than half-a-million-bucks which, I expect, is a seriously nice boat.

The reality is that one of the greatest things about the whole getting away from it all on a boat is that the gaff-rigged Tahiti and the Jeanneau could, very possibly find themselves anchored next to each other in some out of the way bay with both crews being happy campers and satisfied with their lot in life.

That said, my personal experience is that happiness aboard boats has very little to do with the cost of admission and everything to do with one's personal attitude about stuff. Most of the people I've crossed paths with on big expensive boats tend to be a lot less happy than folks on smaller less expensive craft.

You need to remember to include the happiness return on investment factor...

Personally I find the words old, wood, and gaff-rigged something of a turn-on which, I suppose, will have a lot of folks thinking I'm an idiot or worse...

I can live with that.

Listening to Neil Innes

So it goes...