|
In this section we look at yachts of every kind,
and at the advantages and disadvantages of each, in the eyes of their fans and
detractors equally. A little lower down this page, The Skipper has something to
say about yachts in general but, first, we introduce the pages in this section:
Ketch:
on this page
we include the Yawl, until such a time as Yawl fans produce enough material to
gain a page to themselves!
Motor Yacht:
includes all cruising motor vessels which are privately owned.
Multihulls is for lovers of the catamaran, trimaran and any other configuration,
be it those racy performance beasts or comfy cruising floating apartments!
Schooner
be it a humble two-master or a five-masted splendour, the schooner is mentioned in many books
and seen in many films, there are plenty still plying their trade around the
world as small cargo ships and, of course, as cruising yachts they're hard to
beat for comfort and safety. Here we look at all kinds.
Sloop was once the term for
a type of vessel that could have several masts, but these days the name has come to be associated with
any single-masted yacht. On this page we meet all kinds.
Tall Ship is the page dedicated to
those rare, unusual and historical boats.
The Skipper on Opinions
"Having sailed and lived aboard boats for most of my life, I become increasingly aware that people tend to be thoroughly
narrow minded on the subject of what they believe is the perfect boat, the best construction method and so on. Few sectors of society are, in my experience, more dogmatic than the realm of yachtsmen, as opposed to seamen who earn their living from the sea and should, therefore, be separated from the former in this observation.
In early March, the mate and I had occasion to help cast off some French acquaintances and wish them fair winds. Two of the neighbours were standing on the quay with us - a delivery skipper and the owner of a classic wooden boat.
I commented on the French-built boat that the group of young graduates had chartered, typical of the yachts available for hire in several countries, and said that I reckoned it a fast,
stable and comfortable boat that would certainly give them some exhilarating sailing at that time of the year, cruising the Azores.
The previous evening we had been invited for drinks on board and I had found the boat very spacious for a
40' vessel, with a pleasant and airy interior. A well laid out holiday boat, as opposed to
our 'cottage in the country' sort of boat, for long-term living aboard.
My observations were scorned by the delivery skipper who raved that it was a piece of plastic characterless junk. The wooden boat owner shuddered and and said he could think of nothing worse than owning such a boat.
What I find interesting about this sort of attitude is comparing it to house ownership. I doubt that the owner of a terraced house in London's Chelsea area derides and sneers at his acquaintances' 'two up two down' in
suburban Wandsworth, any more than a man who owns a stately pile in the country despises a small bungalow, built to house a staff member, on his estate.
It seems, to me, that whatever boat sails into a bay, harbour or anchorage, owners, skippers and laymen feel it their solemn duty to tear the poor beast to pieces before she has so much as dropped a sail.
"Oh, that's a 'such-and-such'. They sail sideways" or "I know those boats and I don't like the construction."
You get the picture...
In my experience, any sailing or power boat that I have had the pleasure of handling whether as owner, delivery crew, hirer or guest, has its good and bad points.
I recall a 51' Taiwan ketch that was truly a delight to sail, but to get her to go astern was almost impossible without giving her the gun at full throttle, just to achieve enough way to get her to respond to the helm.
I skipper'd a racing maxi that one could treat like a dinghy. She was so outrageously quick that
E.T.A.s (estimated times of arrival) were impossible to give, one always arrived between twelve and twenty-four hours early! The downside was the perpetual slamming and banging that one gets from a hull built along the lines of a huge surf board.
I once owned a graceful gaff-rigged cutter, with a beauty to take ones' breath away. The downside was that she seemed to think she had been built to be a submarine and was certainly the wettest boat I have ever sailed.
I enjoyed a Moody 40, as I have mentioned elsewhere, unkindly christened by a friend of mine "a caravan with a pole out the top". She gave me, and my family, several years of safe and not unexciting sailing.
I had occasion to deliver, and oversee a refit for, a 105' Italian wooden ketch that ate money faster than most mortals could make it.
A boat is a means, albeit temporarily, to freedom and, as someone said to me recently, in the saloon of his fast, ultra-modern aluminium custom-built cruising yacht, "If all I could afford were a ropey old plastic fantastic, or even a little wooden boat I would still want to be at sea rather than not."
Exactly. So, let's try and be more tolerant of the boats we wouldn't want, and are lucky enough not to have, to own.
|
