Originally published by my friend, Brian Ratcliff, in American Airlines inflight magazine.
If you are reading this magazine chances are that you are far from home on a business trip with a little time before your next appointment. If you look out of the window and you are in a coastal city then you probably see the waterfront as that’s where they put the hotels. If you are in a plane than you probably don’t see anything but sky or on a clear day if you look down you may again see water. Let’s face it there is just so much more water than land on this planet that it’s a surprise that the dominant life form on Earth is not a fish.
Man retained that position a long time ago when he invented the boat and since that time going to sea has been synonymous with bravery, virility, adventure and romance. In fact, many of the greatest stories ever told involve someone venturing out onto the water for some reason. So if you plan a life of adventure, even if only on weekends, you are going to need a boat. They come in all sizes and shapes and range from hollowed out logs to floating palaces fit for the pickiest princess so you are going to need some help in choosing the right boat for you. Let’s leave the princess out of it for the moment and find out what would suit you.
Your first decision should be power or sail. If you want to make it difficult we can talk about motorsailers but that’s a different subject altogether. For now let’s keep it simple, power or sail.
Power boats are any boats not intentionally moved by the wind.
Sailboats are boats whose main propulsion is by wind even though they may have an auxiliary engine for when the wind is not blowing, is not blowing in the right direction or is blowing too much. Power boats give you the independence to go where you want to in spite of the wind and with a good deal less effort on your part than a sailboat. They may take you quickly or slowly depending on the type of hull and the engines you select but one general rule is the faster you go the shorter the range and the slower you go the greater the range.
The next choice should be fishing or cruising. If you plan on going out and doing battle with marlin or other large fish then a boat rigged for this purpose is essential. Here you have the
sportsfisherman, a used boat designed to get you to the fishing grounds quickly. It has a large cockpit at the rear of the boat and a fighting chair as the center of activity surrounded by all the accouterments a well armed protagonist needs – a bait and tackle center, bait freezer and somewhere to put the fish when you land it.
You may also have seen these boats with long poles sticking out from either side, well these are called outriggers and allow you to put out several fishing lines at one time to increase the chances of a fish noticing one of the baits you are dragging through the water.
You will also need some refrigerated space to keep the drinks you are surely going to need after all that hard work of landing that fish. This cooler should contain a cross section of healthy juices, soft drinks and high carbohydrate sports type beverages that will fortify the crew when it comes time to help haul in that three hundred pounder you are one day going to catch and a few beers to celebrate afterward. Getting this formula backward can lead to reduced encounters with fish and increased encounters with submerged objects. Contrary to popular advertising ideas the amount of fish you catch does not depend on what brand you drink but could be affected by how much you drink. Not that this is a lecture on temperance, just make sure the one driving the boat is not the Designated Drunk.
Should you decide that fishing is too much like hard work and what you want to do instead is visit tropical islands where the natives are friendly and the water just made for diving into, then cruising is the way to go. This you can do with either power or sail but if time is limited then a cruising power boat is for you. The limiting factor here is do you want to go with just you and the family or are you taking all of your friends and their relatives too?
If its just you and your loved ones, the number of which can diminish the more time you spend on a boat with them, then you will need something you can handle yourself. If you will be taking out more people you will need to train them to help with the boat or hire a crew to take care of your guests. Either way you are going to need more cabins and heads (nautical for bathrooms) and an even larger refrigerator.
At this point it starts to get complex because the moment you leave the dock the umbilical cord that has kept you connected to civilization is severed and you must now provide your own electrical power to keep the refrigerator working. Not only the fridge but the television, water heater, video player and all manner of other things which we take for granted will work when we plug them in. You need a generator. These come in various sizes according to your power requirements and should be carefully matched to the equipment on your vessel. How many air conditioners you have can greatly affect your comfort while anchored off that tropical island and will definitely affect your choice of generator.
It is not unusual to have to turn off one air conditioner to use the electric stove and even then if someone turns on a hair drier or coffee pot the “genny” can make loud groaning noises just before the main circuit breaker blows. So one more general rule here, chose a generator with 20% more power than you need with everything on the boat turned on. You never know who’s going to bring along an electric toothbrush.
If the romance of sailing (using sails) and the gentle slapping of the waves against the hull the only noise you want to hear as you leave the dock and the rat-race behind, then for you the old fashioned way of getting there is indicated. You will need a lot more time to get where you’re going but if you are only getting away from land and traffic headaches then the more time the better. You will enjoy it all the more knowing that you are in harmony with nature and using the power of the sun to move you and the boat along. That is of course if the weather cooperates. In sailing there is an old adage that “the wind is always blowing from the place you are trying to get to,” not very helpful when you need the wind behind you or at least from the beam (side).
You will need to know how to tack and jibe to keep both the wind and your destination in balance and at this point you may discover why the large horizontal spar that holds the bottom of the main sail is called the boom, especially if you forget to duck as the sail moves to the other side of the boat as you change direction. Depending on the rig of the boat, be it a sloop, ketch, cutter, yawl, or schooner, you are going to have to learn the names of all the sails, where they go and how to tell which one is which while it's still in a bag.
You will also need to know the names of the lines (ropes) and what they should be attached to. If they are not attached to anything you could already be in trouble. Of course with modern aids to sailing such as roller furling sails and even power winches a lot of the work has been taken out of handling the boat itself and an auto pilot can not take you from anywhere to anywhere when linked to a GPS (Global Positioning System). The only thing to remember here is that all this stuff runs on batteries and if you don’t keep recharging them they have a nasty habit of running out of juice just when you need them the most. The generator of which I spoke earlier will do it but it is noisy and can detract from that idyllic peace that you have so recently found. Of you can have a wind generator which is basically a windmill attached to an alternator. A third alternative is solar panels that convert sunlight directly to electricity.
Personally I am working on a device that will convert sea water directly into pina coladas.
©Brian Ratcliffe 2008
http://boatacguy.com/
