Re: wide sterns

Hear, hear! Chris, your eloquent statement comes as close to expressing how I feel on the subject as anything I've ever seen, including my own attempts at expressing them. Thanks for this gem. Alfred Poor 1969 Cal 29 #132, "Pentaquod" Date: Thu, 29 Dec 2005 10:14:09 -0500 From: Chris Campbell <cl… [at] traverse.com> Subject: Re: wide sterns [Big snip] At the core of sailing is this notion of self-sufficiency. We set out in our little boats on the big waters, a hostile environment for air-breathing, thin-skinned, terrestrial mammals. We are governed by the motives that send us out--to have fun, to carry goods, to catch food from the sea--but also by the imperative to preserve our lives. When we sacrifice safety and self-preservation (America's Cup boats breaking in half in small seas), we become less than sailors. We are just frivolous fun-seekers who rely on others to save our butts. We are just like the power boaters who run out of gas. Rescue services like the Coast Guard are wonderful, and they have a role to play in saving life under extreme and unanticipated circumstances. But we shouldn't hand off our personal responsibilities to them.