SeaHorse II wrote:
When it's time for a haulout, I ride the rails! No Travel Lift* for me, brother! One of these days one of* those slings is going to break and my boat won't be on it.
Does anyone else on this forum suffer from this illness and if so, what is the cure?
We watched an English Channel scallop dragger fall over onto its side as it was riding a railcar up into the yard in Newlyn near Penzance a few years ago.* One of the railcar axles had finally failed and it dumped this 50 or 60 foot wood dragger right over.* The owner or skppper of the boat, who was there, began loudly berating the yard for continuing to use "this goddam*d, fuc*ing, piece of sh*t railcar instead getting* a proper lift."* He put on quite a show for all of us who were watching.
I've also seen the results of what happens when a railcar cable breaks.* This was with a floatplane, not a boat, but the end result was not particularly cheerful.
So there's no safe system.* When it's time for your boat to get smashed, it won't matter if it's on rails, in a sling, or suspended from a crane, it will get smashed.* So don't worry about it.* Below is a photo of the 150-ton Travelift in the yard in our marina.* I have far more faith in its regularly inspected and replaced sling straps than in railcar cradles, rails, pulleys and cables that live in salt water most of the time and tend to date from the early to mid 1900s.* I have yet to see a railcar that didn't look like some part of it was destined for iminent failure.
As to the anal thing, I'm anal about things I think are worth being anal about, but I'm not anal about things I don't think are worth being anal about.* Our 37-year old boat has had a number of previous owners and between them and years of baking in the California sun the gelcoat is chipped, scratched, worn thin in places, and eggshelled.* We've thought about throwing the $20K or so it would take to return the exterior to like-new condition but then we think again.
A number of years ago I talked to an acquaintance who was selling his deceased father's yacht (the father was the founder of Alaska Diesel Electric, today's Northern Lights).* The yacht had been hit at its dock by a small freighter and the owner had the yacht completely rebuilt by Delta Marine.* As part of the overhaul they completely painted the boat.* The paint job was spectacular, to say the least, as anyone familiar with Delta's work will know.*
I commented to the son that I wished we could have our boat painted like that.* He laughed and said, "No you don't.* You can spend a fortune and have a finish like this and then spend the rest of your life terrified that someone will scratch it or it will get dinged or you'll scuff it against a piling.* Or you can leave your finish the way it is and use the hell out of the boat and enjoy it and not worry about anything."
Which is what we have done.
We're not trying to win Pebble Beach with our boat.* We want it to look nice and we do as good a job on things like varnish and paint as we can, but there's a point at which we say "that's good enough."* We are far more interested in using the hell out of the boat and having experiences on the water and in the islands than in making it look like something in a showroom.* And I've observed over the last dozen years of owning this kind of boat that you can't do both.* You may THINK you can, but you can't.* The people with boats in decent but not spectacular condition are the people I see in the anchorages and marine parks when we go out year round.* The absolutely gorgeous boats I see in the marina-- new, middle-aged, or old--- I always see in the marina.* Being worked on, usually, by their loving owners.* I rarely see boats like this in the anchorages except in the height of the boating season when the weather is ideal.* And even then their owners are wiping them down and waxing and polishing the stainless and cleaning the windows.
We never, ever, see these boat and boaters in the fall, winter, and spring.* It rains (up here, anyway), the water is rough and boats get covered with salt spray within minutes, windows streak, canvas flaps around, it's a nightmare.
As to the cure for an anal approach to boating, I don't think there is one.* If you panic at the sight of a bird poo on your boat, you cannot make that panic go away.* It's an attitude a person is born with or develops at an early age.
I don't think people who take the "my boat must be perfect at all times" approach are wrong.* It's what works for them. I'm pretty anal about things working right on our boat, the operational aspect of it.* Not so much the appearance aspect.* I would love to have our boat in absolutely pristine physical condition 24/7/365 but neither my wife nor I have the time or the interest in doing this ourselves, and we have far better things to spend the money on than giving it to someone to keep our boat looking showroom.* So we live with what we've got, keep it up as best we can, and simply enjoy using it.
I am grateful for all the anal boaters out there, though.* I wish there were more of them.* Because every time I see one I know it means one less boat that will be out* clutttering up the anchorages when we're there.
*
-- Edited by Marin on Saturday 10th of July 2010 06:22:57 PM
