I think TF needs a new status level. I just notices I am now a GURU. Marin and psneeld are also GURU. I couldn't polish these guys boots!
I am about a much a guru when it comes to boats as those ground squirrels in your photo. There are guys (and women if you include Peggy Hall) on the Grand Banks forum who have forgotten more about boats than I will ever know. The ONLY boats I can say I'm pretty familiar with are Grand Banks and Arima. And the ONLY marine diesel engine I can say I'm familiar with is the Ford Lehman 120.
What I am pretty good at (because it's my job, among other things) is listening to someone I respect on some subject, remembering what they say, and communicating it to someone else.
At work, I listen to engineers and mechanics and machinists and tool designers and pilots and airline CEOs, COOs and CFOs and airline operations, marketing and maintenance managers and flight ops people and turn it all into things that (hopefully) will help sell airplanes and bombs and missiles and drones and whatnot to people who want them.
In boating I listen to shipwrights and yard owners and diesel shop guys and real experienced power and sailboat cruisers in this area and then pass it on to others when relevant.
Bob Lowe over on the GB forum is a guru. I consider Carl (Delfin) one. Eric (Mannyboats), particulalry when it comes to experience up and down the PNW/BC/SE Alaska coast despite his rather unorthodox views on anchors. Tad obviously even though I don't know him personally. Psneeld, certainly, particularly since he's had experience with all manner of boats and periodially hauls them out of the mud or off the rocks after their owners did something dumb. Rick Boggs, formerly of this forum, knows more about engines and generators and stuff that makes boats go than pretty much anyone I've become acquainted with.
They're gurus. I sure as hell am not.
The TF titles are based solely on the number of posts one has put up. Actually knowing anything other than how to select "Submit Reply" is not a requirement.