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Re: [OM] S-OT Torches, flashlights, LCDs & batteries

Subject: Re: [OM] S-OT Torches, flashlights, LCDs & batteries
From: Ken Norton <ken@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Mon, 8 Mar 2010 08:13:27 -0600
Having owned a couple of sailboats in the past, I can attest to the
budgetary constraints such an item can put on you. Fortunately, mine were
small. One was a dinghy type of sailboat and the other was a 16-foot Hobie
Cat. I was half-owner of the Cat. Between tie-down fees and repair bills I
could have bought a few really nice camera lenses instead.

We had a horribly strong storm one night that caused nearly every Cat on the
beach to pull up the anchors. Those that didn't deanchor themselves were
smashed by other ones CATapulting down the beach. Fortunately, the insurance
paid off.

But what the insurance didn't cover was when the other people I owned the
boat with had a bit of difficulty in the Muskegon Channel and ended up
driving it up on the rocks. That required some serious fiberglass work.

Then there was the time I was out on the boat and had a hull up out of the
water. We were cooking...until the low-side hull buried in a wave and a
sudden stop and flip ensued. That knockdown hurt the boat and me.  Broke one
of the trampoline mounts, ripped a sail and tore a stay bracket out.

I used to crew once in a while on a big racing sailboat. The owner said that
each and every time the boat was sailed, the repairs were no less than
$2000. Just the usage cost of the carbon-fiber sails were around $200 per
hour due to UV degradation. But, of course, we're not talking about your
typical sailboat. The last one I sailed of his was built on a hull designed
for the Whitbread round-the-world race. Once this guy had modded the boat
sufficiently to be the fastest boat on the Great Lakes, the mast was
somewhere over 125 feet. On a downhill run the boat would actually start
planing like a powerboat and got incredibly unstable as the waterline
decreased so much. We always had to drop sail before turning otherwise it
would dig in and submerge. He used to own "Intrepid" at one time, and he
claimed that both of these boats had the uncomfortable trait of wanting to
sink every time it was raced. Yes, they were WET boats too. One of the
problems was that both boats were designed for salt-water, and the density
of fresh-water changed the characteristics of the boats. Oh, and the fact
that the waves on the Great Lakes is of different frequency and slope so the
boats tended to punch through waves instead of riding them.

Fun days.

AG
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