> Ah...the joys of sailing in the PacNW! I can picture it now. AG sitting out
> at the tiller in the cold drizzle becalmed, wet sails flapping, drifting
> backwards in the current.... Mike putts by in his trawler cozy warm in the
> pilot house sipping coffee dressed in a tee-shirt...
OK, OK, you got me. The reality is that the PacNW is probably the
worst possible place to be a sailor. The only time you have reliable
winds is at night. That and the fact that a good trawler design is
actually very efficient. I'd probably make the exception to use a
trawler for that journey. The dynamics change a lot as you get further
north, though.
One time I crewed on a racing sailboat going across Lake Michigan. In
the middle of the night, the fleet got hit by a nasty storm and had
multiple knockdowns. Including us. Fortunately, we didn't lose our
mast, but we instantly shredded $30,000 in kevler sails. I learned
that a competitive boat has a per-hour operating cost that is pretty
nasty. A higher-end racing-class yacht is probably in the $2000 per
hour range and that does not cover crew costs. That one race, back
around 1990, that I was in, cost the owner about $50,000 total and
that was one of a dozen majors that summer that he had the boat in. As
a general rule, we always had the boat under power and only raised the
sails when racing or practicing because the kevler sails at the time
had limited lifespan and it was far less expensive, per-mile, to drive
it than sail it.
One evening, I was out sailing with my best friend in his Lightning
and we were becalmed about a half-mile from shore. Usually, when the
wind dies, it gives you a few minutes warning that you're about to go
paddling, but this was an instant-off. We went from 10-knot winds to
zero just like that. We waited it out for a few minutes, but the lake
went to glass, so we knew we were toast. We dropped the sails, pulled
up the centerboard and got out the paddles. After that, we always kept
an eye on the distant water and if we saw the wind-ripples go away, we
immediately be-lined it back to the mooring. That was such a fun boat,
and we made it a wet ride the way we ran it. At least it wasn't near
as finicky as my Hobie-Cat.
Back to your point, my wife would probably prefer the trawler over a
sailboat anyway.
AG
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