by Richard Pahl

Created on: February 18, 2009   Last Updated: March 04, 2009

I am neither a Hatfield or a McCoy. I like anything that is borne on the water.

This is not only a debate between stinkpotters and rag merchants. This is also an issue of age and boating needs. Older folks tend to drift toward power craft, while more athletic sorts will stick with sailboats. Lee Brooks, (a friend) has been involved with things afloat for decades. He has owned twenty-two different sailboats, and a half-dozen powerboats. Whys so many boats?

It is written; "The two best day(s) a boat owner has are the day he buys it, and the day he sells it." So ol' Brooksie has had forty-four best days. Also we should note that a boat is a hole in the water, surrounded by wood or fiberglass, into which you pour money. Each boat has it own pros and cons, but generally speaking, stinkpotters are more interested in the amenities and the destination, whiles sailors are more interested in the art of boating, the ride to the destination, then they are in the destination.

The average sailor can name every part of his boat in correct nomenclature. They can name each hunk of rope by its purpose. By the way, did you know there's only one rope on a sailboat? Everything else is a "line". This is not because all sailors suffer from ODC. It is for safety first.

Most sailors race their boats. And when you're in a stiff breeze and the skipper tells you to man the afterguy, you best know what that is, and what you're supposed to do with it. You don't and the boat could wind up on its side.

Saiors have afterguys and foreguys. They are not friendly men at each end of the boat. We have sheets, which are not things you put on a bed. We have mainsails, jibs, boom jibs, genoas, spinnakers, and on some sailboats we have spankers, and these are not people into sado-mach. The boom doesn't make noise until it hits your head. "Harden up" has nothing to do with sex. "On a plane" does not involve flying. A wake has nothing to do with the dearly departed. A rode has nothing to do with an old ride, it is the line attached to the anchor chain.

Stinkpotters can get away with "grab that rope over there." And have a halfway chance that the other party will locate the right one, because there aren't other ropes near it. . But if there are a half dozen "ropes" in the same vicinity, lotsa luck. Speaking of lots of ropes, sailors are trained from the outset to keep the lines neat. Again not an OCD problem. But if one line has to be let run free, and it tangles with another line, many bad things can happen.

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