Cowes

jollyjacktar

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16 May 2001
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Have you been following things at Cowes. What a yachting spectacular! Lots of big boats and big bucks. The display of the wealth or whatever. Is this still a sport? Or is yachting really just a pastime where your make a hole in the water and try to fill it up with money? I guess that the origins of sailing as a sport were really just the pleasures of the idle and the rich. Has it changed today?

Interesting fact that the vintage NZ yacht "Ranger" amateur built in the mid 30's sailed the course quicker than the original America winner [by several hours??!!!].
 

billmacfarlane

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I don't know whether you've got a boat or not looking at your details. If you have are you rich ? If not there's you're answer and there are plenty more like you ( and me ). If you compare it to the car industry , you can buy a car for next to nothing albeit probably needing a bit of tlc , but you can also buy a Ferrari or an Aston Martin if you've got the needful. You can also buy a sensible seaworthy cruiser for the price of a decent second hand car. I suppose the epitome of the rich man's toy were the J class boats. How many of them were built compared to how many Westerly Centaurs are sailing ?
My wife overheard a conversation at Itchenor. A man was saying to his wife that wasn't it terrible how all those boats he could see on moorings , those toys of the idle rich were polluting the water with the contents of their sea loos. My wife being my wife joined the conversation as tactfully as she could to mention that the whole of Chichester's sewage gets dumped here and a couple of yacht's effluent , given the fact that the average yotty is very concious of the environment , is neither here nor there. But the fact remains that the guy sees boats as the toys of the rich , and no doubt while accepting what my wife told him, hasn't changed his perception, which I think is the prevalent view of Joe Public.
 
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Hardly surprising. There was a much better breeze in strength and direction on 21 August 2001 than on 22 August 1851.
 
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