Have sailors never had it so good ?

Re: Have sailors never had it so good ?[Re:all]

Days past! Leaky old wooden boat, mouldy sails(mouldy everything), unreliable converted side valve petrol engine, reluctant primus stove, Seagull outboard with attitude ,no shoreside facillities and certainly none on board. Yes I miss all these but think my reasonably equiped plastic boat now offers everything perfect weather doesnt disguise.
bring back the old days!, not for me!!.
 
Re: Have sailors never had it so good ?[Re:Moodybod]

Agree in many ways, life moves on, busy fitting out plastic boat with mod cons left right and centre. including plans for an eber whatsit. Think it's peoples attitude in general to each other these days that's in question, not just in sailing circles. Stuck here in China for a while, one good thing is that people are generally still down to earth and friendly. Unfortunately once they get rich things change. What has happened in the UK over many years in terms of affluence has happened overnight here for the privileged few, seen a big change in the attitude of many folks here towards their old friends who have not been so fortunate, like the world over they no longer want to know.
 
Re: Have sailors never had it so good ?

Now that is a very good point. Goretex is great. And I think it has to be admitted that GPS is pretty neat. Mind you at the risk of starting an argument, I don't find it does much more than Decca did. Bit more accurate I suppose. And then there's coloured charts...... Do you remember when they were all black and white......
 
I think that most of us still enjoy it as much as ever and accept that times do and have to change . Surely time never stands still for anything and it is our attitude that dictates the response.

The sea’s still the sea and a boat’s just a boat.

What has changed for me over about 40 odd years is that so many more of us are able to take part in this wonderful activity. Sailing in company, if you want it , has broiught new dimensions.

When I look back , there were still just as many miserable people about then as there is now. Snobbishness is far far less and the cap doffing has all but died out
– thank god.


Admittedly leaking decks have been replaced by condensation but livabilty and performance have come on a bundle. Choice ? you can have any type of boat you want.

As to gismos, as much or as little as you want. There are also far more people to meet who like yachting and motoring. Why should they be so different to us ? No one is telling us how to behave.
 
Re: Have sailors never had it so good ?

Agree with much of what you say..... but..... while I do use electronics on my boat, and am a bit young to really remember black and white charts, other than ones my parents kept in the spare room at home... I did learn to sail long before GPS was anything other than a pipe dream, and Decca was a rarity on most boats I sailed on....

However, one point I will pick up on... and as an east coaster, I hope you'll agree.... there are still many places, if you look carefully, where some of the joys of sailing of years gone by can be seen alive and well.... i'll cite a couple of examples.... take a bouy at Ramsholt, and the harbour master will be sitting out on his own mooring come rain or shine, with a cuppa, chewing the fat with soemone or other, passing the time of day, and will politely tell you, with a wink, that the 'first night is free' while he selects an appropriate bouy for you... he knows who is away, and who's just out day sailing becuase he knows all the local boats and their owners...... and secondly..... Hamford water..... you'll often be joined by other boats in the height of the summer season, but its usually quiet, shared with fellow 'real sailors', no loud music, and you'll not be charged for the pleasure of a picture postcard pretty sunset over the marshes and nesting sites..... but you may be invited over to share a sundowner with another boat....

It ain't all gone surely?
 
Re: Have sailors never had it so good ?

[ QUOTE ]
And then there's coloured charts......

[/ QUOTE ]

I once saw one of these coloured charts, they had depths in 'metres',whatever they are.
 
Re: Have sailors never had it so good ?

Yes I do agree with you. I didn't mean to imply that it had all gone. I was responding (I hope nicely) to the point that we've never had it so good. Which I don't think I agree with. But on the other hand, I don't want to imply that's there's nothing good about today. There's that's having it everywhich way.

Curiously, it was Hamford Water where Maurice Griffiths in his last chapter in his last book had his peace disturbed by a speedboat and reflected that the joys he knew were disappearing. But by and large you're right. And you can still anchor in the Blackwater for free, the Harbour Master at Brightlingsea will still stop for a beer and a chat and you can even stay the night at Bradwell Marina without being charged for electricity.

And my first time across the channel from the Solent, didn't even have Decca. Curious how we found France just down tide.....

For the benefit of dylan and Twister Ken, a metre (or meter according to Microsoft spellcheckers) is the length of the path travelled by light in a vacuum during 1/299,792,458th of a second. A second in turn is defined as the duration of 9,192,631,770 periods of radiation corresponding to the transition between the two hyperfine levels of the ground state of the caesium-133 atom. Which is amazing init? Frankly, if that's important things ain't got better.

Didn't the metre get invented during Napoleon's reign as a ten millioneth of the distance between the north pole and the equation. I seem to have read that somewhere. Anyone confirm?
 
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