Quotable Sailors

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Asked how he slept after losing the first race in the 1974 American's Cup, Sir James Hardy replied, "Like a baby. Woke up every two hours and cried."

"Cruising sailors make lists like stagnant water makes mosquitoes" - Reese Palley

"Any damn fool can circumnavigate the world sober. It takes a really good sailor to do it drunk" - Sir Francis Chichester, loading his boat with gin.

"I know who you are, but you'll have to wipe your feet" - Capt. Richard Brown of the schooner America to Prince Albert of England 1851

"Guess who just bought a book of sailing quotes?" - Stingo, Oct 2005
 
"Whitrafeckwizzat" - Jimi in the forepeak of the good yacht Claymore having been awakened from deep and dreamless slumbers by a volley of farts fae Parahandy.
 
"The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails". (this is one of my personal favorites)

-William Arthur Ward

"He that will not sail till all dangers are over must never put to sea".

-Thomas Fuller.


"He who lets the sea lull him into a sense of security is in very grave danger"
-Hammond Ines

"It's out there at sea that you are really yourself"
-Vito Dumas

"I was born in the breezes, and I had studied the sea as perhaps few men have studied it, neglecting all else."
-Joshua Slocum

"When I forget how talented God is, I look to the sea".
-Whoopi Goldberg

On Sailors:

" A tourist remains an outsider throughout his visit; but a sailor is part of the local scene from the monent he arrives".
-Anne Davison

"Men in a ship are always looking up, and men ashore are usually looking down".
-John Masefield

"Sailors, with their built in sense of order, service and discipline, should really be running the world".
-Nicholas Monsarrat

"Only fools and passengers drink at sea".
-Allan Villiers

"Out of sight of land the sailor feels safe. It is the beach that worries him".
-Charles C. Davis

On Boats:

"The perfection of a yachts beauty is that nothing should be there for only beauty's sake".
-John MacGregor

"There are only two colors to paint a boat, black or white, and only a fool would paint a boat black".
-Nathanael G. Herreshoff

"If you can not arrive in daylight, then stand off well clear, and wait until dawn. After all, that's one of the things God made boats for- to wait in."
-Tristan Jones

"A small craft in an ocean is, or should be, a benevolent dictatorship".
-Tristan Jones

On Engines:

"Long ocean passages usually don't require engines; it's the ports and headlands at each end that may demand some expert sailing".
-Hal Roth

"At last, the god-damned engine is quiet!"
-William Snaith

"He was now convinced that the most valuable sail on board was the diesel".
-Ray Kauffman

"I can't wait for the oil wells to run dry, for the last gob of black, sticky muck to come oozing out of some remote well. Then the glory of sail will return."
-Triston Jones

On Weather:

"Confronting a storm is like fighting God. All the powers in the universe seem to be against you and, in an exraordinary way, your irrelevance is at the same time both humbling and exalting".
-Franciose LeGrande

"I once knew a writer who, after saying beautiful things about the sea, passed through a Pacific hurricane, and he became a changed man".
-Joshua Slocum

"The pleasures of being becalmed became threadbare; there is a limit to untutored star gazing".
-Charles Landery

"Off Cape Horn there are but two kinds of weather, neither one of them a pleasant kind".
-John Masefield

"There is no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothes".
-Old Norwegian Adage

"I loved cruising the coast of Maine. For one thing, it helped me conquer my fear of fog. Not that I have learned to feel secure in the fog, but at least I have learned how to grope without panic".
-Herb Payson

"Being hove to in a long gale is the most boring way of being terrified I know"
-Donald Hamilton

"Below 50 degrees south there is no law. Below 60 degrees south there is no God".
-Old Sailors Adage

"I hate storms, but calms undermine my spirits".
-Bernard Moitessier

"It's scary to have a 30 foot wave chasing you. If you are steering, you don't look back. The crew looks back for you, and you watch their faces. When they look straight up, then get ready!"
-Magnus Olsson (another of my favourites)

I don't know who named them swells. There's nothing swell about them. They should have named them awfuls".
-Hugo Vihlen

More on Boats:

"Boats, like whiskey, are all good".
-R.D. (Pete) Culler

"A ship is always referred to as "she" because it costs so much to keep her in paint and powder".
-ADM. Chester Nimitz

"I want a boat that drinks 6, eats 4, and sleeps 2".
-Earnest K. Gann

"You have no right to own a yacht if you ask that question".
-J. P. Morgan Sr., in answer to a question by Henry Clay Pierce on how much it costs to own and run a yacht.

"If you can't repair it, maybe it shouldn't be on board."
-Lynn and Larry Pardey

"The cabin of a small yacht is truly a wonderful thing; not only will it shelter you from a tempest, but from the other troubles in life, it is a safe retreat."
-L. Francist Herreshoff

More on Sailors:

"Bad cooking is responsible for more trouble at sea than all other things put together".
-Thomas Fleming Day

"To the question, "When were your spirits at the lowest ebb?" the obvious answer seemed to be, "When the gin gave out".
-Sir Francis Chichester

"When a man comes to like a sea life, he is not fit to live on land".
-Dr. Samuel Johnson

"Any fool can carry on, but a wise man knows how to shorten sail in time".
-Joseph Conrad (yet another of my favourites)

"The art of the sailor is to leave nothing to chance".
-Annie Van De Wiele

"Any damn fool can navigate the world sober. It takes a really good sailor to do it drunk".
-Sir Francis Chichester while loading his boat with gin.

"The only way to get a good crew is to marry one".
-Eric Hiscock

"A sailing ship is no democracy; you don't caucus a crew as to where you'll go anymore than you inquire when they'd like to shorten sail."
-Sterling Hayden

"Only two sailors, in my experience, never ran aground. One never left port and the other was an atrocious liar."
-Don Bamford

On the Sea:

"Waves are not measured in feet or inches, they are measured in increments of fear".
-Buzzy Trent


On Sailing:

"To be successful at sea we must keep things simple".
-R. D. (Pete) Culler

"One of the best temporary cures for pride and affection is seasickness".
-Henry Wheeler Show

"Land was created to provide a place for boats to visit".
-Brooks Atkinson

"Cruising has two pleasures. One is to go out in wider waters from a sheltered place. The other is to go into a sheltered place from wider waters".
-Howard Bloomfield

"The single commandment of anchoring is "thou shall create scope".
-Reese Palley

Acknowledgements to Captain Lee Allred

(and guess who DIDN'T buy a book of saling quotes?)
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"Artificial intelligence is no match for natural stupidity"
 
Old quote ....

You may disagree with Captain - but never with the Cook !
 
A man who is not afraid of the sea will soon be drowned, he said, for he will be going out on a day he shouldn’t. But we do be afraid of the sea and we do only be drowned now and again.

John Millington Synge,The Aran Islands

this is my favourite quote 4 what it's worth, which I have framed and mounted in the cabin.
 
' I must go down to the seas again, for the call of the running tide
Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied.'
Masefield.

'Avast behind.'
Captain Spandex.
 
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