Hi-tech vs simplicity and seamanship

[brian.cunningham]

(found on a notice board in Fiji)
In a message dated 2/9/2006 9:14:31 AM Eastern Standard Time, jim_cl@yahoo.com writes:
I must go down to the sea again, in a modern high-tech boat,
And all I ask is electric, for comfort while afloat,
And alternators, and solar panels, and generators going,
and deep cycle batteries with many amperes flowing.
I must go down to the sea again, to the autopilot’s ways,
And all I ask is a GPS, and a radar, and displays,
And a cell phone, and a weatherfax, and a shortwave radio,
And compact disks, computer games and TV videos.
I must go down to the sea again, with a freezer full of steaks,
And all I ask is a microwave, and a blender for milkshakes,
And a watermaker, air-conditioner, hot water in the sink,
And e-mail and a VHF to see what my buddies think.
I must go down to the sea again, with power-furling sails,
And chart displays of all the seas, and a bullhorn for loud hails,
And motors pulling anchor chains, and push-button sheets,
And programs which take full charge of tacking during beats.
I must go down to the sea again, and not leave friends behind,
And so they never get seasick we’ll use the web online,
And all I ask is an Internet with satellites over me,
And beaming all the data up, my friends sail virtually.
I must go down to the sea again, record the humpback whales,
Compute until I decipher their language and their tales,
And learn to sing in harmony, converse beneath the waves,
And befriend the gentle giants as my synthesizer plays.
I must go down to the sea again, with RAM in gigabytes,
and teraflops of processing for hobbies that I like,
And software suiting all my wants, seated at my console
And pushing on the buttons which give me complete control.
I must go down to the sea again, my concept seems quite sound,
But when I simulate this boat, some problems I have found.
The cost is astronomical, repairs will never stop,
Instead of going sailing, I’ll be shackled to the dock.
I must go down to the sea again, how can I get away?
Must I be locked in low-tech boats until my dying day?
Is there no cure for my complaint, no technologic fix?
Oh, I fear electric fever is a habit I can’t kick.


Anon

[Tom Galyen]

How true, how very very true.

Tom G. (Seaweed)

3 Sisters G.R.S.
A replica 18th century
Ships "Jolly" boat

[Dave Hadfield]

You know what my depth sounder is? The 16ft mast of my dinghy.

I stand on Drake's bowsprit with that pole in hand and feel for the bottom. If necessary I can push the bow around quickly, using the pole. In the meantime I'm calling out stuff like, "Twelve feet, sand!" to Robin as she brings her into shore.

We get funny looks, but it works, and it never runs out of batteries.

[Billy Bones]

I'm reading a book now, 'The Voyage of the Northern Magic', wherein a family circumnavigates. In a nutshell, the wife and kids go ashore at every landfall to exercise their social consciences, and the husband stays aboard, head down in lockers, fixing whatever broke. Not only do they have stuff, they of course have plenty of spare stuff. All in all it seems a pretty lousy way to sail.

If you ain't got it, it can't break.

[Alan D. Hyde]

Here's a better book, Billy---

http://www.fishermanswharfinn.com/images/sailthree.jpg

And, here's where to get it---

http://www.fishermanswharfinn.com/sailing.htm

*.*.*

Alan

http://www.fishermanswharfinn.com/images/Eastwind.jpg

[ 02-14-2006, 01:32 PM: Message edited by: Alan D. Hyde ]

[Billy Bones]

Thanks Alan. I need to get that one. I really enjoyed their article several years ago in WB.

[searcher]

I have only gotten back to sailing in the last couple of years and have been astonished at these sailing monuments to vulgarity. Actually after a summer sailing out of Chestertown Md., my question is

[searcher]

obviously, didn't finish the post. When do these saiboats sail?

[Concordia..41]

Originally posted by Billy Bones:

If you ain't got it, it can't break. Perfect!

[sv Lorelei]

There are plenty of extremes in both directions. Most of the boats in my marina are 30 feet or less OAL and a higher than average percentage of them sail pretty often. But there are whole docks of boats in marinas nearby that are essentially "Dock Ornaments". I'm far from a sailing luddite and think that the attitude of "Give me a compass a sextant and a lead line and damn the newfangled stuff" is just as bad as the idiots out there who've got every gadget imaginable and don't know jack about seamanship.

It cuts both ways, and I personally like my little handheld GPS. There's something reassuring about knowing where you actually are. We mostly use it to plot our position on the chart. I like my depth sounder. But I also like my paper charts, and despite some rather nerve wracking pea soup fog passages last season, I haven't become entirely convinced that radar is anything short of a nice to have. Where we sail an icebox is plenty fine, and doesn't draw much current ;) I have an electric tiller pilot, but only use it when I'm single handing.

I'll be putting on a windvane this summer that I engineered and built myself (servopendulum)mostly because the whirring of the electric tillerpilot is annoying. I honestly don't know why hand steering has suddenly become a lowly burdening chore.

We have a 2 burner alcohol stove and a gas engine. I'm constantly amused at folks who eschew gas engines as dangerous yet have propane tanks on board. We have kerosene lamps and some electric ones we don't use much but are nice to have when you need them. We have a little boogie box but haven't really felt the need for a bitchin' stereo. We never listen to music underway. I like listening to the boat. We have a marine radio, but unless we're sailing with other boats or the weather is dicey we don't regularly turn it on.

A little technology is a good thing. It's all a very personal choice. I think more people have developed the expectation that they should be able to have everything they have at home while on passage and that's a very slippery slope.

If you have something and it breaks, chances are your first impulse is to fix it instead of going, hey, did I really need that in the first place? A lot of the stuff that has made cruising more and more expensive are things we can really do without. Not having refrigeration doesn't mean you've turned into a yoga chanting vegan, it just means you can't have steak all the time. That's not necessarily a bad thing. It also doesn't mean you can't eat very nourishing and good tasting meals, it just means you can't cook like you're at home.

[webfoot]

If you buy the book "Sailing Three Oceans", you get to see me in my much younger days. redface.gif redface.gif redface.gif

Chris

[George.]

Our electronics consist of a VHF, a depth sounder, and a hand-held GPS. We plan to get a back-up GPS and a hand-held VHF.

We used to have a wind speed/direction indicator too, but after the jib topsail downhaul took it out, we now rely on a pennant for direction and sea-state for strength. Works just as well.

Our ice box will hold ice for a week, even in summer. No need for refrigeration.

But we do have a stereo, and we take a lap-top aboard to watch DVDs on rainy evenings. Electronics can be redundant for piloting and navigation, but they are great for entertainment... :D