SAILING / LIFE #1

Preface
I’m four months into my 80th year on this planet, and it’s been called to my attention by a friend that for the past 40+ years my writings have been almost exclusively about ethics, law, and government – and very little about myself and my journey through life.

Reflecting on this fact, I’ve decided to write about the subject of sailing as a metaphor for life and the lessons I’ve derived from it. For me this is a highly experimental endeavor, so I’ll be looking to the readers’ comments for questions to be answered and suggestions concerning content.

Introduction
Stepping aboard a boat always entails risk. And, as a result, almost every aspect of sailing involves compromise and trade-offs, for example:
• Cost vs. Safety
• Safety vs. Comfort
• Comfort vs. Speed
• Speed vs. Payload
...and many others. In fact, as a science, sailing is very imperfect. There are so many unlikely events that can and do occur. It is impossible to anticipate and fully prepare for them all.

Having said that, it is also true that much is known about sailing, and many common errors that result in fatal or expensive losses can be avoided with adequate awareness, foresight, planning, and preparation.

My Contribution
I’ve had an active interest in sailing since 1952, when I sailed 20-foot racing sloops on Rainy Lake north of Minnesota. Then I crewed aboard a 25’ cruising sloop in the waters around Oahu Island in Hawaii in 1963. I didn’t acquire my own boat until 1971 when I purchased and re-fitted a 37’ Jim Brown trimaran and sailed it off the coast of New Jersey and up and down the Chesapeake Bay for a couple of years.

After that Hawaiian experience in 1963 I began making a serious study of everything I could get my hands on related to sailing. I read tons of books and magazines on sailboat design, construction, seamanship, navigation, maintenance, destinations – and actually taught a well-received seamanship and navigation course for the Coast Guard Auxiliary.

It would be correct to say that my knowledge of sailing far out-strips my experience, so you would do well to get others’ opinions on any critical topics that I may cover in this blog. What I do offer is advice that I’ve gleaned from many who have successfully crossed oceans under the most daunting and hazardous conditions. Those who survive often tell their stories
and the important lessons to be derived from their experience.

To be clear, my interest in sailing is primarily oriented toward deep-water ocean cruising in boats built with getting to the destination safely as the highest priority. For this reason I personally choose to avoid involvement in boats designed for racing. The sport of racing under sail is highly specialized and the design rules usually imposed on the racers are far from optimal from
a cruising perspective – often leading to fatal design deficiencies when the “racing fleet” encounters weather conditions uncommonly severe in the season in which the race is conducted.

Make no mistake – sailing can be a relatively safe and comfortable hobby for the well-to-do, or a very dangerous pastime for those of average means. But in either circumstance, you are bound to like it better the more you know about it. For instance:

• Suppose you have a mahogany plywood hull sheathed in fiberglass. Now you want to bolt lifeline stanchions to the deck without providing a pathway by which seawater and rainwater can find their way down the threads of the bolts to delaminate the plywood-fiberglass bond. How do you do it?

Simple. For each bolt you want to install, drill a 1” diameter hole in the proper position. Fill the hole with epoxy and let it set up. Now drill a 1/4” hole through the center of each epoxy plug and use 1/4” bolts. The epoxy will have bonded to both the plywood and the fiberglass –thereby sealing the laminate against water entering via the threads. Of course, the bolt entry should be well caulked to prevent water from following the thread into the boat’s interior. Problem solved.

• Here’s another example. You are sailing well off shore in the North Atlantic. A hurricane is approaching from the south. You want to minimize the effect of the storm on you and your boat. Your original course was easterly. In what direction should you turn to minimize the storm effects?

Well that one was a “trick question”. The hurricane will be rotating counter-clockwise, so the first winds you will experience as it approaches will also be easterly. If you maintain your course you wll have the wind direction pushing you directly out of the path of the storm – and that is by far the best choice you could make.

Until the next time,
Bob Podolsky