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West Wight Potter Mailing List maintainer
dfarrell@ridgecrest.ca.us
List hosted by www.tscnet.com
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Marilyn Dimson-Doyle wrote:
> ... I think it is going to take me longer to learn all the lingo than it is
> to learn how to sail this boat!!
> Alan
Right on! Up to a point.
You only have 6000 years plus of sailing history to catch up on -- and
the arcane lingo reflects many cultures. Fortunately, boat designers
have distilled a lot of it into Potters and their kin, so that you
_can_ move about on the water without learning everything immediately.
But basic boat design only takes you to some places, and handles a
limited range of conditions. You have the rest of your life to learn
the skills to match your boat's lineage, and it will take that
long... With luck, your rate of learning will keep up with your
growing confidence, and your judgment about what you can handle will
not be tested beyond its limits.
Fortunately, the learning is usually reward in itself. And when
Mother Nature puts you up against the wall, you'll usually come back
with a good sea story!
Welcome to the ranks of the happy, proud, and humble sailor. To
paraphrase from the flying community's adage, you could say that
sailing is "hours of [bliss], punctuated by moments of sheer terror".
Hope to meet you on the water,
-- Robert Skinner, Rockville, MD '87 Potter 15 HMS #1618 "Little Dipper"
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Tue Feb 29 2000 - 03:27:10 PST