Issue 12 : May/Jun 2000
Perhaps you’ve noticed: Jerry and I are a couple of good old folks with a good old boat — exactly the profile of many of our readers. We have not circumnavigated the globe. (Jerry does take credit for several long-distance cruises, courtesy of Uncle Sam, on The USS Newport News, but at 20-something, he was hardly in command of the vessel.) We sail in fresh water, which counts for little to nothing with many of our friends on both coasts, but they’ve never seen the size of our lake! They don’t call our inland seas Great Lakes for nothing!
Those who sail in our cruising ground — Lake Superior’s Apostle Islands, near Bayfield, Wis. — can attest to this: we are mere mortals. We admit it. They’ve probably caught us with our jib down on occasion. It’s hard to live up to the image we’ve accidentally created for ourselves. But they know the truth: sometimes we’re a bit over-canvassed; sometimes we’re a bit undercanvassed. It’s hard to make these calls correctly every time. Sometimes they’ve seen us motoring the last mile or two toward home only to have the wind come up and catch us powering. Sometimes they’ve wondered what the heck we were doing out there flogging around in no wind at all with the sails up (that was last summer when we had no engine). We’ve beaten a few of them in impromptu races down the channel, but then we’ve lost a few races, too.
The point is: while we have become publishers, we are not capable of walking on water and will not try to convince our readers of our superior sailing skills and perfect seamanship. Like everyone else, we’re learning new tricks with each weekend or vacation cruise. We buy ink by the barrel these days, as the saying goes, but we use it to print the accumulated wisdom and experience of good old boaters everywhere. We are the catalysts perhaps, the orchestra conductor, the means of pulling the voices of experience together. Nothing more.
As a group, the good old boaters are an awesome force with much to contribute to the sailing community as a whole. Jerry and I are here to let your voices be heard. Thanks for being a part of our community of good old folks with good old boats. Like you, we are simply tickled to be a part of it.
Thank you to Sailrite Enterprises, Inc., for providing free access to back issues of Good Old Boat through intellectual property rights. Sailrite.com
