Quote:
Originally Posted by Descant
Aps, Congratulations on a hard working youth. Can't figure where you went wrong and became a blow boater after such a solid work history. Not intended to be an insult, just a recognition of a different cloture, where I grew up in a similar time frame doing water ski marathons.
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Actually, I had self-funded—and built—three powerboats earlier:
before my folks gave me a sailboat as a HS graduation gift. ($300-worth of "blow-boat"!)
Just prior, a 30-foot cruiser was towing a water skier in Winter Harbor
and my hand built tunnel-hull speedboat capsized because of the cruiser's breaking wake.
(I'd slowed, the wake tipped me
backwards—sending the boat engine-first to Davy Jones).
Fortunately, an especially long fuel line and buoyant gas tank kept the boat "located" for recovery.
Not appreciating sitting in windless situations, I'd added a small outboard engine to my new sailboat. But...discovered that by studying the shapes/intensity/colors of the clouds upwind, the darkness of waves
far upwind, and the density of haze, I could avoid being becalmed. (Or being hammered by microbursts).
So...I left the tippy, heavy, smelly, noisy outboard at the dock, and never looked back.
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