There is a reason senior cruisers are downsizing and simplifying while youngsters are “trading up”. It is called wisdom. Some people acquire it faster.
Insightful views from Jonathan Lewis! Our boats have gotten larger and easier as we've gotten older. Now the lessons we've learned at sea also inform life on land. Time aboard is the best teacher in the arts of downsizing, rightsizing, and uncomplicating return to the hard.
One of the reasons I almost always prefer the book to the movie is the abstract can mingle with imagination. Even with a hefty amount of description and detail, when the experience can remain fluid it’s more satisfying. Once a character or concept is reified, for me it loses its charge. In this same vein, sailing contains such sublime elements. The wind can never be seen directly, only its effects. Trim is never fixed, it must always be renewed. And water itself is always in flux, even the glassiest surface is poised to stir. The more these intangibles are amplified on the water, the more satisfying the outing. IMO
Thank you. This piece sets up a nice paradigm showing how reading and small craft cruising are cousins in ways of pleasure and personal growth. I keep thinking of correspondences…many have to do with pace. If you find a juicy part in a book you can heave-to and hang as long as you like in the passage, whereas in a film the narrative has its own built-in way a story unfolds, (a motorboat connecting two points with the shortest route). The article also cautions against excess adornment and indulgence, instead puts focus on the pure experience. It’s easy to see how CGI-heavy and Franchise driven films all can seem alike. The main thing in common for me is how in a great book,(and sailing) you invest a lot of yourself, in time and in pondering. Books and boats both set us on journeys of discovery, and each individual chooses how deep we go or what level of intensity we’re up for.
This is the philosophy that L. Francis Herreshoff espoused. Larry and Lin Pardey were examples of cruising and living aboard with minimal accommodations. Eric and Susan Hiscock's Wanderer III (as opposed to his later boats) was an example of simplicity.
It is sad that sailing has gone the way of most things American: Bigger and more complicated is better. One of the reasons I enjoyed backpacking was that it stripped things down to the essentials and put me directly in contact with the natural world. Now people are glamping with all the comforts of home.
Thanks for the article. It brings back into perspective the joys of simplicity. As Thoreau said, "Simplify, simplify, simplify" and "That man is the richest whose pleasures are the cheapest."
Interesting that backpacking has gone "high tech", just like our little sailboats...The equipment today is VERY different from what we used during my Boy Scout days...and what Herreshoff had to deal with...Of course, canvas, down, and wool blankets still work fine, but I'd rather have Dacron sails and synthetic insulation (that will keep me warm even when wet), thank you very much.
That's a good point. When I began in the Boy Scouts it was cotton tents, camp fires for cooking and burying our trash. I later embraced the move to synthetics, lightweight gear, stoves instead of campfires and packing out what you packed in.
But the technology didn't change its purpose, it just improved. The experience was the same, just with lighter and more durable equipment.
Sailing is the same: Dacron sails, synthetic running gear, fiberglass hulls, aluminum masts, GPS and EPIRBs don't change what we do and contend with, they just require less maintenance and provide more comfort and safety.
But refrigeration, generators and AC, television, sound systems, gourmet electric galleys, etc. etc. change the fundamental experience of feeling a part of the natural world into bringing our daily lives onto the water. We might as well watch a Netflix show about a sailing vacation.
The key for me is the cliche "appropriate technology." I don't want to be a 19th Century Mountain Man or Joshua Slocum, but I can experience the world in the manner that they did with modern materials and techniques. I'd rather eat freeze dried or vacuum packed food than dried jerky, beans and hard tack.
Ditto. We’re not Luddites. I think we’re all on the same page here. I love the fact that people are using synthetic rigging and saving weight aloft while reducing failure points, even on traditional craft. The numerous advantages of the unstayed carbon fiber masts on my last two boats demonstrated their effectiveness in spilling the breeze whenever the wind picked up.
Thanks, Jonathan, for highlighting synthetic rigging -- which is particularly useful, stronger (and cheaper) than replacing the stainless steel rigging that came with our aging trailer-sailers. Besides Dyneema and carbon fiber, there are a bunch of "non-traditional" (aka high tech) boatbuilding materials that have a lot of potential.
I for one sure don't need a fancy cooking galley, but a small inductive cooktop (powered by an equally small power station) for heating water for my oatmeal and coffee -- in contrast to burning propane -- is rather tempting for bunch of reasons. And the sun to charge the battery is free...
Yes,I think sailors and boatbuilders have always taken advantage of the latest technology. But there's that point where technology defeats the original purpose of the endeavor, where the technology becomes the point while the enjoyment of the activity is diminished and its reason for being lost. As in turning a sailboat into a floating party platform. That's what houseboats are for.
I've read that sharpie's unstayed masts were responsible for some of their heavy weather reputation. The masts were tapered so that they would bend and spill the wind before the boat capsized. Since good wood for masts is scarce, carbon fiber is a better alternative in all respects. I'm sure the old sharpie sailors would have used it if it was available then.
I appreciate your sentiments. I'm just starting to prepare for cruising in a John Welsford Long Steps and was wondering what food I would bring. Has anyone ever used a pressure canner to prepare long lasting food like stews and curries to eat aboard with just simple reheating?
One thing I've done is vacuum pack cooked meals so that I can just put the vacuum bag in boiling water. You can do this with virtually any meal, so having chicken piccata or beef stroganoff is a matter of ten minutes and no pots to clean. Vacuum packed cooked meals are supposed to be good for a week at room temperature. Grains, beans, and other dried food are good for months.
Oh I so agree with you on reading and the sensations - you don't miss the sounds around you also.
In the days when my kids and others were evolving with the computers in our homes and lives, I mentioned to them that a book is equal to watching a movie, just in your head. They knew that of course but understood more when I explained that if the whole town was out of power, you only need a comfy chair, a window and a book! As I look back, I should have found a perfect rainy day and killed the power to the whole house....
There is a reason senior cruisers are downsizing and simplifying while youngsters are “trading up”. It is called wisdom. Some people acquire it faster.
Insightful views from Jonathan Lewis! Our boats have gotten larger and easier as we've gotten older. Now the lessons we've learned at sea also inform life on land. Time aboard is the best teacher in the arts of downsizing, rightsizing, and uncomplicating return to the hard.
One of the reasons I almost always prefer the book to the movie is the abstract can mingle with imagination. Even with a hefty amount of description and detail, when the experience can remain fluid it’s more satisfying. Once a character or concept is reified, for me it loses its charge. In this same vein, sailing contains such sublime elements. The wind can never be seen directly, only its effects. Trim is never fixed, it must always be renewed. And water itself is always in flux, even the glassiest surface is poised to stir. The more these intangibles are amplified on the water, the more satisfying the outing. IMO
Beautifully said.
Thank you. This piece sets up a nice paradigm showing how reading and small craft cruising are cousins in ways of pleasure and personal growth. I keep thinking of correspondences…many have to do with pace. If you find a juicy part in a book you can heave-to and hang as long as you like in the passage, whereas in a film the narrative has its own built-in way a story unfolds, (a motorboat connecting two points with the shortest route). The article also cautions against excess adornment and indulgence, instead puts focus on the pure experience. It’s easy to see how CGI-heavy and Franchise driven films all can seem alike. The main thing in common for me is how in a great book,(and sailing) you invest a lot of yourself, in time and in pondering. Books and boats both set us on journeys of discovery, and each individual chooses how deep we go or what level of intensity we’re up for.
This is the philosophy that L. Francis Herreshoff espoused. Larry and Lin Pardey were examples of cruising and living aboard with minimal accommodations. Eric and Susan Hiscock's Wanderer III (as opposed to his later boats) was an example of simplicity.
It is sad that sailing has gone the way of most things American: Bigger and more complicated is better. One of the reasons I enjoyed backpacking was that it stripped things down to the essentials and put me directly in contact with the natural world. Now people are glamping with all the comforts of home.
Thanks for the article. It brings back into perspective the joys of simplicity. As Thoreau said, "Simplify, simplify, simplify" and "That man is the richest whose pleasures are the cheapest."
Interesting that backpacking has gone "high tech", just like our little sailboats...The equipment today is VERY different from what we used during my Boy Scout days...and what Herreshoff had to deal with...Of course, canvas, down, and wool blankets still work fine, but I'd rather have Dacron sails and synthetic insulation (that will keep me warm even when wet), thank you very much.
That's a good point. When I began in the Boy Scouts it was cotton tents, camp fires for cooking and burying our trash. I later embraced the move to synthetics, lightweight gear, stoves instead of campfires and packing out what you packed in.
But the technology didn't change its purpose, it just improved. The experience was the same, just with lighter and more durable equipment.
Sailing is the same: Dacron sails, synthetic running gear, fiberglass hulls, aluminum masts, GPS and EPIRBs don't change what we do and contend with, they just require less maintenance and provide more comfort and safety.
But refrigeration, generators and AC, television, sound systems, gourmet electric galleys, etc. etc. change the fundamental experience of feeling a part of the natural world into bringing our daily lives onto the water. We might as well watch a Netflix show about a sailing vacation.
The key for me is the cliche "appropriate technology." I don't want to be a 19th Century Mountain Man or Joshua Slocum, but I can experience the world in the manner that they did with modern materials and techniques. I'd rather eat freeze dried or vacuum packed food than dried jerky, beans and hard tack.
Ditto. We’re not Luddites. I think we’re all on the same page here. I love the fact that people are using synthetic rigging and saving weight aloft while reducing failure points, even on traditional craft. The numerous advantages of the unstayed carbon fiber masts on my last two boats demonstrated their effectiveness in spilling the breeze whenever the wind picked up.
Thanks, Jonathan, for highlighting synthetic rigging -- which is particularly useful, stronger (and cheaper) than replacing the stainless steel rigging that came with our aging trailer-sailers. Besides Dyneema and carbon fiber, there are a bunch of "non-traditional" (aka high tech) boatbuilding materials that have a lot of potential.
I for one sure don't need a fancy cooking galley, but a small inductive cooktop (powered by an equally small power station) for heating water for my oatmeal and coffee -- in contrast to burning propane -- is rather tempting for bunch of reasons. And the sun to charge the battery is free...
Yes,I think sailors and boatbuilders have always taken advantage of the latest technology. But there's that point where technology defeats the original purpose of the endeavor, where the technology becomes the point while the enjoyment of the activity is diminished and its reason for being lost. As in turning a sailboat into a floating party platform. That's what houseboats are for.
I've read that sharpie's unstayed masts were responsible for some of their heavy weather reputation. The masts were tapered so that they would bend and spill the wind before the boat capsized. Since good wood for masts is scarce, carbon fiber is a better alternative in all respects. I'm sure the old sharpie sailors would have used it if it was available then.
I appreciate your sentiments. I'm just starting to prepare for cruising in a John Welsford Long Steps and was wondering what food I would bring. Has anyone ever used a pressure canner to prepare long lasting food like stews and curries to eat aboard with just simple reheating?
One thing I've done is vacuum pack cooked meals so that I can just put the vacuum bag in boiling water. You can do this with virtually any meal, so having chicken piccata or beef stroganoff is a matter of ten minutes and no pots to clean. Vacuum packed cooked meals are supposed to be good for a week at room temperature. Grains, beans, and other dried food are good for months.
Well said! Leave while taking all with a common theme today.
Oh I so agree with you on reading and the sensations - you don't miss the sounds around you also.
In the days when my kids and others were evolving with the computers in our homes and lives, I mentioned to them that a book is equal to watching a movie, just in your head. They knew that of course but understood more when I explained that if the whole town was out of power, you only need a comfy chair, a window and a book! As I look back, I should have found a perfect rainy day and killed the power to the whole house....