A rainy, windy and cool day in the Low Country as a forecast front passes. Solid overcast. Spanish moss weaving and swaying. And only 48ºF/9ºC in mid-afternoon. However the front will move offshore tonight or tomorrow morning and Christmas Day is supposed to be sunny and 70ºF/21ºC. I heard on the local news that Savannah had its last and only White Christmas in 1989. Records have been kept since 1874. That seems a good proportion to me. I find White Christmases far overrated. I much prefer sunshine and 70º. Bing Crosby has a lot to answer for.
On this date in 1850 the twenty-two year old Leo Tolstoy wrote in his diary: Must not read novels.
The current January/February issue of CRUISING WORLD includes their Boats of the Year. The winner in the Best Pocket Cruiser/Daysailer category is the Beneteau First 27. I think she is an interesting and pretty small boat. As regular readers know I am not in the market for another boat, but I checked the price on the Specs page at the end of CW’s presentation. $140,000. That is 15.5 times what I paid for GANNET for three more feet and a little more interior headroom. The Beneteau may sail well, but I doubt she sails as well as GANNET who is obviously one of the sailing world’s greatest bargains.
Overall CW gave awards or runners up to 27 boats. Of these 13 cost more than $1,000,000 each. I am glad so many sailors are rich. I wonder how many of them or their million dollars boats will ever sail as far as $9,000 GANNET.
3 comments:
We used to talk about boat bucks, but with inflation I guess we can now price things in gannets. More than the boats costing 100 gannets, I was surprised at the Levant 15, which prices out at around one gannet per foot!
A few years ago I methodically rowed around the Olympia, WA area and counted over 360 sailboats of all sizes and conditions, placidly bobbing at their moorings. On my typical outing, I might see two or three under sail -- often none(!) and on race days maybe twenty.
There are many fine boats, each worth many times the value of my own little craft, that are actually sailed maybe once annually, if that. Sailboats are far more often aspirational than recreational.
The wonder of the Moore 24 is a production run of almost 50 years. You can still order one built to order from Moore Sailboats in Watsonville. Not perhaps the aspiring circumnavigator’s first choice…
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