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Go Race On A Sailboat! — Final Lush Years pg152
Colorful companion to my memoir The Incompetent Psychic
1989
When I took the helm for the first time I knew I had found something as compelling as art, booze and sex… and as exhilarating as skiing and really good sex.
Of course I wrangled an invitation for the next week, and the week after that. In a month I had sort of figured out how a sailboat worked, and why we always lost. People on other boats were using both hands, while our crew on Yellow Bird was handicapped by cans of Miller Lite. When the desire to sail made beer look boring I asked Dan, “How do you make the boat go faster?”
“You get on a different boat,” said Captain Dan the Party Man. — From Chapter 8
There are two separate boating worlds: The power crowd (stinkpots) and the sailors (rag hangers). Within the latter are another two distinct worlds that clearly divide two personality types. The more mellow among those who are willing to blow the budget in order to own and maintain a sailboat are Cruisers. The primary purpose of cruising is to relax and enjoy the journey to a new destination — usually one that includes a beach and cabanas. A cruise can be a day sail to a marina restaurant in the next town along the Bay, or a voyage to explore fifty remote islands across the South Pacific. My sister did…
