a question you have to ask yourself...

About that triangle of doom, somewhat nervous making, and something happy making...

Way back when, I seriously considered building a Bahama Mama. It's a cool boat.

It's a pretty simple build and, at a cost of somewhere around $50K, it's a a lot of boat for the money as such things go.

Of course an older, classic plastic boat like a CAL 29 (this one for sale is a good example) pretty much ready to go would only cost you 20% of that...

Something to think about.

Sadly, these days, building a boat is really no longer a way to save money so, you have to ask yourself if the great pleasure and satisfaction of building your own boat from the keel up is worth the price.

Listening to Richard Thompson

So it goes...

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Some needful reading...

Some good advice, not the deal of the century, and Webb Chiles keeping us up to date...

I'm really not a big fan of electronics for boats.

Not that I'm a Luddite or anything but I do feel marine electronics took something of a wrong turn somewhere along the line (I suspect about the same time most catamarans quit being boats and morphed into something else entirely) and, in most cases, have become something less than seaworthy.

I mention this because it might surprise many that a couple of my favorite blogs are devoted to marine electronics. What can I say, not liking the current state of affairs in marine electronics does not mean I don't keep abreast of what's going on with them.

Anyway... The Marine Installer's Rant has a really awesome post which has pretty much zero to do with marine electronics which everyone should read...

You still here?

Listening to Billy Bragg

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a cool boat...

Worth reading, bikes on boats, and in the "I-won't-be-holding-my-breath-till-it-happens" department...

So the other day I saw this cool boat at the waterfront just a stone's throw from where Dick Newicks very first trimaran design and build sits on a mooring......

Sadly, the owner was not around for me to ask the zillion questions that come to mind regarding the design, build, and purpose... Hopefully our paths will cross and I'll get the whole story sooner rather than later.

It always makes me happy whenever I see an outside of the box design because people thinking is a good thang... I'm pretty sure Dick Newick would have thought so too.

Listening to Tower of Power

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about getting what you ask for...

Obsidian Wings asks a question, Badtux cranks up the lie detector, and G&T talks guitar solos...

The other day I had one of those eureka moments when pondering just why, in spite of all of the collected tech and knowledge about how sailboats go, so many modern boats just plain suck.

It's not that designers are choosing to design bad boats but, for the most part, the boat buying public is insisting that they do.

It's our fault not theirs.

Of course, if designers developed a little more backbone when it came to market forces dictating design parameters we'd have better boats. But then, designers have bills to pay so if we insist on asking for stupid MacMansion boats they're going to design them for us.

Listening to Steam Powered Giraffe

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It floats!

Something really interesting/scary, nowhere near enough, and so much for infallible courts...

Skrowl floats!

Right side up too...

Listening to NineBullets radio

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Because there's surf just about everywhere we go...

Seriously, this is kind of scary, then again so is this, and six scenarios that tell a story...

Some mini Simmons goodness to think about...


Mini Simmons by Kent Senatore from adam funari on Vimeo.

Listening to Ages and Ages

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Rose colored glasses and doing your math...

Some interesting news on the battery front, just another captain of industry, and a guitar of note...

Wow, Labor Day has come and gone again... Time really does fly.

Yesterday I noticed there was a Jeanneau Sangria for sale here in the Caribbean and, as I'm a huge fan of this particular Harl� design, I checked it out.

First thing I noticed was the boat was too expensive... Face it, every production boat out there has a price envelope they belong in and the easiet way to find it is look at other boats of the same ilk and average the prices out. Not exactly rocket science but it does go a long way to sort out what the going rate for the boat is and my quick look at Sangria pricing tells me that the envelope runs from about $3500-$7500. In the case of this Sangria it's about 25-35% over the high end of the price envelope,

A quick look at the boat shows a boat that's a bit rundown and needs some work so at best they should be asking a lot less.

The thing is, the sellers just might get their asking price because you don't see a lot of Sangrias on this side of the Atlantic so not a lot of comparison shopping available on price and, of course, there is the rose-colored-glasses syndrome that afflicts so many folks looking for a boat.

Which, I suspect, is why you have a lot of $4K boats selling for $12K...

Listening to Desireless

So it goes

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