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From: Dave Cooper (no email)
Date: Mon Mar 03 2008 - 06:39:46 EST
<Larry wrote in part: I am a trawler advocate and in my old age I prefer the
certainty of power to the ambiguity of the wind but, at least from my
experience, to say that sails are a more expensive form of propulsion than
fuel is absurd.>
Our experience here in the warm water reflects Bob's to a large degree.
Sure you can have a sail last 20 years or more if it isn't used all the
time. If so you aren't a full time cruiser or don't care about performance.
I suspect the same program applied to moving to a trawler would yield
similar results. Don't maintain the engine as long as it runs. Maybe it
isn't in top tune but who cares as long as it runs.
Sails do wear each and every time they are used and as Bob point's out even
when they are not. Cruisers can't wash the salt off as fresh water is a
scarce commodity. At $.12/gal or more few even do so when in a marina unless
they are "rich" cruisers. Docking in a place where fresh water is "free" and
the season is short will yield different results. However most full time
cruisers don't live in marinas and do use their boats all year. Add to this
all the blocks, halyards, winches, standing rigging that needs periodic
maintenance and replacement. Standing rigging is good for only ten years in
warm tropical water. A multi-thousand dollar expense on most decent sized
cruisers. So in addition to "sails" there are many additional costs to be
factored into the cost per mile for sailing.
Our price of fuel currently at $0.35/gal might swing the pendulum way over
to the trawler side. There are very few sailboats herein Venezuela owned by
Venezuelans whereas there are tens of thousands of powerboats. Trinidad is
similar with few locally owned cruising sailboats vs. tons of powerboats as
fuel is well below the international market price.
When I was in the boat brokerage business I used to have an owner try to
list a boat 10 year old boat with 10 sails or some similar ridiculous
number. Spreading them out would yield 5 or 6 to the dumpster another couple
good as tarps and perhaps a couple that are marginal for use. Losing a
mainsail in a 40 knot squall is not much different than losing a engine from
dirty fuel. Maintenance. Few sailors maintain their engines and fewer
maintain their sail unless they are racers. Why? Because "engines are a
necessary evil" and because "sails and the wind is free".
As trawler owners we know better ;-)
For what it's worth we've owned over 20 sailboats over the years. Usually a
couple of race boats and a cruising one at the same time. None were the
utopia of cruising on the cheap. Swan song is no more expensive to cruise
and a heck of a lot more comfortable than even the Alden 54 that we used to
run!
As always YMMV.....
Dave & Nancy
Swan Song
Roughwater 58
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