What Cant You Do Without

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Chris 249 said..

Datawiz said..
There you go Bristol...

Sea Fever BY JOHN MASEFIELD

I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky,
And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by;
And the wheel's kick and the wind's song and the white sail's shaking,
And a grey mist on the sea's face, and a grey dawn breaking.

I must go down to the seas again, for the call of the running tide
Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied;
And all I ask is a windy day with the white clouds flying,
And the flung spray and the blown spume, and the sea-gulls crying.

I must go down to the seas again, to the vagrant gypsy life,
To the gull's way and the whale's way where the wind's like a whetted knife;
And all I ask is a merry yarn from a laughing fellow-rover,
And quiet sleep and a sweet dream when the long trick's over.

Or as the former owner of a boat I raced on wrote (from memory but with some changes to make it intelligible to 2018);

I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky;
and buy me a stripped out race machine, and GPS to steer her by;
she'll cost me a million quid, with 15,000 in the genny;
and if she doesn't win every race, she won't be worth a penny;

....and so it goes on, bemoaning the tough life of the offshore racer owner.

Very cool Chris, sounds like something a Ray Roberts would come out with!
I added a couple a lines...

I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky;
and buy me a stripped out race machine, and GPS to steer her by;
she'll cost me a million quid, with 15,000 in the genny;
and if she doesn't win every race, she won't be worth a penny;
Alas, we do not have two seasons to learn all the strings;
Because a new boat in winter, sadly, is gen 2 by the spring.

The poisoned chalice of owning race boats indeed! Almost bought a pure bred racer once, it dropped its rig on the last race before purchase. I then got pretty keen on an offshore racing cat, till the price quadrupled in the last round of negotiations (tried to wrap a charter business into it)
I was lucky, both boats would have cost easily $200K + to get, and maintain, any level of competitiveness, and neither now would fetch even close to the purchase price being asked for back then (late 2000's).

No value in resale of race boats at all. Hence why you can pick up a Volvo 70 for sub $100K........ with sails even!

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slammin said..
My wireless autopilot . Makes life a breeze.

Raymarine remote control?