Joe Coons
This month I want to take a break from all the maintenance talk and reflect a little upon what I might call "lessons from this past summer's season".
WE ARE ALL BOATERS! As some of you know, I do check-ins and check- outs for one of the local charter companies, and as a result come in contact with folks from all over the world! This year I helped boaters from South America and throughout the United States. Because many of them have never been here in the Northwest before, we spend a fair bit of time discussing local conditions, including tides, currents, our rocky bottoms, etc. The interesting thing is that nearly everyone listens to all the advice we can give. In fact, all of us "check out guys" get very wary when the charterer doesn't ask questions and/or listen to the answers! We're nervous whenever anyone thinks he knows it all . . .
This was especially brought home to me when in September we checked out over a dozen of our boats to members of the esteemed Cruising Club of America for a Desolation Sound cruise. To be a member of this very exclusive club is not expensive, except in skills: everyone in it has done extensive, offshore, blue-water sailing before he or she can be nominated. In fact, one of the boats I checked out was crewed by four quite senior ocean sailing race winners including one long-time designer for the famous marine architecture firm, Sparkman and Stephens. Yet each of these wonderful people were full of questions about our waters, our boats, and our procedures. And they were always thoughtful and courteous to me, a relative novice compared to them, with their extraordinary backgrounds.
Boating is, indeed, a "classless" hobby, except in the sense of having a "classy" goodwill towards other boaters, and respect for the sea and its traditions.
ATTITUDE IS EVERYTHING. This brings up another reality that was repeatedly demonstrated during the charter season: Boating experiences are what you make them! If you are a negative person, it's likely that you'll have a lot to whine about; if you are positive, you'll have a lot to be positive about. The illustrations when you are dealing with charterers come frequently. We had couples on these lovely boats that made a big problem out of a chipped wine glass, a balky outboard, or not enough dock carts or quick enough airport courtesy pickups.
But one group of two couples returned and mentioned at check-in that the generator had been un-startable for the last four days of their trip. "Gosh, you should have called so we could fix it", I said.
"No big deal", was their response. "We could cook with propane and we took showers right after, or while we were running so we could have hot water". Remarkable.
That CCA group I mentioned above had an unpredictable failure one week into their two week trip: their only depth sounder would stop working shortly after being turned on each day. Their solution was simple: "We read the charts carefully", they said.
Frankly, I prefer having two, independent sounders! But I sure do admire their approach to the reality that "Bad Stuff Happens", and . . . most important . . . they didn't hit anything and their solution reinforced their chart-reading and trip-planning skills.
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Last updated 10/30/97 by SCR