LASER GUY STOPS WEARING HIS LIFE JACKET

This is in response to Tillerman’s writing challenge, to answer the question of “what sailing will be like 15 years from now.”




I AM NOT GOING TO WEAR MY PFD.



Actually I wear a Musto regatta thing that Musto doesn’t make any more. I have worn them since my Sunfish days when we kept them rolled up inside the hull, and then put them on when we got cold or when conditions got really hairy. Some one stole my previous Musto. My current one I bought used on e-bay from England for $90. Used only once and I think a real bargain. I have may name all over this one to reduce the tendency for some one to walk away with it.



Now I know that it will take a pretty mean person to protest an 80 year old guy because the Coast Guard didn’t stamp his life jacket.



Anyway, in 15 years I will stop wearing a PFD, life jacket or Musto



Most of the rest of you folks will be moving to the bigger and bigger boats sailed with more and more folks on the rale and on the payroll. Maybe you will be sailing two or three lapse around the world. Or maybe around the North Pole in the iceless Arctic Ocean.



Perhaps the little boats will be all gone, except for a few Puddle Duck Racers hanging on.



My boat will be pretty much rigged like a Laser . Maybe a square top sail. Then I think I want a BIG window so I can see the Starboard tackers coming at me without bending down to look under the boom.



The boat will look pretty much like a golden cloud. I will try to get a new one every year. We will be racing Portsmouth or something like that because I expect to be racing against Chris Columbus, Sir Francis Drake and Arthur Ransome. They will all be sailing their favorite boat and the BIG G will be giving winning trophies to everyone on a regular basis to keep them all happy. How can everyone be a winner? The BIG G can arrange it.



We don’t expect to see any of the current rich rich yachting types, because to get that much money you almost always have to cheat someone. They will be doing something else, some place else.



Near Sunset you may be able to see my golden cloud heading West and I won’t need the life jacket anymore. Someone else can wear my Musto.
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