Latitude 38 December 1984

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page 56

LETTERS

boats are less comfortable or more work. The size of the rig means that nothing requires much force to handle. Sure, you get wet if you race hard, but a peaceful, quiet sail is just a matter of choosing the weather and the destination, not quite driving so hard and being alert going through waves. (Also, good foul weather gear is cheap com¬ pared to a large boat.) With a couple of exceptions forced by having to deliver the boat in adverse weather, 1 was always able to sail my small (with respect to cost and sail area) boat comfortably. (And this is on a Dragon, well regarded as the wettest boat in Creation.)

To be fair, 1 am in all probability unfairly attributing to you attitudes which you do not hold, but rather 1 draw from the sailing scene in general indirectly through your reporting of that scene. (It is unfortu¬ nate that English does not have a distinct plural “you”.) 1 really am talking about the same “they” that seem to hold responsible for everything else.

In a sense 1 am agreeing with your comments to my first letter, in that there are many types of sailing available for many reasons.

I am also suggesting that just because one can’t afford a big boat, one should not feel closed out of the Bay.

Christopher D. Barry Brisbane

Christopher — We don’t have the full details of the case either, butour impression was that the catamaran was capsized, not in immedi¬ate danger of sinking, and that the woman wasn’t in danger ofdrowning, but just decided to swim for shore.

But what the hell, well take your suggestion and put flotation foam into the boat — as has been ABYC good practice since 1971. Sowhat happens? The woman tries to swim ashore anyway or a sharkeats her up since half her body is draped into the watpr anyway. Thedeal is we’re not talking boat quality here, we’re talking the conceptwhere the richest person or company closest to any accident or deathhas to pay — or what some call the first rule of law’.

You may think that an increased number of lawsuits results in bet¬ter built boats, but we believe often times you'll get just the oppositeresult. The conscientious, in-it-for-the-long-term, product-liability-holding. standards-improving companies will have their productscost more than ever. The result is they'll face stiff competition fromthe fly-by-night, hell-with-the-product-liability insurance, ‘value’ andoften foreign boats that consumers find so irresistable.

Who wins in the end? It’s like a lottery, a couple of lucky victimscollect millions, financed by thousands of boatowners all of whomchip in an extra $100 a year for insurance. Better boats? We doubt it.Better sailors? Not likely. More people who think the ocean owesthem a risk-free good time? You betcha!

Flash! We got a few more details. It was a NACRA cat that flippedoff Daytona Beach in 1981. The victim was attacked by a shark asshe swam to the nearby beach. But get this, Chris, the jury decidedthe cat wasn't defective in any way — but still found NACRAnegligent to the tune of $450,000!

□ VOLUNTEERS

This letter is being written to publicly express my thanks to Small Boat Services, a marine salvage service working in San Francisco

Bay. On October 28, 1984 while sailing with some friends we were ap¬

proaching Ballena Bay in Alameda at approximately 9:30 at night. The tide was very low and we found the sandbar by the mouth of Ballena Bay and became hard aground. I hailed the marine operator to call my wife and advise her I would be stuck for several hours. The message 1 received back was that my wife had taken my mother to a hospital in an emergency condition, and she was expected to under-

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