Wouldn’t you like to be a Pepper too?

We went to the Strictly Sail Pacific Boat Show in Oakland this weekend.

We started off in Brion Toss’s seminar about basic rigging.  It was really interesting and he’s an engaging speaker.  The biggest thing we learned is that rigging is darned important.  Also, there’s a new fangled type of line called Spectra that’s  being used for standing rigging now.  It’s lighter, more durable and the same price or less than stainless steel cable.There was a Cal 39 at the docks rigged with Spectra so we checked it out.  It seems like it might be a good choice when we re-rig whatever boat we get.  Brion also had a seminar on rigging failure.  That one was also very interesting and a little scary.  I think no matter what boat we get, going through the rigging is going to be high priority.

The rest of the seminars were kind of meh.  We tried to listen to one on sailing with electronics.  It wasn’t quite what we wanted so bailed early.  We listened to the editor of Blue Water Sailing magazine’s seminar on circumnavigating.  It was interesting, but nothing I haven’t heard before.  There was a lady sitting in front of me taking notes on everything he said.  I thought it was so strange she would be taking notes about someone else’s 1991 circumnavigation.  Does she really need to remember that when they left the US they had to return because they forgot to fill up the water tanks?  Or that they buddy-boated from Florida to Panama with Jean and Gary on Island Time?  She wrote it down.  I saw her do it.

The USS Potomac was there and we toured though it.  Apparently it was FDR’s boat during his presidency.  It was surprising to see how modest the boat is compared to the opulence displayed by politicians today.  We also toured Bob Bitchin’s Lost Soul.  It’s a cool boat and very big, but then again Bob Bitchin is a big guy.

I didn’t find any vendors selling books so I didn’t get to look for the book I wanted.  I guess we’ll just have to figure out how to be liveaboards by trial and error…which is pretty much how we do everything anyway.

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