Esoteric Boat Fanatics

Bill's Log

The more fanatical of us boat enthusiasts will search for our Holy Grail like paupers digging at night with bare hands for truffles of great value. We each seek the epitome of our particular desire and will sacrifice almost all we have to find it.

Those into origami sailing cruisers capable of miraculous transformations so as to perform many functions will search for a boat that can be stored at home under a bed, travel by car on a roof rack, be paddled down the Grand Canyon and sail around the world in 80 days!

Those into endurance will want the smallest, most uncomfortable, weakest and least seaworthy vessel they can find to prove that the human spirit is indomitable, being able to triumph over nature’s adversities.

Those into speed will enlist gullible and willing sponsors to finance the building of mega-yachts, so that their compulsion to be the fastest can be satisfied. They will employ designers, technicians, engineers, sail makers, support teams, publicists and public relations personnel, all to ensure their dreams are fulfilled.

Those who want their boats to be of unrivalled beauty will travel to the four corners of the earth seeking the most talented designers, the most gifted craftsmen and the finest materials. They will not be satisfied until the perfection they crave is achieved.

Most incredibly those into breaking records for the smallest boat to cross an ocean will be prepared to starve and thirst to death while attempting to stand upright in miniscule capsules as they drift at the mercy of the sea and wind.

Justification for our fanaticism, so we assure ourselves, is valid self- fulfilment; for without the doing of our fanaticism there is no raison d’être.

“Vanity of vanities,” says the Preacher, “All is vanity.” (Ecclesiastes 12:8)