“Have you come up on the lottery?”
“No I haven’t,
because I don’t do it.”
“Why don’t you do it?”
“I don’t do it because I’ve got enough money. Even if I did
it, the chances of winning are 14 million to 1. That’s just throwing my money
away, isn’t it?”
“But you’re not throwing it away; the majority of the
proceeds go to charity and a lot people benefit as a result.”
“Well, that’s great. If I wanted to give to a specific
charity I would. In fact; you don’t know if I give or if I don’t. I’m not
telling you anyway. For those who do, the left hand shouldn’t know what the right
hand does.”*
“I’ll let you into a little secret. Have you been to
Burnham-on-Crouch lately? There’s a super dreamboat there at Clarke and
Carters. She’s a Saga 36, designed by Alan Pape. You know he loves double-enders
with long, deep keels on the lines of Colin Archer sailing lifeboats.
“You see, I love them too. And you know what? I do the
lottery, and as a result my bank balance is bulging. I’ve got so much money I
could buy a whole fleet of Saga 36s! Do you want to crew for me?”
“No thanks,” I said, “I’ve got a phobia of big boats. They
are more trouble than they are worth. There’s so much to go wrong with them,
and if you fall overboard there’s a long way to climb back. You’ll always need
a crew, and you can’t get into the places a small one can. You are welcome to
your dreamboat; I hope she doesn’t become a nightmare. Money buys a whole load
of problems - the more you’ve got, the more you have to worry about.”
*Matthew 6:3 ‘But when
you do a charitable deed, do not let your left hand know what your right hand
is doing.’
Links
Saga 36 for Sale
Saltram – Saga 36
Saltram 36 / Saga 36
Colin Archer
Colin Archer Double-enders
2 comments:
there was a time when i thought heavy long keel boats were the quintessential cruising yachts, despite sailing a brilliant van de stadt 34 to the Caribbean and back, I was still convinced heavy long keel was the way to go, and hence bought an Endurance 35, so called because the crew has to endure long slow passages - small, light but well designed and strongly built but most of all simple
Max,
I knew a guy who built an Endurance 35 and sailed her around the world. He took on paying crews and came back with money in the bank! Great experiences, too.
Cheers,
Bill.
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