Schooner Cruising
The only noble thing a man can do with money is to build a schooner.
The title is widely circulated quote from R.L. Stevenson. But did he really say/write that and if so, where? I have never seen any other reference except his name. Does anybody know if it is from a book by him and which one?
Btw, I totally agree with the idea
Dreaming a schooner since 1988:
Old enough to know better
Re: The only noble thing a man can do with money is to build a schooner.
I thought the quote was “The only uses for money are a schooner and a private string quartet”, but I can’t find that either.
IMAGINES VEL NON FUERINT
Schooner Cruising
Re: The only noble thing a man can do with money is to build a schooner.
That one is even better! My own schooner and my daughter's string quartet
Dreaming a schooner since 1988:
Chateratist
Re: The only noble thing a man can do with money is to build a schooner.
I'm a ketch man myself, who owns a sloop.
It's all fun and games until Darth Vader comes.
Senior Member
Re: The only noble thing a man can do with money is to build a schooner.
If nobody can verify the original source of that quote, I'm gonna claim it as my own!
Schooner sailors love to get blown offshore!
Senior Member
Re: The only noble thing a man can do with money is to build a schooner.
Maybe I'll change my tag-line.
Schooner sailors love to get blown offshore!
Senior Member
Re: The only noble thing a man can do with money is to build a schooner.
NAH!
Schooner sailors love to get blown offshore!
Observer
Re: The only noble thing a man can do with money is to build a schooner.
I am down. I like the slip fees too.
Without friends none of this is possible.
Senior Member
Re: The only noble thing a man can do with money is to build a schooner.
Schooners are so US, back in the old lands, it's ketches.
Though, I do have a signed print of 'Vagrant off the Needles' in the dining room. (The late Peter de Savary's boat)
Senior Mumbler
Re: The only noble thing a man can do with money is to build a schooner.
I'd have put feeding the hungry, healing the sick, and freeing the enslaved and wrongfully imprisoned higher up the list, but I like a good schooner, too.
There is no rational, logical, or physical description of how free will could exist. It therefore makes no sense to praise or condemn anyone on the grounds they are a free willed self that made one choice but could have chosen something else. There is no evidence that such a situation is possible in our Universe. Demonstrate otherwise and I will be thrilled.
Senior Member
Re: The only noble thing a man can do with money is to build a schooner.
“Three schooners and a large pizza for my friends.”
Different kind of schooner?
ITS CHAOS, BE KIND
Can't remember
Re: The only noble thing a man can do with money is to build a schooner.
Schooners are beautiful, romantic , lovely things, but there are reasons that (edit:THE) worlds bi-poler fleet is overwhelmingly ketch rigged. Its to do with the sailing part.
'Schooners have their masts in bass akwards'. Did I beat that schooner guy to the quote this time, did I, eh ?
Last edited by John B; 02-05-2023 at 06:23 PM.
What boat to build next?
Re: The only noble thing a man can do with money is to build a schooner.
When I pass through the Pearly Gates I'm hoping there is a 65' schooner waiting for me.
I was born on a wooden boat that I built myself.
Skiing is the next best thing to having wings.
pinko commie tree hugger
Re: The only noble thing a man can do with money is to build a schooner.
give me a famous line of prose or verse or song about ketches
kvetches don't count
Originally Posted by John B
Schooners are beautiful, romantic , lovely things, but there are reasons that worlds bi-poler fleet is overwhelmingly ketch rigged. Its to do with the sailing part.
'Schooners have their masts in bass akwards'. Did I beat that schooner guy to the quote this time, did I, eh ?
Simpler is better, except when complicated looks really cool.
Can't remember
Re: The only noble thing a man can do with money is to build a schooner.
Exactly . I said as much didn't I. Ketches are too pragmatic , too efficient at what they do , which more often than not is go to sea shorthanded day in day out and cope with extreme variations in the wind range.
I love me an Alden or a Joanne as much as anyone, also what I have.
Senior Member
Re: The only noble thing a man can do with money is to build a schooner.
OKAY. Ya beat me this time. Well played!Schooners are beautiful, romantic , lovely things, but there are reasons that (edit:THE) worlds bi-poler fleet is overwhelmingly ketch rigged. Its to do with the sailing part.
'Schooners have their masts in bass akwards'. Did I beat that schooner guy to the quote this time, did I, eh ?
In my defense, I had another thought that I was posting, and I have barely enough brain power left to deal with a single thought at a time.
BTW, it's not the "sailing part", it's the "sailing to weather part". I don't like sailing to weather. I don't mind it if my boat thinks like I do. The only time I'll force my boat to slam into a head sea is when I have to. She will usually forgive me.
There is nothing else in sailing to compare with schoonin' on a golly reach with a big breeze.
Schooner sailors love to get blown offshore!
Can't remember
Re: The only noble thing a man can do with money is to build a schooner.
Hahhah, Yeah I know the feeling, 'I'm doing this, don't talk to me about that'
I have sailed Arcturus, ( Alden 390 )a boat which to loosely paraphrase the Carrick comments, is a bit porky. She performs amazingly well to windward but of course she's nearly as despicable as a ketch , being a staysail schooner 'n all.
Damn efficiency... gets in the way quite a bit.
Our last offshore was a 1000 miles to weather, mostly about 50 degrees or so apparent. One leg shortened up and I could only walk in circles when we hit the dock.
Senior Member
Re: The only noble thing a man can do with money is to build a schooner.
Come now. You can sail more boat with less hands on a schooner than any other rig. The smaller main alone makes it so. And you can always reef it and pretend it's a ketch.Schooners are beautiful, romantic , lovely things, but there are reasons that (edit:THE) worlds bi-poler fleet is overwhelmingly ketch rigged. Its to do with the sailing part.
'Schooners have their masts in bass akwards'. Did I beat that schooner guy to the quote this time, did I, eh ?
Schooner Cruising
Re: The only noble thing a man can do with money is to build a schooner.
Try doing the opposite. How do you play schooner with a ketch??
Dreaming a schooner since 1988:
Senior Member
Re: The only noble thing a man can do with money is to build a schooner.
Invite a bunch of guests who drink too little , wear inflatable PFDs, and pull out guitars and start singing David Crosby songs … that’s how
Try doing the opposite. How do you play schooner with a ketch??
try that chit on my boat … the gitar gets braken
Last edited by wizbang 13; 02-07-2023 at 04:25 AM.
Senior Member
Re: The only noble thing a man can do with money is to build a schooner.
Fill it with beer. It'd be a big waste of beer just to play schooner.
Try doing the opposite. How do you play schooner with a ketch??
Besides the schooner crew is what needs to be filled with beer!
Schooner sailors love to get blown offshore!
Old enough to know better
Re: The only noble thing a man can do with money is to build a schooner.
I have never owned a schooner or a ketch, though my sister had a nice ketch for some years and I got to play with mizzen staysails and what have you.
When I owned this cutter, I had a poor opinion of going to windward:
Now I own this cutter, I think going to windward is fun:
IMAGINES VEL NON FUERINT
Can't remember
Re: The only noble thing a man can do with money is to build a schooner.
Double reefed main and full mizzen our boat is very close to schooner, so close I can't remember if it is or not.
Great sea rig for 25 through 45 knot days, just stay in the cockpit and toggle the mizzen up and down .. reefed or dropped.
Senior Member
Re: The only noble thing a man can do with money is to build a schooner.
When I sailed I-14s, I thought going to weather was brutal. When we adopted 2 trapezes, we were able to plane to windward. I thought this was fun...for about 10 minutes! I soon realized, however, that everything I hated about upwind sailing was twice as worse; it just lasted half as much less time.
If I really wanted to be cold and wet and miserable while sailing, I'd move to Great Brittain where I could be cold and wet and miserable while reaching.
Life's a reach, and then you jibe!
Last edited by SchoonerRat; 02-08-2023 at 12:24 PM.
Schooner sailors love to get blown offshore!
Senior Member
Re: The only noble thing a man can do with money is to build a schooner.
A boat that don’t get wet going to Windward does not go to Windward.
I am DONE with getting wet on a boat
done
Can't remember
Re: The only noble thing a man can do with money is to build a schooner.
All very well if you live somewhere you can do that. The place I lived for most of my life inevitably required a beat back home into a 20 knot SW. The changeable and inconsistent nature of the winds here being a primary reason why some types just did not succeed here. Small trading vessels might have been schooners but evolved to ketch. Catboats were tried but couldn't keep up with sloop/cutter rigs and died as a rig here.
But you trade wind , dial it up / depend on it wind direction types get to choose , which is good. I despise running ddw myself and unless it's short I'd much rather run angles. Reaching of course is sweet but if we want to go anywhere safely 'cruisers on the wind'.. say 40 to 60 apparent is required.
Senior Member
Re: The only noble thing a man can do with money is to build a schooner.
Just to make things clear - schooners can go to weather - just not really efficiently. In a nose to nose battle upwind, a sloop will have a decided advantage over a schooner, but the schooner will still make it home safely.
Schooner sailors love to get blown offshore!
Can't remember
Re: The only noble thing a man can do with money is to build a schooner.
Yes I agree , we had some great battles over the years between us on Waione and my buddy Bruce on Arcturus, she's quite a bit bigger and might get away in some weather but there is nothing wrong with her performance at all. She's one of my dream boats, not that I could maintain her like Bruce has, or afford the cool million to buy her. Someone should though, a fantastic boat.
She arrived here so full of fastenings the wood was just holding hands, was stripped to the shell and a new hull and frames built over her. Awesome boat , not a word I use lightly.
Senior Member
Re: The only noble thing a man can do with money is to build a schooner.
You should talk to Bernadette, she's built a couple of them…...
Senior Member
Re: The only noble thing a man can do with money is to build a schooner.
Much depends on the boat and the rig. Ranger's spars were pretty close to the same height, and she was a centerboarder. Upwind, she was a pig, but I was still confident in her ability to claw her way off a lee shore in a blow, and off the wind she carried a huge golly. Kelpie's fore was much shorter than her main, giving her a higher aspect ratio rig. She went to weather like a banshee, but the golly she could carry was a postage stamp in comparison and she couldn't crank her keel up into her belly like Ranger could.
Schooner sailors love to get blown offshore!
words beside picture
Re: The only noble thing a man can do with money is to build a schooner.
no, I have only just built the one gaff schooner.
I do love gaff schooners, I would say they are my all time favourite having also sailed on the larger schooner (52' Providence V) my father built as well...but I always go back to gaff cutters for a number of reasons. I think the cutter is the best all rounder.
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