Hey Sailor!

I visited San Francisco a couple of weeks ago to visit my friend Clint. You can read about some of fun here. What didn’t make it into Clint’s post is his love of sailing; the only problem is he doesn’t have a sailboat.

On the way to Alcatraz he confessed his love of the water. Poor Clint, in all of the places he has lived he has never had the opportunity to be a seaman, but now that he is in San Fran the time has finally come.

I’ve compiled a list of reasons of why Clint needs a sailboat (or catamaran, but that’s another argument)

1) Rent: Clint is currently renting a small apartment. Don’t get me wrong it’s nice for one person, but for what he pays he definitely should look at other options. If Clint buys a sailboat he can live on it and have views like this:

Compared with this:

I’m just a simple man, but I like the first view better. In addition to the views he would have equity in something. My understanding of real estate is if you own it not only will you get tax write-offs, but you can sell it for more than you paid for it, apartments not so much.

2) Gas: When I was out in the “City by the Bay” I noticed gas prices were through the roof. According to AAA gas in San Francisco averages $3.40. Clint works at the airport so he driving close to 30 miles a day. Bottom line he is burning through some gas. Let’s look at the alternative; sailboats run off of wind, which last time I checked was $0 thanks to old Mother Nature. The airport is right next to the water so it would be easy to tie the boat off and just walk across a runway to get to his office. So right there the sailboat is paying itself off.

3) Status: Everyone knows that we are judged by society on our possessions. I can’t think of a better “look how well I’m doing” symbol than a sailboat, well a plane would be better, but that’s not an option. As we were cruising over to the Rock I couldn’t help but notice all of the sailboats and think to myself “wow look at all of those wildly successful people”. Another benefit is you can look down on other boat owners that use only gas powered motors, and call them ruffians since they obviously aren’t classy enough to use the traditional means of boating.

Besides money and power that go along with status there is the obvious respect of the opposite sex or same sex, whatever it’s San Francisco don’t judge.

4) Recreation: Clint is a pretty active guy, so he needs a hobby other than drinking and smoking. He talked about wanting to get into sea kayaking while I was visiting. While I agree sea kayaking would be cool, think how much cooler sailing would be. Let compare:

While Barb, the sea kayaker, looks like she is having fun if you look at the people on the sailboat they are laughing about a sea kayaker they just rammed. For Clint’s recreational safety I think the sailboat is a better choice. If he still wants the sea kayak he can strap it on deck and dabble with it in shallow coves.

These are just a few reasons why Clint’s most important decision to make is what he should name his sail boat, my personal choice would be The Don’t Come a Knockin’, but that’s a discussion for another day.