Kurt Jon Ulmer wrote:Hi Jeff,
  
    
  
  
    Imagine for a moment, that in place of a refrigerator compressor, or a second propulsion system belted onto the propeller shaft, or a diesel tank that can never be serviced, or any other contrivance that takes up space and needs servicing, even any diesel motor at all... you had...
  
  
    
  
  
    
  
  
                        air
  
  
    
  
  
    
  
  
    
  
  
    We enjoy having a lot of it, and it neither gets in the way nor ever needs fixing and it floats.
  
  
    
  
  
    In a smaller boat, its value might be even higher.
  
  
    
  
  
    Cheers,
  
  
    Kurt
  
  
    
  
A good point, but I'm too chicken.  The biggest boat I've ever sailed was a 17 foot open sloop, pointy flavor, and that several decades ago.  It didn't have a motor; if I needed to "power" it into some crowded slip or somesuch I sat straddle the bow and paddled with a short handled paddle.  There'd be none of that with 8,000 pounds of Seablossom and the bow a meter off the water.  I could try a yuloh, but I'm not sure how I'd back out of a slip with one.
  There isn't an ocean around here, and in truth probably not one in my future, so it's lakes and marinas and the tools to make them usable.  I hope to sail into a slip one day, but so far I have never even seen anybody attempt it at the marina I'm most likely to use.  Of course, they don't have junk rigs.  :-)