Fishing/Racing Relationships
Popular Mechanics Magazine. October 1930
Perhaps its because I recently spent a weekend racing aboard a fishing boat, but the 1930 article below fills me with joy. Having watched the recent Americas Cup come and go, I was left with an empty feeling inside. It’s not for me to judge how billionaires waste their money, but the obscene amounts required, to just get a boat out on the race course, reflects badly on the values of the participants. Wiktionary describes a “dick-measuring contest” thus…
(vulgar, figuative) A situation in which people (usually men) compete, often over superficial characteristics, to demonstrate their worthiness,power, etc.
I think they nailed it. Contrast this to to a group working fisherman looking for a bit of R&R in the craft and waters that are their daily work place.
“The Rules of the fisherman’s race are few. Each contestant is allowed a crew of twenty men, including the captain, and two invited guests. A representative of the opposing schooner is also carried. There are no time allowances on account of a ship’s tonnage or sail area.”
These boats have an inherent integrity because they are are shaped by the vernacular of their allotted challenging task. Even as the pilot cutters of Western England (or the Couta boats of Port Phillip) have become pleasure craft , they have carried with them an honesty of design that is missing from boats shaped purely by the need for speed, of more recently, three double cabins and two heads.
And in case you are looking for a boat with integrity…here are three interesting ex-working boats for sale
