Clyde seems to know his "boaty" stuff.
On the other hand...
Awhile back, one of our charter boat friends sent us her copy of a book recently published by a charter yacht broker. I'm not sure if she was able to get through it, but I read the whole thing as I couldn't believe that it could be so bad.
I'm not going to give the book title or author because it does not deserve any publicity except "Danger, Danger, Will Robinson"... Don't waste your money on this drivel.
It is a fictional book about a Caribbean charter yacht captain in the Virgin Islands. It seems like half of it is about the November charter yacht show (which just happens to have a wonderful & fun charter broker couple who wear matching tropical shirts).
Besides the inane picture it paints of the charter industry, it is full of weirdness like "I heard her feet walking along the freeboard" and "I started walking along the freeboard to the bow"... Does this charter broker not know what freeboard is???
[Freeboard: the distance between the waterline and the main deck or gunwale of a ship]
Another bit that got up my nose is that he doesn't appear to know about furling a mainsail. The author is supposed to know something about boats... "I let the main down into its in-mast stack pack"... "brought the the main sail down into its in-mast cradle"... He does this several times throughout the book. A stack pack, as you know, is on the boom and not part of an in-mast roller furling system.
This captain always seems to have a drink in his hand which is NOT a good thing. We have removed boats from our charter program because of what appears to be a crew drinking problem. It seems like the author thinks this is cool and an attractive trait for his readers... Living, Sailing & Drinking in the Sunny Caribbean... No, the captain & crew are responsible for their guests aboard. Be professional, please!!!
There are so many things in this book that irks me besides the lack of plot, such as using a windless rather than windLASS, and how he always uses the same terms "on-charter" and "off-charter" repeatedly instead of other descriptive phrases for variety, but I will spare you :)
Just had to get this rant out...
I do feel a bit guilty that we are going to throw this book in the trash and not give it to the Animal Shelter for their flea market, but trash is definitely where it belongs.
'nuff said... just my humble opinion, and
So It Goes :)
