Boating Know-How with Mike Saylor

I’ll take a set of oars over an outboard

I don’t know why I wrote a column on outboards.

I hate the darn things. I’ve never owned an outboard that I trusted, that didn’t let me down. Wait a minute … maybe it wasn’t the outboards. Maybe the problem rests with me.

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The virtues of speed, or the lack thereof

On May 12, my wife and I noticed, in a heavily clouded sky, a large, very black area to the north/northeast. We couldn’t see the cloud itself, only its effect.

The wind was a light south/southwest. By rotating to our right 30 degrees and watching the left-to-right cloud movement overhead, we knew conditions were deteriorating. (We were on land, but had we been at sea our rotation would’ve been 15 degrees to the right.)

With lightning, it’s respect and protect

One thing that sure scares me is lightning.

From the time we’re kids we’re warned about sheltering under a tree during a thunderstorm, since trees are tall and can attract lightning. On the water — whether you’re in a power- or sailboat — you are the tallest thing out there.

Close calls, near misses and Lady Luck

Near misses, I’ve had a few. Most of what I write about in this column comes from personal experience.

More marlinspike seamanship

Marlinspike seamanship keeps coming up because it’s so important.

It separates the men (and women) from the boys (and girls). It’s important to know about rope and its construction, even if you don’t make your own splices. Every boat uses rope — or line, when it has a purpose on board.

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