Highs and Lows of Marine Retailers.

I have been holding out on you for purely selfish reasons. I waited to tell you about the best darned marine book selection until I found the last book I really, really wanted. Yes, West Marine will carry a few books and you can always order books online but if you are like me and kind of enjoy hunting for a bargain then these options will not satisfy as much as hunting and gathering in person. Maybe its a girl thing, this need to seek and find an object and bring it home.

The best darned marine book selection ever is at the Half Price Books store in Clear Lake. While they don't get everything in stock and you do have to be willing to wait and to dig a bit, the selection of sailing related books at bargain prices is pretty darned amazing. While they say that the books will be sold at half off the retail price, they run sales fairly often. So often that I've picked up excellent books- both helpful and just entertaining such as Chapman's Piloting brand new for around $8.00, The Motion of the Ocean for about $6.00, Nigel Calder's Cruising Handbook for around $20 and so many others. (I've included links for those impatient folks who just want to order them, will happily pay shipping and get on with it.)

The one, last book that I have been searching for for literally months finally appeared, I snapped it up happily and paid around $16 plus tax. I scored what I consider to be the best overall, comprehensive book for  long distance sailors- Beth Leonard's Voyager's Handbook.  Yes, I know that time and money I spent on gas searching for it is probably greater than the shipping costs from Amazon but again, thrill of the chase. Girl Thing. Move on.

HPB only had one copy and its now mine and since I no longer have any books I feel like I need to have, I can tell you about the treasure trove that is Half Price Books. Seriously, a really great selection of books that is ever changing and at great prices. A bigger selection than I have seen even at dedicated marine stores.I have to ding Half Price a little though because I think every great book store must have a cat in residence. They used to have a cat but he has not been seen in a year or two. No cat, no 5 stars from me so if you want to get bumped back up to 5 star status get a cat. Preferably a really fat orange one who likes to lounge on the sales counter and really doesn't like anyone but stoically endures everyone lavishing him with praise and affection.

And now for the latest round of marine retail low points. I try to keep my complaints to a minimum but sometimes I get overwhelmed by the sheer lack of business savvy displayed by marine suppliers. I guess maybe they figure since the customer doesn't exactly have a ton of choices that they can strive for mediocrity and we will all just suck it up because again, how many choices do you actually have?

My nominee for the Marketing Genius of the year award goes to Porta-Bote. Mark and I wrestle with what dinghy to purchase and after speaking with folks who have lived with one, seeing them in person at the Annapolis Boat show almost 2 years ago we thought this was the way for us to go. It wouldn't be ideal, but it would allow us to skip davits which we really want to do and if we decided later we needed an inflatable, well those are available pretty much anywhere you find boats. Porta-Botes aren't perfect, but they are tough as nails, easy to stow and have many other attractive attributes but there are some trade offs that are less than desirable.

Then I saw the Porta Bote Crib and low, it appeared that all of the drawbacks I thought we would have to accept would be just washed away. This could be the answer for us! I in my naivete, contacted Porta Bote telling them that I had gotten the information on the Porta Bote, had seen it in person but was really interested in the Porta Crib and could they send me the pricing information and would they have one at the Houston show they would be attending?

Now, I am not going to point out that a company that has sold over 90,000 boats should be able to hire a web designer to put together a real web page that does not look it was originally hosted on Geocities. What I am going to point out is how desperately they need to hire someone with some kind of marketing background. Any Girl Scout who  has served as a cookie pusher would do a better job. When Porta Bote replied to me, they promised to send me the information I requested. They then went on to tell me that no, they would NOT be bringing a CRIB to the Houston Boat Show because IT IS OVER 3 TIMES THE COST OF THE PORTA BOAT AND AT $6000 ITS TOO EXPENSIVE TO BRING TO A BOAT SHOW.

What kind of intellectual giants are they employing? Anyone with even the tiniest bit of marketing savvy would understand that if you are offering a product that is much more expensive than your usual offerings you probably want to, I don't know let people see why its more expensive and to be able to show the value. I could be wrong...no. I am not wrong. People wonder why they don't see more Porta Botes out and about and I think we have the answer. No one there has a clue about marketing.

Oh and when I finally got my information package in the mail it contained the price list for the Porta Bote, which I had explained I already had but absolutely zero information or pricing for the CRIB. So now I have to rethink the whole dinghy option because I am seriously wondering if perhaps they are just too dense to do business with.

So, I am off to go do yet more dinghy research and yacht tender navel gazing. I still think the Portland Pudgy is pretty darned nifty...if only it were just a little bit bigger. *sigh*

Word of the Day: Jack Assery

Today you get a picture of sea bird because while I do try to have themed photos for each post, I've yet to take any photos of roosters on rocks.

The June 2012 issue of Sail arrived in my mail box. Generally, I like Sail. Sure, its filled with eye candy- new boats that most sailors will never order but I am an information junky and I like that their technical articles are dumbed down for simple minded folks to understand. Hey! They write how to articles for me!

I usually don't read the Feedback letters but for some reason, today I did. I think everyone should rush out and read the phenomenal letter on page 16 from Dennis Wright Michaud. No, really you HAVE to see this. The level of snobbery, elitism and just plan jack assery displayed in this letter is simply not to be missed. Ok, you don't have to read it I'll just give you a brief synopsis.

Commenting on a previous story where the wife of a sailing couple contracted ciguatera poisoning, Mr Michaud takes excception to the fact that the able bodied sailor did not immediately seek medical attention for his ill wife. I think people who are sailing their boats around the world are probably old enough and wise enough to determine whether they wish to/need to seek medical treatment but I can see his point somewhat. What galls me is the opinion of this guy  that the sailors in question probably did not seek medical attention for financial reasons. There are so many other reasons they might have skipped it- religious beliefs, accessibility of medical care, a preference for natural health (I could go on and on) but no, Mr. DR. Michaud suspects that their reasons were financial and shame on Sail for for running many articles about "grossly under-financed people vagabonding around the world on a shoestring". Talk about gross assumptions.

But wait! It gets EVEN better. Every single time I try to put into words the feelings that are conjured up by this epistle my left eye starts twitching funny. So let me instead just quote directly Dr. Michaud's last paragraph: "I could have cruised for the past 20 years. Instead I finished my Ph.D, taught at Brown and Yale, started two companies, and now am gearing up to hire over 500 professionals in the Middle East. This is why I can now speak to the folks at S&S about a new custom yacht (which will be U.S.-built) and pay ridiculous yard bills. Frankly, I resent the glorification of sailing vagabonds who are at times viewed as celebrities by the sailing media."

Folks, snobbism in sailing is alive and well and residing in the bitter and jealous heart of Michaud. Fortunately, I haven't run into that many of Denny's ilk otherwise I would conclude that sailing is a sport for jackasses and not being one, it isn't for me. Thank goodness that the majority of sailors we've come across have nothing in common with him.

The folks we've met sailing have come from every walk of life- younger families who've done exceptionally well in business and can leave it all,  retired blue collar workers, dead broke college age kids who have given up security in favor of adventure, retired white collar professionals, hippies, conservatives, Dr.s, middle aged artists, writers, scientists, engineers, painters, musicians, stock brokers- the list goes on and on. Here's the thing, the people that we've met through sailing come from every walk of life imaginable and while we have more affinity for some more than others, economic position has absolutely nothing to do with whether or not we like them.

The people we admire are the folks who try to live life a little differently, who use their ingenuity and creativity to solve problems. We admire people who have an innate ability to read the wind and trim the sails as much as we admire those who can barely get the sails trimmed enough to move the boat but they sail around the world anyway. We like the folks willing to lend a hand, share their experiences and just be all around nice people. We like nice. These are people worthy of glorification in my opinion and I hope to hell SAIL keeps on glorifying these "vagabonds" because if people like Dr. Michaud begin to be glorified (not sure what he's done besides exactly what he was told), well my right eye would start twitching as well. Besides, isn't Forbes kind of already covering the Michauds of the world?

It is probably a really good thing Michaud hasn't been cruising. can you imagine his utter disappointment to sail to a foreignland only to come ashore and find it rife with under financed people? Quel Desastre!