Re: [Paddlewise] black hulls

Melissa said:
<snip>
<<<A boat, like a fine musical instrument, expresses her beauty in many
ways...through the lives she touches (and who's lives touch her), and
the places she's been. Each time you "repair" a scratch on your boat,
you erase a little evidence of your own journey. Do you really want to
do that just now?

When somebody gazes upon the lovely scratches on your boat's hull,
perhaps their daydreams of the places you've been will launch their own
dreams of where they might someday go. :-)
<snip>

It's the lovely scratches that continue up the side of the hull and over
the deck on my boat that speak of past trips that might not inspire too
many daydreams in others. I have almost as many vertical scratches as
horizontal, longitudanal ones. I need to refinish the kayak every few
years, lest daydreaming observers of hulls get the wrong idea about
touring sea-yaks.

Then there's the instructor-trainee from our club who didn't see a
freighter wake coming at Race Rocks, so got scratched up real bad,
especially his hand which he used to push off the barnacles with. I
would have sacrificed my paddle, not my hand, attempting to save the
hull. I'd have let my paddle speak tacitly of adventures past, not my
hand. Kind of like, "Talk to the paddle, not the hand."

Hey, then there's that Duane guy. Glad he didn't drill those holes in
plastic, Plastic, PLASTIC! That would have been a little harder to
repair than fiberglass.

And of course, there's that reverend guy in Alaska who had some kind of
boat abuse testing thing going on a few years back.

Anyway, fine posting again, as usual Melissa. However, if we meet in the
surf some day, I do hope the lives your boat touches doesn't include me
(go for the boardies instead). :-)

Doug L



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