My preference is for tiller steered sailboats....tillers are simple, virtually foolproof and cheap to operate and maintain and are relatively easy to rig up some fundamental self-steering system.....although, the Sailing Pundits often remark that the difference between a YACHT and a boat is that a YACHT has wheel steering while a boat is maneuvered with the lowly tiller .........OK so ZOSHA is a boat........nobody ever referred to her as a yacht anyways.....Didya ever notice that these these friggin Sailing Pundits and Forum Holes are experts and have an opinion on everything!!............this said................As we travel our destiny's path there are certain things that seem to often reoccur in our lives that work to interrupt the flow of our Yin and Yang or is it Ying and Yan ???? Whatever!! You know what I mean.....For instance, for my friend Mike its flat tires....this guy has had hundreds of flat tires throughout his life...He'll buy a new set of tires and go out the next morning and one of them will be flat!! Brand new tire flat!......He told me that this type of tire thing has happened to him countless times throughout his life.....the tire fairies do not like this guy! Another near and dear person to me who for the sake of anonymity, I'll call Tana.....has a reoccurring confoundment with Garlic Bread......no matter how hard she tries to not burn it....something always occurs in her existential presence during the few minutes that the bread is in the oven and the next thing we know the bread is ready because the smoke alarm is going off!! BURNT UP DUDE!!!! We're talking charcoal here............Its not her fault....she tries to get the it right.....its just that the garlic bread FATES are having none of it. Mike tries to take care of his tires and rotate them and keep the air pressure right and buy new ones at the first sign of dry rot, but again some cosmic interference won't let this happen......WHY? Don't know...
My haunting is cheek blocks......you know those two pieces of wood bolted to each side of the rudder that keeps the tiller in place ? ZOSHA, my current boat is tiller steered. When I bought her one of the very first things that I examined carefully were the cheek blocks......why?... you ask.....because on my two previous tiller mo gated sailboats, the cheek blocks rotted and had to be reproduced and replaced....A big, expensive, time consuming, PITA, bolt holes don't exactly line up project especially when you're in the water. So with extra special attention to the cheek blocks which were at that time as solid as a Ronald Regan handshake, the decision to make ZOSHA my new love was confirmed. Alas, a beautiful boat with terrific Cheek Blocks.......I'm a happy man!!!! Fast forward a coupla years and attached are some shots of the current state of my cheek blocks.......
Nasty............. !!
I LOVE boats....."Break Out Another Thousand".....
Wonder if I mixed up a little West System putty?? Ya think??
Just another day in the life of an extremely happy man! Oh Oh! gotta go....the smoke alarm is going off.....we're having spaghetti for dinner tonight.....
Take Care my friends...................
