When do they stop being boats....???

Yesterday, there it was....just laying there in my PO Box waiting for me to pick it up, take it home, and eagerly tear thru its pages of nautical wonderment and expert sailing advice from a plethora of its staff  of world renown nautical pundits....Yes, you guessed it it is the March 2012 #1 Sailing Magazine in the WORLD....now that  is their editor's boast not mine but I'll take em' for their word.  Actually, in my opinion, this mag is becoming more and more like a monthly sales brochure for yacht brokers and boat builders than a real sailing magazine.....this months boat that we all must have has a spacious
U-shaped dinette in the cockpit that seats 6-8 people...WOW!....it has a hydraulic platform on the stern that lowers into the water to serve as a dingy dock/swim platform...WOW..WOW!...it has it has a spiral staircase up from the cockpit to a fly bridge where the "skippers business" can be performed...."skippers business??"...spiral staircase!!...DOUBLE WOW X 2!.....it has a "penthouse living room" with large L-shaped galley with a dishwasher, full size refrigerator/freezer, sole to ceiling wine rack, 32" flat screen TV on the bulkhead facing a settee than can seat 8 with a dinette table that lowers into a coffee table...TRIPLE WOW X 4!....it has 4 four staterooms each with its own head and shower.......GOGGLE WOW!!  Oh yes, there were 17 sentences in this feature article that mentioned that this was a sailboat and it had electric winches, a carbon fiber wheel, and a square-top main and there were mesh fronted boxes to stow sheet tails.....I wonder if the author really knows what a sheet tail is?? Oh Yeah...the article also mentioned the boat can get 6.5-7 knots @2000 RPM burning 1.3 gallons per hour on one engine......8 knots at @2200 RPM with both engines running.....Man what a boat.....right? this monstrosity is a sailboat isn't it?.....it has to be....it's in a sailing magazine....It never ceases to amaze me what a person can buy for $1,640,000.00......!!!!
In a couple of months, June 30, 2012 to be exact, the 18th Singlehanded Biennial Trans-Pacific Race from San Francisco, California to Hanalei Bay, Kauai, Hawaii will start. This race is 2120 nautical miles across the Pacific Ocean...ALONE!!! and is sponsored by the Singlehanded Sailing Society.
I thought that you might like an introduction to the boats who are signed up for this event as of the date of this blog:
Pearson Triton 28' -Darwind;  Crowther Catamaran 33'-Rainbow;   Ericson 27'- Little Bo Peep; Westsail 32'-Tortuga;   PJ 50'-Scaramouche V;   Express 27'-TAZ;   Open 50'-Truth;
Cal 40'-Green Buffalo;   Moore 24'-US101;   Moore 24'-Rushmore;   Wyliecat 30'-Bandiloot;
Nauticat 44'-Galaxsea;   Finn Flyer 30'-Harrier;   Tartan 10, 33'-Slacker.  A couple of things to take note of here: 1. This is REAL sailing,  2. These are real sailors,  3. Notice how many of the entrants are under 30 feet LOA, 4. Notice how many of the entrants are 40 feet LOA or longer, 5. Its probably a safe bet to wager that there is not a spiral staircase, sole to ceiling wine rack, dishwasher, vibrating settee for 8 or walk-in refrigerator freezer in the entire fleet!!  But then again the cut-off for entries is May 1, 2012...............the sun is finally out today so I'm gonna go down to ZOSHA and ........pound a few brews...its Sunday!!!
Take care my friends.............................