Good stuff to consider in 2020

John K. Fulweiler, known as The Boating Barrister in Windcheck magazine, offers a lazarette’s worth of things boaters would do well to remember:

• Sailing isn’t a sport…not in the way most of the 50 states understand sports.
• Foiling hulls will never catch on en masse with the recreational boater.
• It’s not the cost of the boat. It’s the upkeep.
• The buoys are there for a reason.
• Sail because you love it, not for any other reason.
• Wearing a brand name is one thing; wearing a store’s brand name is quite another.
• In the face of an emergency, do something. Get your anchor out, lower sails…take action!
• A claimant’s case is won by your attorney taking action. Be the squeaky wheel.
• The folks at big box boating stores are largely nice and largely don’t know squat about boating.
• Always operate with the mindset that your marine insurer is more likely not to pay, than to pay.
• Marine insurers will claim ‘lack of maintenance’ as an alleged basis to decline a claim.
• Confirm things like navigational limit extensions in writing with your insurer/broker.
• Salvors don’t want your boat. They want a salvage award for fixing your fiasco.
• Stop with this ‘we’re giving them a day on the water’ thing and get an inner city kid an Opti and a summer’s worth of sailing lessons! How hard is this?
• Ever considered the racial makeup of folks at a regatta? Boating will only grow and thrive through diversity.
• When you hit something in a center console at 30 knots, you’ll keep going.
• Squinting ahead ‘real hard’ in the face of fog or nighttime conditions doesn’t work. Slow down.
• Learn how to use radar. If you don’t and I’m across from you at a deposition, it won’t go well.
• My flight instructor was right: always keep your head on a swivel. Situational awareness!
• Boats have problems. Stop complaining and pay the yard bill on time.
• If you’ve got a boat for recreating you’ve won life’s lottery, because 99.44% of the huddled masses don’t.
• If you own a boat over 100 feet you should pay a lot of tax. Period. No mas.
• There are too many boats over 100 feet.
• A maritime lien attaches to your boat without any special legal filing.

Comments? Send them to editor@sailingscuttlebutt.com