New kids on the block

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Papax3
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New kids on the block

Post by Papax3 »

hey all !

So, "the next generation" has arrived, and my own kids are among them.
Seems like parents are always toughest on their own kids, and I'm no different... my kids haven't been sucking up the real-world lessons I've been trying to teach them: lazy, over-confident, and simply not paying attention. Nor bothering to do any research on their own. So....

It was with great glee that my oldest (20), took his maiden voyage in an old derelict 18' Hobie Cat I bought him, that I would call "not yet ready for prime-time". We raised the mast, and without a jib, he "set sail" with his younger brother (18). Meanwhile back at the ranch, I was sailing my Chrysler 22 that I put so much work into (work they felt was unnecessary). He never took time to understand his rigging, and you'd swear the rig-fastenings belonged to some boat from Saturn... they made no sense at all: almost as if the mast didn't belong to that boat/ but actually worse.
So mostly he sat in a giant pile of sail, with his brother complaining, and steering them in circles with a paddle, and nearly no wind.... heh, heh. "The fiddle-block didn't work". ~ahem~ there was little wind, so NOTHING worked... but maybe that was just me. Eventually he got the main up, tested for wind by licking his finger and sticking it in the air (really?), and promptly sailed a Hobie directly into the wind, of which there was little. It was hot, and he was going nowhere, when clearly he should have been beating the feathers off me. but I politely sailed circles around him. Finally, he stuck his head in the water because he was getting hot (and I then asked him if he was trying to tell how fast his boat was going).
His maiden voyage ~ the Lake Rangers stopping him for registration and a Safety check {he had none of the required items} ~ was a shell-shocking disaster.

In the end, it rained like hell, we still had very little wind, and I tugged him to shore with the Chrysler, shivering (given that he hadn't planned for that contingency either, though it was obvious he should have). And it was clear he walked away overwhelmed / the know-it-all smugness having disappeared.

It is important to realize that his boating collapse happened in almost no wind at all, really. And it scared the bejeezus out of me, and was {hopefully} the best lesson possible for him. What if he had REAL wind, and a stuck fiddle-block, and no bouyancy at the top of his mast if the Catamaran went sideways in the water... without any life vests, no rope to right it, what if it turtled, etc., etc., etc...

I've realized my kids need to fail, in order to learn (that's my hard lesson). Hopefully, he DID see it as a full-on failure, and will understand my efforts to push those previous lessons in his lap. BUT....

Sometimes... you just gotta let'm loose.

(I did have a pretty good time single-handing, by the way... :lol:
Bill
We're just about finished with refurbishing our Chrysler 22, she's slipped, and ready for fun!

Lake Quachita, HotSprings Arkansas
Bill Williams
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astrorad
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Post by astrorad »

Good story Bill.
Bill
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CaptainScott
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Post by CaptainScott »

Buy them books!
Send them to school!

What do they do?
Eat the books!


LOL!

Great story Bill!

Scott
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Capt. Bondo
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Post by Capt. Bondo »

Good for you Bill!
I hope you took the opportunity to say "I told you so" or Just what were you thinking would happen?"
A sailboat can be great platform to learn lessons, an hopefully lessons that they can apply in life.
Just make sure that a PFD is required.
H:)ppy Place
78 Chrysler 22

You can go to a Zen Master or you can go Sailing, either way you end up in about the same place..... a Happy Place
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astrorad
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Post by astrorad »

Capt. Scott...they eat the teachers!!!
Bill
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CaptainScott
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Post by CaptainScott »

astrorad wrote:Capt. Scott...they eat the teachers!!!
LOL!

Scott
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