Hong Kong Sloopie says

I sail a 73-year-old wooden diesel auxiliary ketch deigned by Hugh Angelman named "Black Dolphin." My wife and I own the boat, but we primarily use it - aside from weekend day sails - as an outdoor classroom at our school in Hong Kong. If you are interested you can check it out here (http://www.ths.edu.hk/the-black-dolphin).

Like you, I am getting a bit older, I turned 68 in December, and I worry about how much longer I'll be able to be a productive member of a crew. I am a licensed captain and have a hired licensed captain as well as a deckhand who also has a captain's license.

They run the boat for school outings. I run it when we go out for a pleasure or PR sail but simply could not sail her without substantial help. Just hoisting the gaff-rigged mainsail is a three person job - one on the helm (me), one on the throat halyard and another one on the peak halyard. It is a lot of work and a lot of expense owning a wooden boat of this age but my wife and I love our boat.

In fact, one of our first dates in the early 1980s before we married was a sail on the only other example of this specific model of an Angelman ketch that is known to us that is located in San Pedro, California, and is named "Resolute" (https://www.facebook.com/ResoluteSailing/). I started sailing aboard Resolute with youth groups in the early 1970s and am fast friends with the family that owns her. When we started looking for a boat they introduced us to the owner of Black Dolphin and helped persuade him to sell.

 

Now we come to the crux of the matter. Why did I donate?

I enjoy your videos immensely. They are thoughtful, intelligently narrated, discuss a subject in which I am very interested - sailing - and allow me to vicariously visit beautiful places I wouldn't otherwise ever visit.  You have a gently humorous presentation style that makes viewers feel welcomed and feel as though they know you. I am incredible envious of your journey and love learning about the coastal features you visit and describe. My father's father was English, his mother Scottish, so I feel a certain affinity for the United Kingdom, besides which, what with the Brexit fiasco, it helps me feel slightly better about our having elected the idiot we did to know there are others out there with voting hangovers.

 

Why didn't I donate sooner? Because you were advising me to donate so I could view higher quality videos from some other source. I was perfectly happy with the quality I was getting on YouTube so no need. However, losing this source of entertainment entirely came as a bit of a shock to me. Yes, I will donate to keep you busy. And, by the way, I feel I have gotten more than my money's worth already so if you never publish another video I won't complain.

 

Sorry for the lengthy reply but I have pressing work issues with which I must deal immediately so this gave me a perfectly good reason to procrastinate!

 

C
This is about Dylan Winter's Blog, Sailing around Britain.

One Response to “Hong Kong Sloopie says”

  1. 16 February, 2017 at 7:36 pmJustin says:

    What a beautiful boat and a good sense of humour.

Leave a Reply to Justin