Sailors are often misunderstood and, to us, it's no suprise. Some people just don't get moving through the water (or anywhere) without fossil fuels doing all the work. A Snipe sailor (Lufferboy) signed up with some great comments about registering his boat:
'Not really near any planned events, but plan to get my Snipe out of mothballs and sail on our local lake. Most of the other boaters out there are fishing, jet-skiing, wakeboarding or going way too fast and way too loud.'
Sailboats are so unusual that the conversation to get my boating permit went something like this after I handed in my permit application…
"You have to fill in what motor you have"
"I don't have a motor."
"Well how are you going to move the boat?"
"See right here where I wrote 'sailboat'?...'"
"Yes."
"Well, that's how. With the sails."
"I'm sorry if I was unclear. I'm talking about your motor, not your sails."
"I don't have a motor. It's a sailboat."
"Well, how are you going to get it out on the lake to sail?"
"I put up the sails and the wind makes it move."
"Do you have oars?" "No, but I have a paddle in case . . . "
"Okay, that's what I mean. Where it says 'engine type', we'll just put 'paddle'."
"What? A paddle isn't an eng . . . I mean, yeah, okay, that's a good idea. Thank you."
She finally gave me a permit, but wasn't happy about it. Especially when I asked if there might be a discount for non-motorized craft.'
