T&T: 118 Wally

[Rich Gano]

Marge is an artist and lovely person to boot.  She has a different way of
looking at the Wally despite the fact that she has owned some rather high
quality traditional looking boats.  It's OK to admire something you wouldn't
consider owning.

I looked at an article about the Wally some time back while sitting in the
doctor's office and came away with a lot of different thoughts about the
design, some of which mirror those expressed here.  But, like EVERY boat,
the Wally is designed to fill some perceived need and to perform some
specific function.  I imagine this vessel in calm azure seas of the Med
racing over short runs to "destinations" where the dockhands are standing by
in sparkling white uniforms to assist in mooring as the vessel is used in
entertaining business associates and their girl friends (certainly not their
wives) for short duration cruises - the kind where the marriages performed
by the captain are only good for the duration of the cruise.

Would I own a slow wooden diesel trawler if I had that sort of disposable
income?  Probably not.  In that stratospheric income group, I'd probably not
be the  "boat person" I am with the modest desires I do have for cruising my
boat and the appreciation I have for a traditional vessel in Bristol
condition.  You just cannot begin to compare the sensibilities of people
inclined to actually purchase such a vessel with those of "the rest of us" -
it's an alien culture.  And that's OK.

Rich Gano
CALYPSO (GB-42 #295)
Southport, FL (near Panama City)