It's pretty funny...almost everyone chooses a boat for the wrong
reasons. They buy a full keel crabcrusher for rumors of it being
seaworthy. They buy a tight cabin 30 footer certain they'll only race
and daysail. Of course the tiny cabin enforces this, even as they
realize the mistake. They buy a cheap boat with no positive sailing
atrributes and no care in the design. They buy a slow, heavy yacht,
expecting hurricanes and wind driven spray every other day.

The TRUTH is that 99% of us sail within sight of land, and many in
protected waters like my Long Island Sound. Here's how to make a smart
choice:

1) Buy a boat like the 35s5 which will be able to sail in light air as
well as fresh breezes. While Mooron's boat sails okay in light air it's
hardly entertaining.
2) Don't buy a boat for it's interior. There are boats with bigger
interiors than the 35s5, but all that volume won't be used 90% of the
time and performance with suffer.
3) Choose a fractional rig like the 35s5. A fractional rig is more
tunable and often these boats will sail like big dinghies under the
main alone. Perfect for shorthanded sailing.
4) Choose a boat that's FAST. Fast = fun and you can always
depower/reef your sails when you want to relax.
5) Choose a boat like the 35s5 for a large comfortable cockpit and
deckspace. You'll spend most of your time above deck.
6) Install air conditioning if you live in a hot climate. Sorry, but
it's not healthy to be inside a boat when it's 90 degrees. In fact
studies show that temperatures above 85 degrees impact breathing and
mental processes.
7) Be comfortable. A sailboat is a home away from home if you cruise or
weekend. It's not some excuse to prove you can suffer. Make it
comfortable for the crew and yourself. Working sailors have always
brought as much of their homes as possible.

If anyone tells you other than the above, they're probably frustrated
frauds who think a boat somehow makes them better people. An asshole
like Scotty Potty or Loco buy a boat and simply become assholes with
boats.
So choose your boat wisely as I did. The 35s5 is not just one of the
fastest boats here, it's also one of the best designs for performance
cruising and daysailing.

Robert B
Beneteau 35s5
NY

"Capt. Rob" wrote in message
oups.com...

It's pretty funny...almost everyone chooses a boat for the wrong
reasons. They buy a full keel crabcrusher for rumors of it being
seaworthy. They buy a tight cabin 30 footer certain they'll only race
and daysail. Of course the tiny cabin enforces this, even as they
realize the mistake. They buy a cheap boat with no positive sailing
atrributes and no care in the design. They buy a slow, heavy yacht,
expecting hurricanes and wind driven spray every other day.

The TRUTH is that 99% of us sail within sight of land, and many in
protected waters like my Long Island Sound. Here's how to make a smart
choice:

1) Buy a boat like the 35s5 which will be able to sail in light air as
well as fresh breezes. While Mooron's boat sails okay in light air it's
hardly entertaining.
2) Don't buy a boat for it's interior. There are boats with bigger
interiors than the 35s5, but all that volume won't be used 90% of the
time and performance with suffer.
3) Choose a fractional rig like the 35s5. A fractional rig is more
tunable and often these boats will sail like big dinghies under the
main alone. Perfect for shorthanded sailing.
4) Choose a boat that's FAST. Fast = fun and you can always
depower/reef your sails when you want to relax.
5) Choose a boat like the 35s5 for a large comfortable cockpit and
deckspace. You'll spend most of your time above deck.
6) Install air conditioning if you live in a hot climate. Sorry, but
it's not healthy to be inside a boat when it's 90 degrees. In fact
studies show that temperatures above 85 degrees impact breathing and
mental processes.

Is it healthy to be outside in 90 degree heat? Since most of the critical
decisions of yachting are made at the helm, shouldn't the cockpit then be
enclosed and air conditioned? By this reasoning alone, you have purchased
the wrong boat.

Another factor is that breathing salt spray raises blood pressure and
induces asthma in those prone to it. Shouldn't your cockpit be enclosed?

The sun increases the percieved temperature and can cause maladies such as
skin cancer, heat exhaustion and headache. Shouldn't your cockpit be
enclosed?

You didn't make the mistake of buying a 35S5 DID YOU?



7) Be comfortable. A sailboat is a home away from home if you cruise or
weekend. It's not some excuse to prove you can suffer. Make it
comfortable for the crew and yourself. Working sailors have always
brought as much of their homes as possible.

If anyone tells you other than the above, they're probably frustrated
frauds who think a boat somehow makes them better people. An asshole
like Scotty Potty or Loco buy a boat and simply become assholes with
boats.
So choose your boat wisely as I did. The 35s5 is not just one of the
fastest boats here, it's also one of the best designs for performance
cruising and daysailing.

Robert B
Beneteau 35s5
NY

H-m-m-m-m... shiny, wobbly and loaded with stink bait! :-).... I'll bite....

"Capt. Rob" wrote in message

1) Buy a boat like the 35s5 which will be able to sail in light air as
well as fresh breezes. While Mooron's boat sails okay in light air it's
hardly entertaining.

Heh Dude.... we can break out the cockpit tabe, sit eight and have a game
of poker in light air while the vessel sails herself and the crew plays
guitar, mouth harp and banjo. Now that's entertainment!!

2) Don't buy a boat for it's interior. There are boats with bigger
interiors than the 35s5, but all that volume won't be used 90% of the
time and performance with suffer.

Make certain the head is tiny... keeps out the fat chicks!

3) Choose a fractional rig like the 35s5. A fractional rig is more
tunable and often these boats will sail like big dinghies under the
main alone. Perfect for shorthanded sailing.

No way Man..... I don't like fractionals at all. I don't like fin keelers
either.

4) Choose a boat that's FAST. Fast = fun and you can always
depower/reef your sails when you want to relax.

If you want fast... try a float plane or a unlimited class ocean racer with
big turbo diesels. Otherwise it's a difference of maybe 2 or 3 knots.

5) Choose a boat like the 35s5 for a large comfortable cockpit and
deckspace. You'll spend most of your time above deck.

Have a decent dodger and BTW - my cockpit is as big as yours. Can you lift
the cockpit sole, access your engine, strap a hoist to the boom and lift
your motor from the engine compartment and swing it neatly into the back of
a pick-up truck? I can.

6) Install air conditioning if you live in a hot climate. Sorry, but
it's not healthy to be inside a boat when it's 90 degrees. In fact
studies show that temperatures above 85 degrees impact breathing and
mental processes.

AC is the absolute worst thing for your health. It promotes colds and
impairs the body's ability to adjust to temperature changes. It's a very
lubberly thing Bob. I use proper ventilation and wind scoops. I have never
turned on an AC unit aboard even in the tropics for extended sails.

7) Be comfortable. A sailboat is a home away from home if you cruise or
weekend. It's not some excuse to prove you can suffer. Make it
comfortable for the crew and yourself. Working sailors have always
brought as much of their homes as possible.

If anyone tells you other than the above, they're probably frustrated
frauds who think a boat somehow makes them better people. An asshole
like Scotty Potty or Loco buy a boat and simply become assholes with
boats.
So choose your boat wisely as I did. The 35s5 is not just one of the
fastest boats here, it's also one of the best designs for performance
cruising and daysailing.

What exactly is "Performance Cruising"??? Seems like an oxymoron. I lived
aboard my boat for 9 years. My boat has comfortably accomodated 5 people for
4 weeks on an extended fishing trip. I know someone with a large family and
a 42 ft crab crusher used only for daysails and weekends. They are happy
with their boat. Working Sailors do not bring anything more than a duffel
bag aboard. An asshole with a boat was probably an asshole long before they
got a boat. You should keep that last comment in mind the next time you
post! :-)

CM

sit eight and have a game
of poker in light air while the vessel sails herself and the crew plays

guitar, mouth harp and banjo.


Why sail at all. Stay home and pretend and save on the gas.

No way Man..... I don't like fractionals at all. I don't like fin keelers
either.

Sounds like a trawler is in your future.


Otherwise it's a difference of maybe 2 or 3 knots.

A difference of 2 or 3 knots is huge. Not only does th speed add a fun
factor, it might also get you to a destination on a light air day
without resorting to the engine.

Have a decent dodger and BTW - my cockpit is as big as yours.

Actually it isn't.

Can you lift
the cockpit sole, access your engine, strap a hoist to the boom and
lift
your motor from the engine compartment and swing it neatly into the
back of
a pick-up truck?

Nope. The engine fits neatly through the companionway. Why would I put
it on a truck? It only has 250 hours and I'm at a full service yard.


AC is the absolute worst thing for your health. It promotes colds and

impairs the body's ability to adjust to temperature changes.

A total myth. I rarely get colds, my wife never does and my son has yet
to be sick at all. We have AC of course. The key is to know how to use
a climate control system at home or on a boat. I doubt you even know
why temperature can effect health and how to control it properly. You
learn a few things when your wife works in Critical Care.

What exactly is "Performance Cruising"???

Well of course you wouldn't know. You own a turtle with sails.
Performance cruising refers to a vessel which splits duty between
cruisability and fast sailing. And so my 35s5 is faster than most
cruising boats like yours, or Island Packets, Bristols, Catalinas,
Pearsons and so on. But it's not as fast as a stripped out C&C 34r or
J-35. It scores great on speed and very good on comfort. If you
actually enjoy sailing my boat is more rewarding. If you're out there
for some sea air, the water and drinking any boat will pretty much do.
On the LIS, a boat like yours crawls in the light winds. And Mooron, I
LIKE your boat. It's certainly well built and great for trips. But for
the type of sailing many of us do, it's the wrong boat.

Robert B
35s5

AC is the absolute worst thing for your health. It promotes colds and

impairs the body's ability to adjust to temperature changes.

A total myth. I rarely get colds, my wife never does and my son has yet
to be sick at all. We have AC of course. The key is to know how to use
a climate control system at home or on a boat. I doubt you even know
why temperature can effect health and how to control it properly. You
learn a few things when your wife works in Critical Care.


A baby develops his immune system by being exposed to germs and the like. An
AC environment removes those germs, pollens, etc. Asthma is much more
prevelant in those who grew up in spanking clean environments.

Your wife works on critically sick people. That doesn't make her an expert
on healthy living. Heat can be benefcial to the body. Ever hear of saunas?
Hot tub? Heat therapy? Diathermy?

You're an idiot!

On the LIS, a boat like yours crawls in the light winds.

LOL................. Hey, wait until your out on LIS in light air with
that frac rig. Most people who know ANYTHING know that a masthead is
the way to go for places like LIS and the Chesapeake. So in conclusion
it looks like you picked the wrong boat yourself. You'll be motoring
as usual.

A baby develops his immune system by being exposed to germs and the
like. An
AC environment removes those germs, pollens, etc. Asthma is much more
prevelant in those who grew up in spanking clean environments.


Air conditioning does zero to eliminate germs and bacteria. In fact, if
humidity levels are wrong it can for HIGHER risks. You truly don't know
what you're talking about.

RB

LOL................. Hey, wait until your out on LIS in light air with
that frac rig. Most people who know ANYTHING know that a masthead is
the way to go for places like LIS and the Chesapeake.


Huh? Tons of fractional rigs here, especially for the boats who
actually go out sailing FAST. My boat has better light air ability than
yours! You forget I've already sailed J-Boats, 34R with mod rig, and
35s5 here. No way would I go back to the masthead rig. Too limited,
though it's good for older chaps like you.

RB
35s5

You didn't make the mistake of buying a 35S5 DID YOU?


I agree with all of your points. Sadly, a pilothouse vessel meeting our
requirements was not available. I love PH boats, but I want one that
sails fast.

RB

Air conditioning in and of itself does not remove anything. It is the air
conditioner filter than removes the particulates. It can remove germs,
especially when they are on particulates.

Now with regards to my claims about the immune system:

http://www.sciencenews.org/pages/sn_...14_99/bob2.htm

Modern Hygiene's Dirty Tricks
The clean life may throw off a delicate balance in the immune system
By Siri Carpenter


Too clean? Antiseptic surroundings may not allow a child's immune system to
practice fighting off germs. (Superstock)
Sweeping along 14th-century trade routes, an infectious agent left a trail
of incomparable devastation throughout Asia and Europe. In China, this
plague slashed the population from 125 million to 90 million by the
century's end. In Cairo, the Black Death-so called because of the dark,
swollen lymph nodes that characterize the disease-claimed 7,000 lives a day
at its height. Before it subsided, the plague had wiped out one-third of
Europe's population.

In most of the world today, the plague has receded to a distant, if
gruesome, memory. So, too, at least in developed countries, have smallpox,
typhoid fever, cholera, diphtheria, and polio declined. One by one,
infectious diseases that once ravaged society and preyed especially on
children have been quelled by better sanitation, antibiotics, and
vaccinations.

While raising barricades against deadly scourges, however, the
industrialized world has also shielded people from the microbes and
parasites that do no harm. Does it matter?

A growing number of scientists now suspect that stamping out these innocuous
organisms is weakening some parts of children's immune systems, allowing
other parts to grow unchecked. Such an imbalance, they theorize, triggers a
host of illnesses, including asthma, allergies, and even such autoimmune
diseases as rheumatoid arthritis and the most severe type of diabetes.

This notion, called the hygiene hypothesis, arose from scientists' inability
to explain the rising prevalence of asthma and allergies in many developed
nations. The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute estimates that in the
United States, for example, the incidence of asthma is now 1.75 times what
it was in 1980, and for children less than 4 years old, 2.60 times the
earlier incidence.

Pollution and allergens-such as mold and pollen-can take some of the blame,
but not all of it. "One needs an explanation" for these trends, says Graham
A.W. Rook of the University College London Medical School, who is one of the
chief advocates of the hygiene hypothesis. "People should be getting
healthier, not less healthy."

For several years, investigators have been uncovering signs that illness can
result when the immune system lacks practice fighting bacteria and viruses.
This evidence, however, has been circumstantial and too sparse to convince
most scientists.

"It's greeted with some skepticism, and quite rightly, because we need more
evidence," says Richard Beasley of the University of Otago's Wellington (New
Zealand) School of Medicine. "In many respects, it's still early days, but
the evidence is starting to build."

Recently, several epidemiological and experimental studies have converged to
put the hygiene hypothesis on firmer ground. Some researchers are already
trying to create vaccines that mimic potentially crucial immune effects of
the microbes that society has banished.



According to the hygiene hypothesis, the immune system is like a set of
scales that sometimes tips sharply enough to send a person's health
tumbling.

One arm of the immune system deploys specialized white blood cells, called
Th1 lymphocytes, that direct an assault on infected cells throughout the
body. Counterbalancing this, another arm of the immune system tries to hit
the intruders even earlier. It produces antibodies that block dangerous
microbes from invading the body's cells in the first place. This latter
strategy exploits a different variety of white blood cells, called Th2
lymphocytes. The Th2 system also happens to drive allergic responses to
foreign organisms.

At birth, an infant's immune system appears to rely primarily on the Th2
system. According to the hygiene hypothesis, the Th1 system can grow
stronger only if it gets exercise, either through fighting infections or
through encounters with certain harmless microbes. Without such
stimulation-and ordinary colds and flu don't seem to do the trick-the Th2
system flourishes and the immune system teeters toward allergic responses.

Early support for this view came from Julian M. Hopkin, now at the
University of Wales Swansea, and his colleagues. In 1997, they reported on a
study of 867 Japanese children given a vaccine against tuberculosis. Those
who showed a strong Th1 response-indicating previous exposure to the
bacterium that causes the disease-had far fewer allergies and asthma than
did those who didn't show a Th1 response.

Furthermore, among the children who had allergies, some showed a decrease in
allergy symptoms after receiving the vaccine. The ones with a strong Th1
response to the tuberculosis vaccine were six to nine times as likely to
benefit as were children who did not have such a response.

In the past, some scientists speculated that the Th1 system required
periodic infections, particularly in childhood, in order to develop
properly, but most researchers now dispute that idea. Rook argues that the
main problem may be that kids have become too squeaky clean. He suspects
that children need contact not with disease-causing agents but with
innocuous microbes in soil and untreated water-particularly organisms called
mycobacteria-to give the Th1 system enough of a workout.

"The [lymphocytes] have got to be kind of marinated in this stuff in the
early years of life," he says. If they aren't, he says, the Th2 system grows
ever stronger, priming the immune system to overreact to allergens.




Mycobacteria (red) found in dirt and untreated water may help people
cultivate a well-balanced immune system. (Hopkin)
Recent epidemiological research has further hinted that the cleanest
environments may be the best breeding grounds for allergies and asthma. In
the January Journal of Clinical and Experimental Allergy, Swiss researchers
reported that hay fever was less common for farm children than for urban
children or for rural children who didn't live on farms.

Several years ago, scientists found that children in large
families-particularly the younger siblings of brothers-had fewer allergies
than children in small families did. Researchers speculated that exposure to
the germs brought home by older siblings protected the younger children from
allergies.

Bolstering that idea, a study in the Feb. 6 Lancet found that children from
small families who entered day care before age 1 were less likely to develop
allergies than those who entered day care later. No such difference emerged
for children from larger families, suggesting that early day care may have
stood in for the protection provided by dirty older siblings.

The antibiotics that thwart infectious diseases may also be spurring some
immune disorders by killing off beneficial bacteria (SN: 11/22/97, p. 332).
In the November 1998 Thorax, Hopkin and his colleague Sadaf Farooqi, now of
Adenbrookes Hospital in Cambridge, England, reported that children who
received oral antibiotics by age 2 were more susceptible to allergies than
children who had no antibiotics, a finding that Beasley's group in New
Zealand recently replicated.

The results, says Hopkin, may indicate that antibiotic treatment, which
depletes the harmless bacteria within the gut, derails normal immune
development in early life. A study in the May 1 Lancet by researchers in
Sweden reinforced that idea: Children from families that avoid antibiotics
and vaccinations have fewer allergies than other children do.

Encouraged by the epidemiological studies that support the hygiene
hypothesis, some investigators are now trying to prevent illness by pumping
up the Th1 system artificially. A team led by Stephen Holgate at the
University of Southampton in England is conducting human trials of a
Th1-inducing vaccine to counter asthma. The vaccine is made from a
mycobacterium called SRL172. In a preliminary analysis, the vaccine appears
to dampen asthma patients' symptoms, the researchers announced last month.
They should complete further immunological and clinical analyses by the end
of September.

Despite promising advances, however, scientists acknowledge the limitations
of the hygiene hypothesis. "We're desperately oversimplifying," says Rook.
"We don't understand, really, why sometimes Th2 responses go crazy. Even I
don't think [Th1-Th2 balance] is going to be the whole story. These are
terribly complicated phenomena."



Without proper training early in life, some research suggests, the immune
system can grow confused and lash out at inappropriate targets, including
digested foods in the gut. At the University of Iowa in Iowa City, Joel V.
Weinstock, David E. Elliott, and Robert W. Summers are examining the
possibility that immune imbalances may contribute to the rising incidence of
inflammatory bowel disease, a condition in which the lining of the
intestines becomes chronically inflamed.

Unlike Rook, however, the Iowa researchers propose that the scales tip too
sharply toward Th1 responses, leaving the Th2 response weakened. "Overall, I
would disagree with Dr. Rook that we have severely altered our Th1
exposures," Elliott says. "It's true that we've limited our exposure to
tuberculosis, and many of the viral agents have been controlled by vaccines.
However, we still contact many, many viruses and bacteria that provide us
with more than adequate Th1 experience."

Weinstock's group proposes that the Th1 dominance stems from a lack of
parasitic worms called helminths. Despite parasites' bad reputation, the
researchers contend that helminths are important members of the intestinal
community. Throughout evolution, they say, the human immune system has grown
to depend on helminths to suppress overly aggressive Th1 responses to
bacteria, viruses, and dietary proteins. Because modern sanitation has
largely eliminated intestinal parasites, the immune system sometimes begins
to attack the lining of the gut.

In May, the scientists reported at the annual meeting of the American
Gastroenterological Association in Orlando, Fla., results of experiments in
which they induced in mice a condition similar to inflammatory bowel
disease. Mice deliberately infected with helminths, however, were protected
from the disease. Collaborating with another group, Weinstock's team has
begun to investigate similar treatments for animals with autoimmune
disorders, in which the immune system attacks parts of its own body.

The team has also begun treating a few patients suffering from inflammatory
bowel disease by giving them a drink spiked with eggs from a harmless
whipworm. Of six patients studied so far, all showed substantial improvement
in their symptoms, the researchers reported at the May meeting.

The research is only an initial foray, the Iowa researchers caution, and
controlled clinical trials are essential for evaluating the effectiveness of
the treatment. Furthermore, they say, the precise role of Th1-Th2 balance in
inflammatory bowel disease remains unresolved, as does the seeming
contradiction between their research and the hygiene hypothesis' assumption
that Th2 responses usually overpower Th1 responses.




Iowa researchers theorize that helminthic worms (adult female shown,
approximately 60 millimeters long) keep people's immune systems from
aggressively attacking the lining of their intestines. (Peter Darben)
By separating people from their dirty origins, the modern antiseptic
environment may have also provoked the medical equivalent of friendly fi
autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and type I diabetes.

The radical notion that infrequent exposure to infectious agents contributes
to autoimmune diseases has generated far more controversy than the idea that
allergies and asthma stem from such deprivation. In fact, says Michael B.
Oldstone of the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, Calif., most
scientists hold the opposite view-that if anything, infections help drive
autoimmune diseases (SN: 6/21/97, p. 380).

However, a group led by Irun R. Cohen at the Weizmann Institute of Science
in Rehovot, Israel, believes it has evidence to the contrary. These
researchers find that rats raised behind germ-free barriers are more prone
to developing arthritis and diabetes than rats raised in normal, germ-filled
environments are.

According to Cohen, rats in the ultraclean environment don't develop the
immune cells that can suppress autoimmune responses. If that's the case, he
suggests, it may be possible to develop a vaccine to stimulate the aspects
of the immune system needed to avoid autoimmune disorders.

"The immune system organizes itself through experience, just like the
brain," Cohen argues. However, he notes, other factors, such as
environmental toxins, probably also prompt autoimmune reactions. "I don't
think cleanliness is the only problem. It's a complex system. The first
thing is to ask the right questions, but we have to be patient about the
answers."

Ultimately, it may be that asthma, allergies, and other immune disorders are
the price society has to pay for escaping the appallingly virulent
infectious diseases that have struck down children over the centuries.
Scientists aren't quite ready to accept that proposition, however.

"We might be able to do something clever that can actually get the best of
both worlds," says Beasley. "I think, at the end of the day, that will be
the challenge, because we certainly don't want to go back to the days of
old."

Fly bites help guard against Leishmania



Leishmania-free sand flies biting a mouse ear may be arming the rodent
against a later leishmaniasis infection. (Ed Rowton)

The occasional bite of a blood-sucking fly may fine-tune the immune system
and deter some infectious diseases.

Laboratory mice are best equipped to resist leishmaniasis-a tropical disease
carried by sand flies-if they have had a little practice fending off
disease-free flies, scientists reported in May at a meeting of the American
Society for Microbiology in Chicago.

David L. Sacks and Shaden Kamhawi of the National Institute of Allergy and
Infectious Diseases in Bethesda, Md., twice exposed six laboratory mice to
disease-free sand flies before introducing flies carrying Leishmania
parasites. These exposed mice resisted infection better than did mice that
had not been previously bitten by sand flies, the researchers found.

Sacks and Kamhawi propose that the saliva of flies that did not carry
Leishmania may have stimulated the mouse immune systems, arming them against
infection when they later encountered disease-carrying flies.

"It's fascinating work," says immunologist John R. David of the Harvard
School of Public Health in Boston. "People who live in areas where they get
leishmaniasis are obviously bitten a lot by sand flies, and this suggests
that that in some ways protects them. People, however, still get the
disease, but it might be much worse or affect more people if they had not
been bitten by uninfected flies first."


References & sources for this article

From Science News, Vol. 156, No. 7, August 14, 1999, p. 108. Copyright ©
1999, Science Service.




"Capt. Rob" wrote in message
oups.com...
A baby develops his immune system by being exposed to germs and the
like. An
AC environment removes those germs, pollens, etc. Asthma is much more
prevelant in those who grew up in spanking clean environments.


Air conditioning does zero to eliminate germs and bacteria. In fact, if
humidity levels are wrong it can for HIGHER risks. You truly don't know
what you're talking about.

RB