Worst Wrap

Thanks to everyone who contributed to this month's group writing project Worst Sailing Innovation Ever (WSIE) - especially to those of you participating for the first time. I think I counted 27 entries. Well done!

Six of you selected a particular class of boat or generic design of boat as your WSIE...

• Some_day_sailing doesn't like the J24 with its sleek foredeck.
• SoxSail thinks that the Optimist is the Worst Boat For Learning Sailing Ever!
• Pat from Desert Sea - New Mexico Sailing offers us a rant about Ferro-Cement Boats.
• Paul Cross who writes a blog called Daedalus is an open boat fan so he votes against The Cabin.
• Joe Rouse of the Horse's Mouth chooses The MacGregor 26, because it is a powerboat masquerading as a sailboat.
• And Earwigoagin is not happy about the hype surrounding the concept of the single-handed dinghy with an asymmetric spinnaker.

Three contributors have issues with engines...

• The writer of The Boating Bible says that So-called sailboats are the WSIE. He is against sailboats that use engines for "canting keels, water ballast, button-controlled winches etc." He likes a bit of manual exertion when he is racing.
• Adam Turinas from Messing About in Sailboats says that the WSIE is My (his) outboard.
• And I went to the extreme and wrote a rant against the whole concept of Putting an Engine in a Sailboat.

Four people chose to tell us about other pieces of sailing equipment that really bug them...

• The Peconic Puffin thinks monofilm is the WSIE.
• Captain Puffy Pants offers a good rant about Cup Holders with Suction Cups.
• Zen of Zen's Sekai II - By Sea asks What is in a name...? which is about why lifelines shouldn't be called lifelines.
• And Chris Partridge, who is a rower, went to the extreme in this category and nominated for WSIE... The Sail. Hmmm.

Five entries were from the world of racing...

• Yarg of Apparent Wind has a beef about how we all take club racing series too seriously so he suggests as WSIE the concept of Club Champion.
• Jos of Racing Rules of Sailing - Look to Windward wrote an entry for the project in which he asked his readers which one of the Racing Rules is the Worst Sailing Innovation Ever?
• AlextheLaserSailor nominates Rule 42. Although his real beef seems to be with those coaches of youth sailing who teach Rule 42 badly.
• B.J. Burrows from the Bahamas suggests Automatic Starting Horns as the WSIE.
• And I, trying to be topical, trace all of the current woes with the America's Cup back to The Deed of Gift.

Then there were four entries that didn't fit neatly into any of the above categories...

• O Docker doesn't like The Gybe.
• Edward the Superblogger says the WSIE is The Ubiquitous Topsider.
• Captain JP doesn't like the current time-tested phonetic alphabet so he has invented Buff's Phonetic Alphabet.
• And The Bursledon Blogger suggests that "appalling low budget drama, based in the fictional Hampshire sailing community of Tarrant" Howards' Way as his nomination for WSIE.

A couple of people wrote posts with multiple suggestions for WSIE...

• Captain JP has three ideas in Some sailing things that bug me.
• And Pat of Desert Sea - New Mexico Sailing, came up with twenty-one suggestions in Blackjack! A blackguardly bunch -- twenty-one paths to failure.

And finally we had three entries from people who chose things that basically stop us sailing altogether...

• Andrew Sadler who writes SadlerBootwerk is currently ice-bound in the Netherlands so he chooses as his WSIE Ice.
• Carol Anne of Five O'Clock Somewhere nominates Work: The number one cause of people not sailing.
• And David of Never Sea Land nominates Land. It is, after all, the abrupt running out of said medium that causes most sailing wrecks.

Thanks again to everyone who made the effort to write something for this project. Once again I was astounded by your creativity.

Update: Late entry from Beachcomber who has a new blog, Exploding Water. His suggestion for WSIE is yacht club initiation fees. And he has a few other beefs too in What ails sailing in the US?