WHEN in the course of human Events, it becomes necessary….
The Trump Navy: The President’s Approval Rating is High Among Boating Enthusiasts
byVanderleunonMarch 8, 2020
From megayachts to fishing boats, to dingys, to inflatables. Led by one unknown boat with a killer sound system blasting the “Hallelujah” from Handel’s “Messiah”. Ode to Joy from the Ninth Symphony.
In this parade, you can find the megarich, the very wealthy, the well-to-do, the successful, and the aspiring. Regardless of their economic station, you could say that this ragtag fleet open to all is composed of the MAGArich.
This is a spontaneous Saturday afternoon demonstration of the glorious rewards (big and small) of capitalism. If you know anything about how the world works, you know that most of the people in this parade started with nothing or next to nothing. God bless them for succeeding and God bless America for letting them succeed. It was launched in Lighthouse Point, Florida — Homeport to Captain Monroe.
Note: very few sailboats. But, if I had been down there, I would have tried…in a Sunfish, or a Wildflower, or a Lightning, or a Laser, or anything else available…
VanderleunMarch 8, 2020, 8:54 PM
You coulda gotten a tow and a cocktail easy.
ChrisMarch 9, 2020, 4:04 AM
Had a fishing/ski boat when the kids were growing up,lots of fun!
They can be money pits for sure. BOAT= Break Out Another Thousand…..
Chris
jdMarch 9, 2020, 5:44 AM
Please tell Captain Monroe it’s not “The Ode to Joy” Gerard. It’s the “Hallelujah” from Handel’s “Messiah”!
Thank you for the great video.
VanderleunMarch 9, 2020, 7:06 AM
My mistake. Fixed. Thanks.
TerryMarch 9, 2020, 7:34 AM
Inspiring
People who know how to have fun.
Thank you for posting, Gerard.
JackMarch 9, 2020, 7:43 AM
Hallelujah by Handel is always lifting. The one by Leonard Cohen as been covered more times than any other tune I’ve heard to the point that I don’ wanna hear it no mo’, nevuh.
Boats…I’ve owned a couple of dozen from fishing tubes (belly boats) to sneak boats, kayaks, 2 man electrics, large aluminum and fiberglass bass boats to a 30’ sailboat that I sunk a small fortune into during her restoration and which I considered living aboard and which my wife, love her, insisted that I not.
Boats will bless you if you’ll let them and my love affair with my old Pearson, gone so long ago, still burns. Sailing is joy.
BillHMarch 9, 2020, 9:32 AM
Yeah, Jack. I had a 12′ dinghy rigged ragboat (if you can believe that). Should have named it Turtle. Anyway, it got me through my mid-life crisis 40 years ago, then I gave it to my grandsons when they were six and eight. They both survived the boat and are now in their late 30s.
I once heard Cohen’s Hallelujah, sung on Christmas Eve at a small but enthusiastic church of the Christian Cultural Appropriation of the Blessed Overhead Projector, completely rewritten as a Christmas carol. They might as well have written it, “Adeste, Cringemus.” They meant well.
Hearing Hallelujah in the context of a flotilla, though…..THAT is inspired!
JackMarch 9, 2020, 1:24 PM
I first heard Tim Buckley’s son Jeff sing Cohen’s Hallelujah and it sounded then (and now) to me like he played it on a simple electric guitar with a little reverb and sang directly into a simple mike. However he did it, he did a great job and it was very nice.
Next thing I knew every creature who thought he or she could sing had wrapped their tasteless vocals around that song and drove it right into the ground. And they still do. Buckley and Cohen are probably sitting around over cigars and brandy hating every other version of it.
ghostsniperMarch 9, 2020, 7:16 PM
Speaking of boats. My dad and his 2 brothers were all about anything with an engine and we always had plenty of engined things about to fool around with. When I was 14 I was slalom skiing on the river and pulled up next to the boat and observed that when it jumped out of the water the water seemed to cling to the bottom of the hull, holding onto it. The water seemed reluctant to let loose. Also, when the boat was in the air it seemed to go a little faster. So I pondered on that for a spell.
We lived on acreage and had a large boathouse and one of the boats was a 12′ V hull runabout my dad built from scratch from a Popular Mechanics plan but was not used much. I flipped that boat upside down and glued some 1/2″ thick plywood to the bottom in 12″ wide pieces. From the side view the bottom of the hull seemed sort stair stepped and the steps were about 1-1/2″ high and 12″ long. I had a friend that was 16 and had a car so we loaded that runabout up and dropped it in the water down at Whiskey Creek. The boat had an old 1950’s Evinrude engine and I aimed it out to the open water on the Caloosahatchee and opened it up. Going about 35mph my friend leaned over the side and watched the hull and then told me the steps were making foam. He took the wheel and I looked, indeed, the hull was making foam. Foam is half air and half water and therefore the drag was half of what a normal hull was. We was flyin! But. On a turn at full speed there was little control and the boat slid all over the place. Seems foam is slippery no matter what direction you’re going. I talked to some people and it was suggested I install some chines along the outside edges of the hull to give it some teeth that will bite in when the boat turns and leans.
Well I was 14-15 years old and life was fast in them days and I lost interest in that boat. Moved onto something else with an engine prolly, maybe 2 wheelers, dunno. Zoom ahead 30 years and my cousin wants me to go with him to a marina to preview a boat he wanted to buy. It was a 23′ Regal boat with an inboard outboard V8 engine, pretty nice. I got down on the ground and looked at the hull and what do you think I seen? STEPS! This GD boat had my steps all over the bottom of that hull! WTF over?
The sales dood came out and I cracked on him about them steps and he told me Volvo originally started experimenting with the stepped hull design in the 80’s but passed the idea onto Regal boats who started looking at them. He said indeed the steps create a bed of foam which reduces drag and the boat will go faster with less power and better gas mileage. Holy shit. I took another look at the hull and along the sides the hull sloped up but right where the hull connects to the sidewalls they turned down abruptly. The boat was fiberglass of course and the transition from turned down hull to sidewall was smooth and nice. That was the chines I thought about in the 60’s to create more control on the foam.
Sometimes I daydream about what if I had continued down that path of the stepped foam hulls and brought it to fruition, would I now be a millionaire living in a mansion on Gulfshore Blvd with a 60′ Cigarette boat with stepped hull and 4 1000hp blown V8 engines docked out back? Probably not. I’ve never been the lucky type. Instead, I would have put a bigger engine on the 12′ runabout and flipped it a mile out on the river and been killed. shwew That was close. Extreme ADHD won’t let me stay focused on one thing very long so it saved my life, again.
PS: I got a whole nuther idea about them steps and my research shows that Regal hasn’t figured it out yet. My idea, I beleive, will put a blower and headers on them steps. Stay tuned…..
Real World Address for Donations, Mash Notes and Hate Mail
Gerard Van der Leun
1692 MANGROVE AVE
APT 379
Chico, Ca 95926
Green Pants Interior by Klahn
Who Am I? by Carl Sandburg
My head knocks against the stars.
My feet are on the hilltops.
My finger-tips are in the valleys and shores of universal life.
Down in the sounding foam of primal things I reach my hands and play with pebbles of destiny.
I have been to hell and back many times.
I know all about heaven, for I have talked with God.
I dabble in the blood and guts of the terrible.
I know the passionate seizure of beauty
And the marvelous rebellion of man at all signs reading “Keep Off.”
My name is Truth and I am the most elusive captive in the universe.
Duty, Beauty, Liberty, Country, Honor, Family, Faith — Plus a few simple easy to follow rules for guys
Men saw the stars at the edge of the sea
They thought great thoughts about liberty
Poets wrote down words that did fit
Writers wrote books
Thinkers thought about it
Take it where you find it
Can’t leave it alone
You will find a purpose
To carry it on
Mainly when you find it
Your heart will be strong
About it
Many’s the road I have walked upon
Many’s the hour between dusk and dawn
Many’s the time
Many’s the mile
I see it all now
Through the eyes of a child
Take it where you find it
Can’t leave it alone
You will find a purpose
To carry it on
Mainly when you find it
Your heart will be strong
About it
[Chorus]
Lost dreams and found dreams
In America
In America
In America
Lost dreams and found dreams
In America
In America
In America
And close your eyes
Leave it all for a while
Leave the world
And your worries behind
You will build on whatever is real
And wake up each day
To a new waking dream
Take it where you find it
Can’t leave it alone
You will find a purpose
To carry it on
Mainly when you find it
Your heart will be strong
About it
[Chorus]
Change, change come over
Change come over
Talkin’ about a change
Change, change
Change come over, now
Change, change, change come over
I’m gonna walk down the street
Until I see
My shining light
I’m gonna walk down the street
Until I see
My shining light
I’m gonna walk down the street
Until I see
My shining light
I’m gonna walk down the street
Until I see
My shining light
I see my light
See my light
See my shining light
I see my light
See my light
See my shining light
From megayachts to fishing boats, to dingys, to inflatables. Led by one unknown boat with a killer sound system blasting the “Hallelujah” from Handel’s “Messiah”. 
Gerard Van der Leun
Comments on this entry are closed.
Note: very few sailboats. But, if I had been down there, I would have tried…in a Sunfish, or a Wildflower, or a Lightning, or a Laser, or anything else available…
You coulda gotten a tow and a cocktail easy.
Had a fishing/ski boat when the kids were growing up,lots of fun!
They can be money pits for sure. BOAT= Break Out Another Thousand…..
Chris
Please tell Captain Monroe it’s not “The Ode to Joy” Gerard. It’s the “Hallelujah” from Handel’s “Messiah”!
Thank you for the great video.
My mistake. Fixed. Thanks.
Inspiring
People who know how to have fun.
Thank you for posting, Gerard.
Hallelujah by Handel is always lifting. The one by Leonard Cohen as been covered more times than any other tune I’ve heard to the point that I don’ wanna hear it no mo’, nevuh.
Boats…I’ve owned a couple of dozen from fishing tubes (belly boats) to sneak boats, kayaks, 2 man electrics, large aluminum and fiberglass bass boats to a 30’ sailboat that I sunk a small fortune into during her restoration and which I considered living aboard and which my wife, love her, insisted that I not.
Boats will bless you if you’ll let them and my love affair with my old Pearson, gone so long ago, still burns. Sailing is joy.
Yeah, Jack. I had a 12′ dinghy rigged ragboat (if you can believe that). Should have named it Turtle. Anyway, it got me through my mid-life crisis 40 years ago, then I gave it to my grandsons when they were six and eight. They both survived the boat and are now in their late 30s.
I once heard Cohen’s Hallelujah, sung on Christmas Eve at a small but enthusiastic church of the Christian Cultural Appropriation of the Blessed Overhead Projector, completely rewritten as a Christmas carol. They might as well have written it, “Adeste, Cringemus.” They meant well.
Hearing Hallelujah in the context of a flotilla, though…..THAT is inspired!
I first heard Tim Buckley’s son Jeff sing Cohen’s Hallelujah and it sounded then (and now) to me like he played it on a simple electric guitar with a little reverb and sang directly into a simple mike. However he did it, he did a great job and it was very nice.
Next thing I knew every creature who thought he or she could sing had wrapped their tasteless vocals around that song and drove it right into the ground. And they still do. Buckley and Cohen are probably sitting around over cigars and brandy hating every other version of it.
Speaking of boats. My dad and his 2 brothers were all about anything with an engine and we always had plenty of engined things about to fool around with. When I was 14 I was slalom skiing on the river and pulled up next to the boat and observed that when it jumped out of the water the water seemed to cling to the bottom of the hull, holding onto it. The water seemed reluctant to let loose. Also, when the boat was in the air it seemed to go a little faster. So I pondered on that for a spell.
We lived on acreage and had a large boathouse and one of the boats was a 12′ V hull runabout my dad built from scratch from a Popular Mechanics plan but was not used much. I flipped that boat upside down and glued some 1/2″ thick plywood to the bottom in 12″ wide pieces. From the side view the bottom of the hull seemed sort stair stepped and the steps were about 1-1/2″ high and 12″ long. I had a friend that was 16 and had a car so we loaded that runabout up and dropped it in the water down at Whiskey Creek. The boat had an old 1950’s Evinrude engine and I aimed it out to the open water on the Caloosahatchee and opened it up. Going about 35mph my friend leaned over the side and watched the hull and then told me the steps were making foam. He took the wheel and I looked, indeed, the hull was making foam. Foam is half air and half water and therefore the drag was half of what a normal hull was. We was flyin! But. On a turn at full speed there was little control and the boat slid all over the place. Seems foam is slippery no matter what direction you’re going. I talked to some people and it was suggested I install some chines along the outside edges of the hull to give it some teeth that will bite in when the boat turns and leans.
Well I was 14-15 years old and life was fast in them days and I lost interest in that boat. Moved onto something else with an engine prolly, maybe 2 wheelers, dunno. Zoom ahead 30 years and my cousin wants me to go with him to a marina to preview a boat he wanted to buy. It was a 23′ Regal boat with an inboard outboard V8 engine, pretty nice. I got down on the ground and looked at the hull and what do you think I seen? STEPS! This GD boat had my steps all over the bottom of that hull! WTF over?
The sales dood came out and I cracked on him about them steps and he told me Volvo originally started experimenting with the stepped hull design in the 80’s but passed the idea onto Regal boats who started looking at them. He said indeed the steps create a bed of foam which reduces drag and the boat will go faster with less power and better gas mileage. Holy shit. I took another look at the hull and along the sides the hull sloped up but right where the hull connects to the sidewalls they turned down abruptly. The boat was fiberglass of course and the transition from turned down hull to sidewall was smooth and nice. That was the chines I thought about in the 60’s to create more control on the foam.
Sometimes I daydream about what if I had continued down that path of the stepped foam hulls and brought it to fruition, would I now be a millionaire living in a mansion on Gulfshore Blvd with a 60′ Cigarette boat with stepped hull and 4 1000hp blown V8 engines docked out back? Probably not. I’ve never been the lucky type. Instead, I would have put a bigger engine on the 12′ runabout and flipped it a mile out on the river and been killed. shwew That was close. Extreme ADHD won’t let me stay focused on one thing very long so it saved my life, again.
PS: I got a whole nuther idea about them steps and my research shows that Regal hasn’t figured it out yet. My idea, I beleive, will put a blower and headers on them steps. Stay tuned…..