I Am A Yachtsman.

The following was written by Conrad Miller, editor of Rudder Magazine in the early 1960s:

I am a yachtsman.

I am not a boater, nor an inboarder, nor an outboarder, nor a sailing enthusiast nor any kind of newfangled water sportsman. I'm a yachtsman.

Why do I claim the title of yachtsman? Because I was raised in, on, and around boats. My father, brothers, and sisters all loved boats. We sailed under canvas, cruised under power, and generally gunk-holed around Barnegat from my pre-kindergarten days. To my family, boats were always a way of life---not a way of making a living, but an avocation more serious than idle hobby.

Amateur boatmen loving the water are yachtsmen. I don't like to hear people called boaters, or outboarders or sailboaters. The honorable word "yacht" has been altered by landsmen and status seekers to mean a large, private ship, very likely carrying a cargo of champagne and a crowd of rich stockbrokers complete with lady friends.

That, as Henry Mencken would say, is palpable buncome.

A yacht is any boat used for sport, relaxation, or pleasure, and a yachtsman is one who operates a boat for fun and enjoyment. Only a pinched wouser or secluded reformer would claim it is sinful to operate a boat for pure enjoyment and relaxation. That's what boats, nay, yachts are for---enjoyment, health, fun.

What pushed the word "yachtsman" off into a corner with other half-bad words like "profit", "conservative" or "patriot"? Maybe they are old-fashioned words, but they are still good ones. Accurate, descriptive words have an honest place in the language even though given new, twisted meanings by journalists with leanings.

I am a yachtsman because when I was a school kid I used to sneak boating books and magazines behind the covers of the algebra text. I'd pretend to be studying, while drrinking up boating lore and longing to be afloat. Boats, even the thought of them, were a release, an escape. Dreaming of the water, beaches, and sails released me from the classroom and reality. My marks probably suffered, but my spirit did not.