Speech

While digging through some old writings I found the speech I gave at the launching of my first boat, the S/V Wawona. Figured I'd post it here.

"There is nothing absolutely nothing half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats." Friends, Members of the Board, future crew, It is a pleasure to speak to you today on the auspicious occasion of the launch of my first vessel of the Inland Packet & Navigation Company. A brief history is in order. The vessel whom bore this name first was built for the booming Puget Sound lumber trade over a century ago in 1897. She also worked as a fishing ship before finding salvation as a museum ship when her sisters had been broken up. But even she could not be saved as the ravages of time dictated her dismantlement earlier last year. I was fortunate enough to have seen her during a trip to Settle a few years ago. Even in her derelict state, with holes punched in her side and her masts floating beside her she still possessed the grandeur and poise that all tall ships carry with them. I was sad to hear this great dame of the sea would be no more as I saw her. But her legacy lives on more so then when she was whole. And in honor of that grand ship and her legacy, her name will live on.

Today I want to speak to you about doing. That is the actual act of taking action to create something with a tangible result. And how it has made an ambition of mine into the reason we're standing here today. It has been a long time coming. For years I have dreamed of sailing for reasons as yet unexplained. And not just sailing in the sense of getting on a boat and cruising a local lake, but hiring out on a tall ship and sailing the blue world over in a time of wooden ships and iron men. My family has no maritime history that I'm aware of on either side. The military, teaching, or sheep ranching yes but certainly not sailing. My family are hardy inland folk and here I am looking for an ocean.

This has not been an easy project. When it was begun I was told it was a stupid idea and one with no merit. I ask those who informed me of this fact to look at the craft in front of them now. I've learned more from making this boat then I would have not making it. To borrow a quote from seaQuest DSV "Nothing a man makes with his own two hands is ever a waste of time." Granted I am a dreamer, but I made this dream a reality. All my heroes have been dreamers of one sort or another. Howard Hughes, who revolutionized the aircraft industry and construction with a plane they said could not fly. Ismbard Kingdom Brunel, the genius of British engineering who's bridges are still in use and who created the worlds largest ship fifty years ahead of it's time. These men it should be said are remembered not for their dreams, but for their deeds. The proof is still with us to this day. And that is the the act of doing.

So I'm going to end with a truth and a challenge. Every one of you can build your own boat. And maybe it's not a boat you're building, but if you stop dreaming and start doing you can build it. Stop looking at why it won't work and start looking to how it can. And don't wait until tomorrow, do it today. Every step no matter how seemingly unimportant has significance. And it's holding on that that significance that makes it all worth while. I end, as I want with a quote from Teddy Roosevelt. I keep this on my phone play it back from time to time to remember how important doing is. "“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcomings; but who does actually strive to do the deed; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly. So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.”