Boat Quotes - Page 15

• The feel of a good row stays with you hours afterward. Your muscles glow, your mind wanders from the papers on you desk and goes back, again and again, to that terrific power piece at the end of the workout when it felt as if you and the boat were flying, as if you legs were two cannons and your arms were two oars and the great lateral muscles of your back were pterodactyl wings and the brim of your baseball cap was a harpoon.

  Barry S. Strauss

  Baseball, Workout, Wings

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• [He] would drive his sculling boat through mile after mile, in a silent brutal programe of conditioning - he would work all alone, at first light, punishing himself without mercy. His was the private dignity of the lone athlete, with a grim purpose, fighting a solitary war with himself, toward a goal only he can see.

  Daniel Topolski

  War, Athlete, Fighting

  Daniel Topolski, Patrick Robinson (2013). “True Blue: The Oxford Boat Race Mutiny”, p.32, Random House

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• Unless you've also had some experience dragging around a boat trailer, [topping off the gas tank] may not sound important. But trailer driver's know: a gas stop can be a traumatic experience. You need enough clearance on every possible side. You can't cut the turn too sharp or you'll clip the gas pump. Getting back on the freeway can be as challenging as sending a man to the moon.

  Brad Alan Lewis

  Cutting, Moon, Men

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• The slow boat-I know it's the slow boat because I've been watching them for thirty-three weeks-won the first piece by a full length. Then the fast boat won the second piece. And so it went for the next four pieces, back and forth. Conclusion: I hate seat racing.

  Brad Alan Lewis

  Hate, Racing, Three

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• Rigging is like Zen meditation. You must bend over the boat until your back is breaking, until your brain is filled with numbers and fractions of numbers, until you can accurately measure an oarlock's pitch without bothering to use the pitch meter. Only then will you see the way of eternal rigging happiness.

  Brad Alan Lewis

  Numbers, Meditation, Brain

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• Hundreds of feet above us, cars whisked by, oblivious to our drama. Up there were the shortcuts, the excuses, the world of infinite possibilities separating man and his potential. We had four miles and the best competition in the nation. We linked hands in the boat and committed ourselves to each other.

  Stefan Kieszling

  Drama, Men, Hands

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• Another boat, a straight-four, four sweep oarsmen without a coxswain, raced through our flotilla. I looked at them as they jetted past, and I quickly looked again. This boat appeared to be manned by four skeletons. Their cheek bones stood out like knots, their ribs were clearly defined as if they were painted on. Every leg and arm muscle showed as taut as steel cabling. Four pairs of deep-set eyes peered at us, conveying 'the look.' The four men who were rowing that shell were a special breed of oarsmen known as 'lightweights'.

  Brad Alan Lewis

  Eye, Past, Men

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• A rower knows the underlying presence that moves a boat; it is quite simply force and energy. The force needs to be penetrating, and the energy needs to be driving and uninhibited.

  Drew Ginn

  Moving, Energy, Needs

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• To follow the drops sliding from a lifting oar, Head up, while the rower breathes, and the small boat drifts quietly shoreward.

  Theodore Roethke

  Rowing, Breathe, Oar

  Theodore Roethke, “The Shape Of The Fire”

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• As for me, tough duty though it may be, I continue to do my part for the commercial recreation industry. Fishing, boating, tennis, golf, running, hunting, and all of this. Horseshoes. It's tough duty. Somebody has to do it, and I'm going to keep on.

  George H. W. Bush

  Running, Golf, Hunting

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• Towards thee I roll, thou all-destroying but unconquering whale... from hell's heart I stab at thee.

  Herman Melville

  Heart, Whales, Sea

  Moby Dick ch. 135 (1851)

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• Our future is like that of the passengers on a small pleasure boat sailing quietly above the Niagara Falls, not knowing that the engines are about to fail.

  James Lovelock

  Fall, Knowing, Sailing

  "The Revenge of Gaia". Interview with James Lovelock, www.theguardian.com. 2006.

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• Here in Miami, on weekends, amusement-seekers will come to the marina, set up folding chairs, and spend a highly entertaining day watching boat owners perform comical maneuvers such as forgetting to set their parking brakes and having their cars roll down the ramp and disappear, burbling gaily, below the surface.

  Dave Barry

  Funny, Weekend, Car

  Dave Barry (2010). “Dave Barry Talks Back”, p.88, Crown Archetype

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• It takes a minimum of six people, working in close harmony, to successfully flush a nautical toilet. That's why those old ships carried such large crews.

  Dave Barry

  Funny, People, Sailing

  Dave Barry (2010). “Dave Barry Talks Back”, p.90, Crown Archetype

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• It was not easy victory in the America Cup. Our boys spent years experimenting with different designs for their boat before they came up with the innovative idea of having a submerged nuclear submarine tow it.

  Dave Barry

  Funny, Boys, Years

  Dave Barry (1994). “The World According to Dave Barry”, Outlet

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• Fortunately the boat we rented had a motor in it You will definitely want this feature on your sailboat too, because if you put up the sails, the boat tips way over, and you could spill your beer.

  Dave Barry

  Funny, Beer, Sailing

  Dave Barry (2010). “Dave Barry's Greatest Hits”, p.226, Ballantine Books

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• He's a boating enthusiast, although that phrase seems too weak to describe the level of his interest, kind of like describing someone as a heroin fancier.

  Dave Barry

  Funny, Sailing, Phrases

  Dave Barry (2010). “Dave Barry Is Not Making This Up”, p.118, Ballantine Books

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• Sailboats are the slowest form of transportation on Earth with the possible exeption of airline flights that go through O'Hare.

  Dave Barry

  Funny, Humorous, Food

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• The S.S. Sierra was a ten-thousand-ton vessel. Today, lifeboats bigger than the Sierra are found on the Queen Mary and other luxury liners.

  Fred Allen

  Funny, Queens, Luxury

  Fred Allen (2008). “Much Ado About Me”, p.147, Wildside Press LLC

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• You can always tell the old river hand by the way in which he stretches himself out upon the cushions at the bottom of the boat, and encourages the rowers by telling them anecdotes about the marvellous feats he performed last season.

  Jerome K. Jerome

  Funny, Hands, Rivers

  Jerome K. Jerome (2014). “Three Men in a Boat: To Say Nothing of the Dog”, p.263, Diderot Publishing

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• A dugout is much superior to a conventional manufactured canoe because you can get soaking wet without bothering to capsize it.

  P. J. O'Rourke

  Funny, Sailing, Bother

  P. J. O'Rourke (2015). “Thrown Under the Omnibus: A Reader”, p.429, Grove/Atlantic, Inc.

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• This is the most elaborate and luxurious method of convincing others that you can cook. Take everybody out on your yacht until they're green in the face. Then you can rave for weeks about your sauce marinara and no one will gainsay you.

  P. J. O'Rourke

  Funny, Sailing, Green

  P. J. O'Rourke (1987). “The Bachelor Home Companion: A Practical Guide to Keeping House Like a Pig”, Pocket

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• I don't think I'll ever be a real boat reporter. My Rolex isn't big enough.

  P. J. O'Rourke

  Funny, Real, Thinking

  P.J. O'Rourke (2012). “Holidays in Hell”, p.126, Atlantic Books Ltd

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• If the wind is blowing like stink and everything is working right, a twelve-meter sailboat can go eleven and a half or twelve miles an hour, the same speed at which a bond lawyer runs around the Cental Park Reservoir.

  P. J. O'Rourke

  Funny, Running, Wind

  P.J. O'Rourke (2015). “Thrown Under the Omnibus”, p.159, Atlantic Books Ltd

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• The America's Cup is like driving your Lamborgini to the Gran Prix track to watch the charter buses race.

  P. J. O'Rourke

  Funny, Race, America

  P.J. O'Rourke (2015). “Thrown Under the Omnibus”, p.159, Atlantic Books Ltd

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