... got your attention ...

First off I'm glad I live in an area where we can and do sail all year long (PNW) ... no need to ever haul because on the onset of winter ... dam glad I no longer live in the East ... I only haul every 3 years for bottom paint and hull buffing (27 year old Perry design Mirage 33.5) never had any hard growth yet!

Boat yards ... for the most pay "yard" employees shite ... relying on these poorly paid individuals to correctly "set" your boat and others close by is and obviously has been an issue ... we've all seen the photo's ... consequently in our "sue" happy lawyer infested environment ... what do you expect?

If a boat can't handle wind forces on the hard with the mast up ... how the hell can it handle the forces on it with a huge sail attached ... I know I know ... jack stands make the hull rigid vs forgiving in the water ... but if you run the numbers a skinny mast vs huge sf'age ... it's a no brainer ...

As to boats in fresh water vs salt water ... allot of uneducated mindless BS going on here ... has been forever ... it all depends on WHERE ... all has to do with temp, humidity, salinity of the salt water and wave action ... if you live in Florida where the salinity of the water is high, the temps high, the humidity high and a fair amount of wave action (salt in the humid air) ... your boat will be trashed and look like crap in 1/4 of the time it does here in the PNW where we have little wave action, the salinity of the salt water is much lower because of all the close mountains (Cascades) & rivers flooding the Puget Sound 24 7 ... most people on my pier think my boats maybe under 10 years old!! (really 27) its by no means (IMHO) pristine ... she gets sailed often and hard ... I do a fresh water wash down after almost every sail ... sometimes the weather does that for me ... (before you go there NYC gets more rain than we do... look it up) besides that the skiing here is world class ... there its ... class-less, crowded and $$$ - been there done that ...

Damage ... the only damage I have been witness to for masts is a boatyard in a particularly gusty day a unsecured wheeled thing-a-myjig took off and smashed into a mast that was on sawhorses being refurbished ... damage to masts is more likely to occur when its not stepped ... and IME the only time I have ever been witness to mast damage ... (we have had 100 mph winter ice storms in the recent past-10-15 yrs)

... only ever had my mast down once ... 7 years ago ... replaced all the wiring ...new instruments, deck flood lights, anchor lights the usual ... chainplates, etc ... -old ones looked great but simple cheap to replace .. cheap price to pay for "my piece of mind" ...

Oh and if your a wooden boat ... your much better off in salt water ... the salt will pickle wood (preserve it) where as fresh water ... will just rot it!! unless completely deprived of oxygen (read totally submerged here - not a good thing IHO)

Its usually fresh water folks that want to bring this up (I know I used to live sail crew on Lake Ontario and the Finger Lakes back in the late 60's early 70's) because they only wish ... they were sailing on oceans ... instead of being landlocked!

End of rant!