OT: Official Sailing Thread

[RU4Real]

Rough news out of Scallywag, one of the boats in this year's Volvo Ocean Race. It was reported last night that crewman John Fisher, 47, was swept overboard in high winds and rough seas approximately 1400 miles west of Cape Horn. Scallywag and her remaining crew conducted an exhaustive search for several hours but were unable to locate Fisher. With the weather deteriorating and no other vessel within a couple hundred miles of their location, the crew of Scallywag made the difficult decision to continue onward. Fisher has been declared "lost at sea".

Ocean racing is an extremely dangerous sport. The around-the-world VOR has already seen a fatality prior to yesterday, when Vestas Wind collided with a fishing vessel in the fog near Hong Kong, resulting in the death of one of the fishermen. Earlier this year, the Clipper 'Round the World Race suffered two fatalities in separate incidents on board the same yacht.

 

[mildone_rivals]

Rough news out of Scallywag, one of the boats in this year's Volvo Ocean Race. It was reported last night that crewman John Fisher, 47, was swept overboard in high winds and rough seas approximately 1400 miles west of Cape Horn. Scallywag and her remaining crew conducted an exhaustive search for several hours but were unable to locate Fisher. With the weather deteriorating and no other vessel within a couple hundred miles of their location, the crew of Scallywag made the difficult decision to continue onward. Fisher has been declared "lost at sea".

Ocean racing is an extremely dangerous sport. The around-the-world VOR has already seen a fatality prior to yesterday, when Vestas Wind collided with a fishing vessel in the fog near Hong Kong, resulting in the death of one of the fishermen. Earlier this year, the Clipper 'Round the World Race suffered two fatalities in separate incidents on board the same yacht.

Sad news. But yeah, it's not entirely uncommon.

 

[T2Kplus10]

@RU4Real
Sorry to hijack this thread for a post, but I didn't want to start one on this topic/question. Can you give me your thoughts on the following higher end SUV/crossovers (just a few sentences)?

Q7
Cayenne
Model X
Levante

My wife's Acadia is closing in on 9 years and it is time to start thinking about something new. Being responsible is likely the way we will go.....fully loaded Traverse or Acadia (no Enclave, I have one that is only 5 years old), but we are considering something higher end (likely one of the first 2 listed, the second 2 are more like stretch goals! ).

 

[RU4Real]

@RU4Real
Sorry to hijack this thread for a post, but I didn't want to start one on this topic/question. Can you give me your thoughts on the following higher end SUV/crossovers (just a few sentences)?

Q7
Cayenne
Model X
Levante

My wife's Acadia is closing in on 9 years and it is time to start thinking about something new. Being responsible is likely the way we will go.....fully loaded Traverse or Acadia (no Enclave, I have one that is only 5 years old), but we are considering something higher end (likely one of the first 2 listed, the second 2 are more like stretch goals! ).

Q7: Big Audi, of course. Same platform as the Cayenne (and now the VW Atlas, which deserves to be on anyone's shopping list, in this category). Solid reputation, marginal handling when compared to the Cayenne.

Cayenne: Best in class. Not as much usable space as the Q7 but better performance. It's a Porsche, so base MSRP has no relation to what you'll actually pay - Porsche's option packages can easily double the price of any of their products.

Model X: I'm still not sold on the idea of "golf cart as people hauler" - especially in this class. If you go on a road trip with the fam, you're gonna take a Model X? How long would it take to make a long trip having to stop to recharge every couple of hours? I still believe the reality of a Tesla, any Tesla, is that it's a second car but not a daily driver.

Levante: Maserati? You're gonna need a second vehicle.

In closing, I would suggest that you very carefully consider your space needs against the requirements for an SUV. Unless you absolutely must have the additional space offered by something like a Q7, I would strongly urge you to consider the next size down. The driving dynamics of all four of these vehicles are good when compared to vehicles in the same class, but none of them are going to drive like a car. They're big, they're heavy and they're slow. You have an Acadia, so you get that.

 

[T2Kplus10]

Q7: Big Audi, of course. Same platform as the Cayenne (and now the VW Atlas, which deserves to be on anyone's shopping list, in this category). Solid reputation, marginal handling when compared to the Cayenne.

Cayenne: Best in class. Not as much usable space as the Q7 but better performance. It's a Porsche, so base MSRP has no relation to what you'll actually pay - Porsche's option packages can easily double the price of any of their products.

Model X: I'm still not sold on the idea of "golf cart as people hauler" - especially in this class. If you go on a road trip with the fam, you're gonna take a Model X? How long would it take to make a long trip having to stop to recharge every couple of hours? I still believe the reality of a Tesla, any Tesla, is that it's a second car but not a daily driver.

Levante: Maserati? You're gonna need a second vehicle.

In closing, I would suggest that you very carefully consider your space needs against the requirements for an SUV. Unless you absolutely must have the additional space offered by something like a Q7, I would strongly urge you to consider the next size down. The driving dynamics of all four of these vehicles are good when compared to vehicles in the same class, but none of them are going to drive like a car. They're big, they're heavy and they're slow. You have an Acadia, so you get that.

So you are high on the VW Atlas as well? I don't know much about that one. One last question, since you brought up VW, what about the Touareg (is that closer to a Q5 or Q7)?

 

[RU4Real]

So you are high on the VW Atlas as well? I don't know much about that one. One last question, since you brought up VW, what about the Touareg (is that closer to a Q5 or Q7)?

Size-wise, there's not a lot of difference between the Atlas and the Touareg. The former is marketed as a "family SUV" and the latter as a "luxury SUV". Both are pretty nice, but the Atlas shows the Touareg to now be somewhat dated. Size-wise, they're closer to Q7 than Q5. The new Tiguan, stretched for the latest version, is built on the MQB platform, same as the Q5.

 

[psychoRUfan]

I haven’t gone through the thread but have any of you rented a boat down in USVI or BVI and sailed around the islands there?

 

[RU05]

I haven’t gone through the thread but have any of you rented a boat down in USVI or BVI and sailed around the islands there?

Welp, my gf's sister used to own a cat down in tortola that was part of a fleet. Went down there once, it was great.

I was just along for the ride though.