Twenty years from now

My prediction is that sailing will be split with young athletic types sailing ever more extreme boats and old farts plodding round in more pedestrian stuff. In between these two sailing will fade under competition from other pastimes.

This has nothing to do with anything but I intend to go back to Venice every year until I do die. Last Thursday we were at the fish market watching a team of three blokes pulling out rotten mooring posts and replacing them with new. They had an old steel barge thing with a Hiab on it, loads of rusty chain and thick three strand manila rope, all frayed and muddy. There were no hard hats, no high viz jackets and no lifejackets. There were great lumps of wood being swung through the air and chains hurling about...all this just next to the public gondola ferry stop. We then took the gondola across the Grand Canal, all standing up as it picked its way through the heavy traffic. Again no lifejackets or even I life buoy....in fact I have never seen any emergency safety equipment in Venice. Long may it last!