CHEERS!

Meet

BennyThe Boozehound
Harbormaster,

Sailor’s Cove Sims

Interview by

Roan Blackburn, March 9, 2010

RB: How long have you been in SecondLife, Benny?

BB: My original avi, Contra Koba, was created in May of 2007 and Benny was made in October, 2007, specifically to captain my Larinda. The reason for this was so my friend, Runa Mc Millan, and I could explore by sea and not have to worry about auto return and no rez areas, as Benny was always sitting at the helm. We could jump off and back on and leave Benny to “guard” the boat.

RB: When and how did you discover Sailor’s Cove Sims?

BB: That’s a bit of a yarn, so I’ll try to be brief (not). In my first week of SL I came across a Tako vendor somewhere out on the mainland. At that time I was still exploring by walking from place to place, mostly along shorelines. Having no money at the time, I picked up the free version of the Tako. Well, there was the hook – even sailing it in the dreaded SL-generated wind was a hoot for me. After that, I discovered that simulated sailing was available in SL and I began to scour the map for open waters to play in.

I discovered a lot of places, probably long since gone, on the continents. One day, using map search, I found Nantucket sim and, from there, Hollywood and Jacqui’s sims, etc. Also, I discovered there were actually clubs that could be joined, places that you could rent slips, racing – a whole community of sailing enthusiasts that I had no idea would exist here.

From group notices, I learned about the boat show held at Sailor’s Cove and completely fell in love with the look of it. I’d lived in places like that back in the 80’s and decided this was where I’d want to settle as a home base. We rented a slip and an apartment there in November, 2007 and have been Sailor’s Cove residents ever since.

RB: How did you come to be SCS Harbormaster and how long have you had that title?

BB: Well, my friend Runa and I (Contra) used to hang out on our Larinda quite a lot and talk with passers-by. Many people would inquire about renting slips or just generally want to jawbone about sailing in both the virtual and real worlds. So one day I suggested to the estate managers that they really could use a Harbormaster here to help people get set up on renting slips and to keep the harbor clear of prims (like mistakenly rezzed HUDs) or just strange objects in general. I was half-joking at the time, but the very next day they asked me if I’d like to do that.

I (Contra) said “I don’t think I’m the guy for that, but I know someone who is” and I logged in Benny. Benny’s avi is based on someone I knew in RL. He was the owner of a small marina and salvage yard in East Boston - a big, burly guy with an ever-present grin on his face. So I thought “hmm, this would be fun” and I was not mistaken.

RB: What are your duties as SCS Harbormaster?

BB: At first it was more or less a meet-and-greet kind of thing, in the harbor itself, telling people about slip rentals, helping them to contact the right person to set them up, etc. As the estate grew and I was given return objects permissions for Sailor’s Cove-owned land, I started prim hunts. A lot of the space didn’t have auto return set, so all sorts of stuff was left lying about.

I did have fun with it, though. I didn’t fly from sim to sim; I used my little Downeaster to cruise around. Sometimes, I’d sail and sometimes I’d SCUBA (yes, Benny has SCUBA and it’s quite a sight.) I still do that from time to time, with the help of some very nice residents as well. We try to keep the waters free from flotsam and ghost ships as best we can.

As auto return has now been set on most of the estate land, it’s a bit easier to maintain and not as time consuming these days. I still try to get out there a few times a week to dislodge and return lost boats or send a friendly IM to the owners to come retrieve them. Slip rentals are still my main function on the estate. Also, I check that the sims are operating correctly and keep a wary eye on the horizon for the rare griefer.

RB: Do you have any most or least favorite parts of your job?

BB: Well, firstly, I would never call it a “job”. It’s something I enjoy doing because I do like to be helpful when and where I can, naturally. So there are no least favorite parts. What I like best is being directly helpful to another person. This takes many forms but I’d have to say what makes Benny smile the most is helping the new player that’s just discovered sailing to get their first boat.

With all the great free boats available now, it’s easy to get even the newest of the new onto the water and hopefully hooked like the rest of us. I’ll never forget that I was once a newbie with no money walking on a deserted sim when I discovered sailing in SL and it’s brought me a lot of great online experiences and friends. I like passing that on.

RB: Do you have a favorite story or incident to tell?

There have been quite a lot over the years of doing this, but I’d think the day I discovered the undersea love nest has to be one of my favorites. There is a depression in the terraforming on one of our sims. It’s a hole about 5 meters deep and almost perfectly square and flat at the bottom. While I was on prim patrol, I found someone had rezzed their sexbed down there – possibly SCUBA enthusiasts or Merfolk. I thought that was clever, but I do have an evil mind sometimes.

RB: Benny, in what other ways are you involved in the Sailor’s Cove community?

BB: Aside from being chief cook and bottle washer, I have been involved in the Theater for some time as security and recently I’ve been helping out with hosting there a few times a week. I also DJ but that’s not limited to Sailor’s Cove. I’m hoping to do more impromptu parties at Cutwater – after all everyone likes a party.

RB: Where do you like to sail in SL and what is your favorite (type of) boat?

BB: I sail quite a bit in SL, most every day, really. I’m a cruiser, though, not much for racing. I have tried some racing and have a lot of respect for the people that can do it well. It’s just not my cup of tea.

For me, putting on some nice music and cruising around the USS and beyond is what I like. I sail without HUDs and in mouselook to try to get the best virtual experience I can from the simulation. It can be quite Zen-like, a great relaxer after a hard day of playing real life.

My favorite boats are Trudeau’s, without a doubt. The newest ones are very close to the real world experiences I’ve had sailing. And besides being very functional with well thought out features, they are great eye candy. Lately, I sail the Tahiti 2, Leetle Cat (a boat I owned in RL, actually) and the Twenty. I still love my Larinda and take her out now and then, as well.

There are so many great boat makers out there now and a lot that I haven’t tried. But I’m not one to go out and buy the latest thing. I tend to stick with what I know and JT boats suit my style, I guess.

RB: Do you have other hobbies or pastimes in SL?

BB: I’ve done a bit of modifying my boats, along with help from Runa. She’s quite good with making the textures and animations I need for my little projects. A couple of examples of this can be seen on Bartlett Narrows docks.

We try to get out often as well to see live music acts that we like and to explore new places around the grid. But sometimes we’re just as happy to stay at home on Race Rock and dance or fish. I see SL as a relaxing element in my life and have no desire to make it more intense than it needs to be. I just don’t have those ambitions and my real world is mentally taxing enough. SL is me time…he he.

RB: Your profile says “son of a son of a sailor." Would you tell us a bit about this part of your RL?

BB: That’s from the Jimmy Buffet song, of course, and this is a yarn, so here we go…..My earliest memories of boats are from going to visit my grandparent’s house. PopPop, as we called him, had a wooden sailboat on a cradle in his backyard that may have been there from the early 50’s as far as I knew. He’d worked on it for years, on and off. In his den he had a lot of books on seamanship, sailing, boatbuilding and lots and lots of scale models of sailing ships he’d built. There were all kinds of cool stuff, but the boat itself is what I remember best.

Now, this boat may have been no more than 20 feet, if that, but when you’re six years old and playing on it with your brothers and cousins, it’s a world cruiser, eh? We’d hang out for hours, talking about the places we’d sail to, far off in the tropics. My uncles would tell stories about pirates and south sea islands. You get the picture.

I think I was nine when I sailed for the first time. My Granddad bought a Sunfish for my uncles to sail. We sailed at the Cooper River Yacht Club here in South Jersey almost every weekend. As we got to know other folks there, we’d get to sail with them on larger dinghies and I learned the principles of sailing and found more and more literature about sailing. By the time I was 15, my father had bought a Hobie 16 that we sailed around the bays and estuaries at the Jersey shore. We also took it out off the beaches of Strathmere where we rented a summer house every June.

Sadly, my Grandpop's project boat never saw the water as he passed away before it was finished and it was hauled off or sold. I honestly can’t say if he was ever a real sailor or just a man with a dream about it. But I know for a fact, he was a sailor in his heart. Out of his passion for sailboats was grown mine….and so I am a son of a son of a sailor.

RB: Benny, is there anything else you’d like to add or have your Sailor’s Cove neighbors know about you?

BB: Well, really I’d like to say to the extended family that is all the great people that make up the USS and sailing community in SecondLife, that if you see me out cruising be sure to shout me “Ahoy” and realize that if I don’t answer I’ve probably got my head in the fridge getting a cold one – so gimme a wide berth! Peace ~