A friend attended a meeting at a sailboat club and said the members had "boat cards" with their vessel and contact info. I'm not familiar with this but then it occurred to me, I had a boat card too. Is this a thing?
I have never wanted to leave evidence that I did meet most people. Lots of folk we never wanted to talk to again. No boat cards here. We did have real business cards that we left, hopping for repeat services from some folk. Zero regrets. Business was good.
We've been given a few, as we've met cruisers over the years... So I made a boat card for us... but usually forget to give one to anybody. The backs make decent pads, though, for short notes to self. -Chris
During my previous lives working for DEC & Fujitsu, I learned early, that scratching on the back of a card was taboo to the Japaneses. The card was honored and cherished when received. You would receive and offer a card with both hands and a lil bow with a thank you did impress some visitors. Pocket notebooks were quickly pulled out for notes and scratch. There were many nights at The Elephant Club (La Jolla, later in San Jose)), where I found out these fine folk could out-drink me under the table also, of course still with pomp & politeness.
Yeah, them Japanese took that stuff seriously.. I lived in Tokyo for 6-7 months way back when, learned to bow properly to my teachers. (Introduced myself as “He Who Boils His Fish” ) It blew their minds. Boat Cards: I had plenty of those for my charters business, handed them out left and right, still have a few hundred left, shut down the business last year, the cards will go in the trash shortly.
I attended survey with a client who showed up with cards printed with his new boat name on them. As he started handing them out to owner, captain, etc., I told him that he was waiving all negotiating ability. The expression of "keeping your cards to your chest" was created for a reason. Common sense (mine) trumped excitement (his).
Yes! Glad he did; it's always painful to see $$ spent on a survey and not turn out well and then to lose money on cards too? LoL.
Over the years we gave out refrigerator magnets with a colored pic of boat, our info to include home port, cell #, vhf radio channel to hail us......many interesting characters we met asea thanks to those magnets
