Bill, I'd like to believe the collective knowledge here is readily available but I have to agree that the search function is at best clumsy and extremely time consuming. Its a tedious process of sorting through piles of threads thrown back based only on a word search not real relevance.

As a newcomer years ago I was enough of an experienced web user to try the search function many times before I just started posting threads on what were obviously going to be much discussed topics among those who had been around longer than me. I've never failed to get an answer from fellow boat owners and enjoy the interaction with other sailors. Since that interaction is one of the most valuable results from being registered here I can't imagine why I'd go back to trying the word-search based "search" function. The fun of the conversation is way more valuable than the tedium of slogging through word=bingo searches.