if not for yachtsmen

[HolyUnicorn]

Hello,

……and today’s less venturesome sailors shun the marshy islands like the plague. Yet these very shoal waters have their place, if not for yachtsmen. They provide an optimum habitat for such rooted aquatic plants……

Beautiful Swimmers: Watermen, Crabs and the Chesapeake Bay by William W. Warner

Does the part in bold read if they don’t have their place for yachtsmen?

 

[grassy]

Yes, but I'd read 'if' as meaning 'even though' there.

 

[PaulQ]

Yet these very shoal waters have their place, although [they do] not [have a place] for yachtsmen.

Crossposted.

 

[Chez]

It says sailors shun the marshy islands, so these islands are 'not for yachtsmen' – yachtsmen don't like them. But, the author adds, they are a good place for other things, like rooted aquatic plants.

 

[Edinburgher]

But, the author adds, they are a good place for other things, like rooted aquatic plants.

I suppose this means that, unlike yachtsmen, these plants really like visiting the area. Mind you, given that they are "rooted", they don't exactly have a lot of freedom of movement.

 

[grassy]

Mind you, given that they are "rooted", they don't exactly have a lot of freedom of movement.

But before they rooted, they were a seed or a piece of stem and those can travel.