Water As An Element of Fine-Tuning

I don't think the proposition that life can only arise in water-based environments was as much off the mark as has been suggested; IIRC Isaac Asimov made that argument in his book on evolution from the 60's, which title I forget. I also think he argued the possibility of methane/silicon life, but also agreed this would be extremely slow-padced life, if possible at all.On sulphur, don't the worms around black smokers use a sulfur-based metabolism?