$%£*@# MoBos!

Capn Pugwash

Capn Pugwash

Well-Known Member
Joined
27 Jun 2006
Messages
602
Location
On Kite - Greece
www.boatbabysitters.com
...and again it happens! Coming into Portsmouth Harbour Saturday evening about 7:30 pm, doing about 5 kts. No ferries nearby, no hovercrafts either! No Fastcats or any other yachts within 500 metres. So along comes Mr Dickhead doing 15kts and passes within 2 metres. Resultant bow wave knocked 2 of the crew over despite my shouted warning "a**hole alert!".

Why? Please someone explain to me why these ignorant w%*&ers have to behave like that! If I had got his boat name I would have followed the scrote back to his mooring and pulled his sphincter out through his throat. If you happen to be reading this (which I doubt as it seems all the forumites have a knowledge of seamanship) feel free to contact me. I would love to meet up! /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif
 
I was on a mooring recently when a small speed boat went through at 20 plus knots. It was on the plane, it's engine was at three-quarters throttle and well silenced and if I hadn't been watching I would hardly have noticed it. About 10 minuites later a 10m yacht went by at 7 knots. The engine was straining and putting up a screen of black smoke, banging like thunder and the stern wave was the only thing to move the bowl of fruit on Bella Donna's table since the last time I was crossing the Channel into the teeth of a Force 7.

Motorboaters are not the only sinners.
 
I mentioned the case recently of some deaths in Croatia. In one, a mobo was hit on the side by a rib full of kids. The point is this mobo was travelling between two small islands, in an area close to anchored boats, bathers, shoals and passenger boats. At no point could he have been more than 300 metres from one or other coast. When interrogated, he said he was moving slowly through the area... at 20 knots!!! (Claimed, so it might well have been more). Incidentally, after the accident, he and his crew remained frozen for long enough for a skipper on a boat anchored nearby to jump into his tender, row across and administer mouth-to-mouth to one of the kids.
 
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...and again it happens! Coming into Portsmouth Harbour Saturday evening about 7:30 pm, doing about 5 kts. No ferries nearby, no hovercrafts either! No Fastcats or any other yachts within 500 metres. So along comes Mr Dickhead doing 15kts and passes within 2 metres.

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The area you mention is under constant recorded radar surveillance. You could just ask QHM to have a look and give you the boat name. Sounds like injuries (if only bruises) resulted from this persons behaviour.
 
Sailing out of St Malo in 2002 I had the same thing happen to me. The boat in question was from Jersey, our destination. I left a note on his boat, explaining that the the contents of the chemical toilet that were laying in his cockpit was from one the boats he had chosen to 'buzz'. Not sure if it changed his attitude but it made me feel better! Also he was not using his boat when we left for home!
Allan
 
Isn't it funny how mobo owners are generally more mature than their sailing brothers. Yotties cause us incidents everytime we go out but do we complain...of course not we just accept and get on with it. Where as on the other hand it seems yotties love nothing more than try to stir up bad feelings by posting every little incident. Funny ah?

just imagine if everytime someone on the road did something you didn't like you posted about it. Pretty boring don't you think..... /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif
 
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yotties love nothing more than try to stir up bad feelings by posting every little incident.

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Believe me, if every little incident was posted here the forums would be nothing but Raggies moaning about stinkies.

Except for the odd complete nutter that comes within feet at speed I generally only have a problem with MOBOs in light winds where it will have taken me up to 5 minutes to patiently build the speed up, only to have the boat stopped by a massive wash and all the wind shaken out of my sails. A good analogy would be if you could imagine someone sat in your cockpit holding your fuel cutoff switch and pulling it at random. Would spoil your fast smooth trip wouldn't it?

In winds of over 12 knots or so I frankly couldn't care less about a bit of wash, unless the MOBO causing it came within about 5 boat lengths, then it can be a bit steep and awkward to deal with.
 
I don't generalise about anyone. I don't like inconciderate boaters, whether they have a mast or not. I have seen sailors who are just as bad as the worst mobos. The guy in the mobo I mentioned above was close enough to soak us, which he thought was funny. It is the same in all of life, there are good and bad people!
Allan
 
I am from the NE where power and sail get on well and help each other,or perhaps my sailing roots helped ?

I have been around the Solent for the last two years and I have to say I am less enthusiastic about gentlemanly conduct on the waters after each and every trip in the solent.

Many nasty comments here (from a small minority) hasn't helped.

Starts Friday night from 2300 to 0100 with tight swingers coming into the marina to fill their water tanks clanking the hose and talking/shouting loud under the cover of darkness.

A poor nights sleep and young crew are going to make everyone grouchy.

Sat am
head out through dinghy races that go the full width of the narrow channels.

get to the harbour entrance where there is always one dick head tacking out against the tide

numerous Yachts under power will stand on Port side missing us by minute margines.........why do they do that ?.....it forces me to go closer to other sailing craft /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif
If they navigate within 10 m of me is that then acceptable for me to navigate within 10 m of them when sailing ..NO

Cowes Yacht clubs RIBs then cut us up making loads of wash for us and their own members /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

Then in general some of the smaller sailing yacht owners (sub 30 ft) are less than civil on the pontoons.

Some Yachts want to anchor with 10 x chain out effectively precluding anyone else from anchoring close, you can spot the ones with tripping buoy and bucket on a 50 m stern line.

Then it all starts again on the way back.............so far I remain civil and courteous but I can understand why some snap.

I have chosen to move from sail to power, I have also chosen my sea area.
As soon as I no longer enjoy the Solent I will change boats or sea area or both, an option equally available to others.

It would help me no end if Yachts would lower thier sails in approach channels, if I see one under sail I have a tendency to remain on the plane longer as it is much easier to find a gap. Once off the plane I am very vulnerable to sailing craft.
I think this is why many mobos stay on the plane until they have to slow down.

I prefer to slow down a mile off, but sometimes then have to give way to sail craft just as a stinker will charge through knocking me and my crew about.


I hope this is seen as a helpful post as it was intended.


edit

Please can you lower your masts while in marinas to help keep bird cra@ off my boat and stop that clanking noise /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 
The more I read about the Solent the more I'm glad we sail in the Netherlands. Everyone is so courteous, MOBOs slow down raggies wave to them. In fact there is so much waving going on that it almost becomes a pain! There appears to be no "flag snobbery" and people with lovely old traditional wooden Dutch boats wave to us in our AWB.

The only thing that is a pain sometimes is the prescence of wind surfers, but if you keep out of their way its fine.

SWiMBO recently did her DS out of Haslar and commented how miserable everyone seemed.
 
No offence taken mate, when I looked back at my post I realised I had not made the point I meant to! My point was, bad is bad, no matter what type of boat. I'm a member of Cardiff yacht club and we all get on. In Cardiff bay I find a problem can be the mobos being too nice. Lots of boats make little wake while on the plane but the owners often slow down to be nice! The guys in the ribs who take trippers through the barrage are great. They try to stay away as much as they can and stay up on the plane to reduce their wake. An interesting thing I see when on my mooring is that each boat has a sort of resonance. When waves hit the trot, normally one or other boat will rock violently. When the next waves appear it will be another boat which rocks.
Allan
 
That may be true, but the potential of a motor-boat to do harm is infinitely greater than the nuisance caused by the occasional aberrant yottie. This summer I tried calling up a large vessel off the Dodman who was motoring towards me at great speed on a calm sunny day and was making no obvious attempt to alter course to avoid me. With the whole English Channel to play with, he eventually passed a few boat-lengths away; presumably I had made the error of trying to navigate on the direct path between his two chosen waypoints.

I can assure any motor-boat skipper that the sight of fifteen tons or so coming straight towards you when seen from the cockpit of the average sailing-boat is not likely to generate feelings other than of detestation mingled with contempt. I am well aware that it is possible to navigate one of these objects safely and considerately, but it is a widely-held belief that this is very much the exception.
 
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I am well aware that it is possible to navigate one of these objects safely and considerately, but it is a widely-held belief that this is very much the exception.

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You really believe that the greater majority of Mobo'ers are unsafe? Get a life!
 
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