Am I becoming a curmudgeon?

[boatmike]

Hate to think as I get older that I am becoming a marine equivalent of Victor Meldrew but i find myself increasingly saying " I don't believe it" around the Solent. I have already started a grumpy post about costs rising unreasonably but perhaps that is inevitable. What is not inevitable is the increasing number of people that seem to be completely oblivious of the rules of the road. On a recent outing I was sailing hard to wind on a starboard tack and a larger vessel that could obviously sail closer to the wind than I almost rammed me from behind when overtaking waving and shouting like lunatics that I should give way...... From Cowes back to Portsmouth sailing downwind I had to take extreme action to avoid a big MoBo coming the other way at about 20 knots driven by a bikini clad teenager on the flying bridge with (I assume) Dad and others enjoying a party on the deck below. Then coming up to the small boat channel I was confronted by 3 yachts abreast of one another and another Mobo overtaking them in the entrance of the small boat channel which gave me nowhere to go but crash stop and bear away. Absolutely no way to pass port to port and no room to go starbd to starbd either without ramming the piles. Lucky I was not under sail at that point! Now I hate to be a grumpy old git but all this happened on the same trip. Someone please tell me its not just me???????

 

[Mark-1]

I had to take extreme action to avoid a big MoBo coming the other way at about 20 knots driven by a bikini clad teenager on the flying bridge

When bikini clad young ladies become a cause of complaint for me, I plan to cable tie the anchor to my ankle and hop over the side.

 

[BabySharkDooDooDooDooDoo]

I don't think he said anything about it being a lady, young or otherwise....

 

[prv]

I haven't noticed the number of people ignorant of colregs (or not keeping a lookout) increasing. They're out there, but they always have been.

There's a simple way to keep your blood pressure under control, though, which is to avoid seeing each encounter as an adversarial situation where having to avoid a vessel that should have kept clear counts as losing. You're correctly following Rule 17; you can allow yourself to feel satisfied about that. If you're close-hauled on starboard but have to avoid someone on port, by the time it's obvious they're not going to keep clear, your duck under their stern will be small enough not to have lost any significant amount of ground anyway.

It seems unlikely that even a bikini-clad teenager would have driven right into you. And the Small Boat Channel is inevitably going to be busy at the moment, which is why entering under sail is, I believe, prohibited under normal circumstances.

Pete

 

[boatmike]

Hmm... PRV I am not too concerned about my BP if I keep taking the tablets but I am reminded of the famous last words engraved on the tombstone. "I had right of way"!
You will also recognise from the fact that I am writing this that I know how to take last minute avoiding action but I fail to see how one "tucks under the stern" of an overtaking vessel...... And may I add that the teenager on the MoBo WOULD have rammed me if I hadn't borne away rapidly and as it was came within yards of doing so which caused "Dad" to rush up and take the wheel. Kiddo was simply not looking where she was going. And however crowded the entrance is boats should not be overtaking one another in the narrows......

 

[DJE]

You're not alone. But I'd better not get started on the variety of navigation lights shown by leisure vessels in The Solent.

 

[Concerto]

Hate to think as I get older that I am becoming a marine equivalent of Victor Meldrew but i find myself increasingly saying " I don't believe it" around the Solent. I have already started a grumpy post about costs rising unreasonably but perhaps that is inevitable. What is not inevitable is the increasing number of people that seem to be completely oblivious of the rules of the road. On a recent outing I was sailing hard to wind on a starboard tack and a larger vessel that could obviously sail closer to the wind than I almost rammed me from behind when overtaking waving and shouting like lunatics that I should give way...... From Cowes back to Portsmouth sailing downwind I had to take extreme action to avoid a big MoBo coming the other way at about 20 knots driven by a bikini clad teenager on the flying bridge with (I assume) Dad and others enjoying a party on the deck below. Then coming up to the small boat channel I was confronted by 3 yachts abreast of one another and another Mobo overtaking them in the entrance of the small boat channel which gave me nowhere to go but crash stop and bear away. Absolutely no way to pass port to port and no room to go starbd to starbd either without ramming the piles. Lucky I was not under sail at that point! Now I hate to be a grumpy old git but all this happened on the same trip. Someone please tell me its not just me???????

Thats why I love the Solent sailing ditch not. Much better off sailing on the quieter East Coast and there are far fewer idiots to mess up your day.

 

[johnalison]

I have always enjoyed visiting the Solent. I keep my blood pressure under control by pretending that I am in a foreign country.

 

[stevebrassett]

As we come slowly out of lockdown, it seems that many people have lost what little common sense they had.

 

[38mess]

I find most old guy boat owners are sad and moody. Especially old guys who have come late to the game hoping that a boat will open a whole new social life for them, only to find they are still miserable and lonely, except now it's on a boat.?

 

[boatmike]

I find most old guy boat owners are sad and moody. Especially old guys who have come late to the game hoping that a boat will open a whole new social life for them, only to find they are still miserable and lonely, except now it's on a boat.?

WHOOOO . .... !!! Well I am not sad or lonely. Happily married to crew and our social life is great! I have also been sailing since I was 7 that's precisely 71 years ago so not exactly "late to the game". Just a little pissed at people trying to kill me that's all.

 

[38mess]

WHOOOO . .... !!! Well I am not sad or lonely. Happily married to crew and our social life is great! I have also been sailing since I was 7 that's precisely 71 years ago so not exactly "late to the game". Just a little pissed at people trying to kill me that's all.

Good for you ?

 

[Stingo]

Just a little pissed at people trying to kill me that's all.

If they manage to kill you, can I have your boat, please, so that I can go sailing. Merci!

 

[greeny]

Now I hate to be a grumpy old git but all this happened on the same trip. Someone please tell me its not just me???????

No, it's not just you.

 

[Newboy6458]

Hi Mike
No it’s not just you at all. It’s like riding a motorbike 50 years ago. Assume everyone out there is trying to kill you. If nobody’s tried in the last 15 minutes then have a break cause you haven’t noticed but the b’Staads are still trying.
Perhaps more serious is every time I’ve ever put a post on here about colregs, lots of opinions but few read the details. My solution to Solent Cruising is a heavy manky old boat with lots of battle scars ( very few actually mine) and a loud pump up air horn.
I was rammed a few years ago by a racing yacht after I stalled in irons putting a tack in trying to get out of his way. 11 grand damage to his boat, peanuts to mine. His only defence was that he had right of way. Mine was he had no look outs (rule 5) and no attempt to avoid there fore fell foul of rule 2. Eventually our insurers agreed to cover our own losses but it was a fight.

 

[laika]

There's a simple way to keep your blood pressure under control, though, which is to avoid seeing each encounter as an adversarial situation where having to avoid a vessel that should have kept clear counts as losing. You're correctly following Rule 17; you can allow yourself to feel satisfied about that.

+1. If you don’t think of these vessels in terms of people not giving you the respect you deserve but simply impersonal objects to avoid, you simply congratulate yourself for avoiding them rather than brooding on their antisocialness. I’ve avoided road rage for 30 years as a motorcyclist using this technique.

The overtaking thing...That’s happened to me a couple of times. I think it’s because some racers don’t understand the rrs don’t apply to non racing boats. A hail of “rule 13! You’re overtaking!” Can at least make them pay attention.

 

[Newboy6458]

Surely that’s means an unattended helm while they go to look it up in the handy copy of the rules they’ve got

 

[john_morris_uk]

Please .... can we lose the ‘right of way’ phrase?

your local GOM.

 

[johnalison]

Please .... can we lose the ‘right of way’ phrase?

your local GOM.

Wot? And spoil our fun?

 

[greeny]

Yesterday I had right of way.........................at the roundabout at Lidl but a French car decided they had right of way and pulled out in front of me - b*****s.
I know that in France, cars joining from the right used to have right of way and in some cases still do have right of way but in Portugal they do not have right of way.