Are Large Boat Sailors Less Considerate?

[Debennut]

I sail a 24ft timber yacht, my berth is at the far end of the marina. On leaving my berth heading towards the entrance, two large yachts approximately 40 feet coming into the marina turned, in succession, sharply to port, in front of me in order to approach their berths. I slowed down to let them pass. Surely the considerate ( and col regs) thing would have been, to have waited for me to pass? Perhaps it was because it was late afternoon on a Sunday, they had to get home or perhaps they thought might was right? Or, give them the benefit of the doubt they just didn't see me. Are large boat owners less considerate? End of grumble.

 

[skipmac]

Lumping all of any group in the same category is generally just wrong. Why not ask "Are all small boat owners less knowledgeable?" or "Are all Americans pushy?" or "Are all Brits snobby?".

My experience, you can run into idiots in any size or kind of boat and conversely you can encounter polite, competent boaters in any kind of boat, large or small. I find many more of the later than the former but seems like the former often make a bigger impression.

 

[Kukri]

Looks like case of "get the covers on, get packed up, got the car keys..." I suspect they were preoccupied by having guests on board and were not expecting to see you.

 

[ianfr]

Lumping all of any group in the same category is generally just wrong. Why not ask "Are all small boat owners less knowledgeable?" or "Are all Americans pushy?" or "Are all Brits snobby?".

My experience, you can run into idiots in any size or kind of boat and conversely you can encounter polite, competent boaters in any kind of boat, large or small. I find many more of the later than the former but seems like the former often make a bigger impression.

+1 in our experience.

 

[sailorman]

Today, 40 ft is a starter boat :ambivalence:

 

[Champagne Murphy]

Today, 40 ft is a starter boat :ambivalence:

Only the experienced have 32'-34' boats?

 

[Otter]

It's a tricky one, when we had 23, then 26 and finally 28 foot boats we found marinas stress free, if you stuffed it up you could push off or fend off any boat you approached. Now we have a 35 foot 12 tonne behemoth I'm afraid we have become rather inconsiderate: we don't give way in a marina, once we're on target we just keep going and use friendly hand gestures to reinforce the message. It's boorish and unpleasant behaviour on our part but frankly if we stuff it up then not much will happen to our solid block of granite but it will put more than a wrinkle in the sides of anyone we bump into. So forgive us and those like us if you're in a light displacement 25 footer and facing a 35 foot long, 13 foot wide and 10 foot high slab sided lump like our CW - frankly self preservation should be your choice and let us through, it's not a race to the clubhouse or a desire to be back in time for supper, it's just that we can't do anything else without risking life, limb or insurance claims

And as for mobos, I hadn't appreciated how they need 5 knots just to have steerage way, so we wave extra hard at them.

 

[Javelin]

two engine mobos however have no excuse!

 

[ex-Gladys]

Dunno about big boats, in the last couple of years there seems to be a big increase in the number of boats who fail the basic test of looking what's going on around BEFORE moving, and also looking before leaving the dead end

 

[pvb]

And it's amazing how few look behind them!

 

[Triassic]

I'm not particularly "large" but my width can make it a bit awkward in marinas and I'm always very appreciative of those that make my life a little easier, and safer, by making allowances regardless of what the colleges may or may not say. I think it's generally good manners if practicable before leaving your berth to check if there is anything entering, or about to enter the marina that you may come into conflict with and that's easily done via the marina office on the VHF. As others have suggested it's usually a whole lot easier for something small and light to stop start than something a bit bigger.

I don't think it's necessarily a case of larger boat skippers being less considerate, it's just that their expectation may be that skippers of smaller vessels consider the practicalities involved and behave accordingly, and that may come across as inconsiderate. Having said that a simple thumbs up and a "Thank You" goes a long way to restoring any bruised feelings......

 

[Eurybia]

two engine mobos however have no excuse!

And your point is?

 

[Tomahawk]

Coss wind in a mobo with 10ft high sides and nothing under the water= sideways... >>>> crunch.

I have the heebiejeebies goung into marinas if anything is moving at the same time...

 

[sailorman]

your boat is larger than the average marina

 

[SailingVet]

Interestingly we had a similar situation last Sunday as a larger boat.
I too dislike bad manners on the water, so if it was us in the OPs comments, I would like to apologise.
We came into Shotley with another similar size boat behind us and found a smaller boat ahead as we needed to turn to port into our row. We judged there to be enough distance with minimal change of speed/course needed by the other boat to allow us to turn. With the other, larger boat behind us I decided not to stop or overshoot the row in case this gave them a problem in turn. Wife raised her hand to the small boat and we thought, plenty of space and no drama.
It's generally easier at Shotley to anticipate conflicting movements as the lock keepers normally advise boats of other inward or outbound traffic and often advise outbound boats to come down to the waiting pontoon which as it's on port tends to facilitate starboard to starboard passing in that area.
Interestingly, do the IRPCS apply in marinas and if so should we all be making the appropriate sound signals where turns are imminent and may conflict?

 

[Athene V30]

Interestingly, do the IRPCS apply in marinas and if so should we all be making the appropriate sound signals where turns are imminent and may conflict?

Yes they do.