are yachts sentient?

[Allan]

I have always spoken to my boats, while sailing single handed. In recent times I have started to do the same with people onboard. When I arrive at the boat, the first thing I do is say hello. I think it is something to do with trying to get the best out of her at all times. If I make a mistake, I'm happy to say sorry too. I am a very practical person and fully understand she is a load of different materials in the shape of a boat and there is nothing listening when I talk. Bit like kids really!
Allan

 

[capnsensible]

For us plebs, this is what it means, glad we got online dictionary.

http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/sentient

 

[Captain Haddock]

So do you people talk to your boat as you sail.

My brother in law has a wheelbarrow he calls Wilma and a VW he calls Victor - he talks to them all day long.

It now seems that I naybe the weird one

Dylan

I always talk to the boat, if you listen carefully she'll talk to you too. The sound of the wind in the rigging, the burble of the engine and so on. It all lets you know what's going on.

I always said goodbye and thanks after sailing.

You don't care Dylan and the Slug knows it

 

[reginaldon]

Mine obviously can communicate by telepathy.
The first and only time I deamed about my boat, I dreamed that she had come off the forward mooring and had a contra temps with a railway arch, causing damage to the rubbing strake and gunwhale.

Later that morning, about 8. 45 am, my daughter rang from work, to tell me the boat was in a funny position. When I got down there what I had dreamed actually had happened.
No I'm not clairvoyant!

PS. My boat in the dream was clinker-built but I was in no doubt it was my boat

 

[Porthandbuoy]

I don't believe Ladybird's sentient, but I'll be sure to ask her next time I'm down the marina.

 

[planteater]

Clearly, boats are not sentient but their owners are mostly romantic souls. As a KTL subscriber and (dare I say) fan, I'd hate to see you dump the slug - you might not like this but the slug is 50% of a double act.

If the slug is a bit basic then sneak a few night ashore in a decent hotel. We'll never know!

 

[Searush]

Yeah, Bear Grhylls does it, so does Ray Mears.

 

[Deleted member 36384]

Yeah, Bear Grhylls does it, so does Ray Mears.

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooo, Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooo, it cant be true, I thought if that fat twat can whittle a paddle when up the creek, then I am not doomed after all. I am doomed after all!

 

[dylanwinter]

dump the slug and sleeping in hotels - utterly deluded

"You don't care Dylan and the Slug knows it "


" As a KTL subscriber and (dare I say) fan, I'd hate to see you dump the slug - you might not like this but the slug is 50% of a double act.

If the slug is a bit basic then sneak a few night ashore in a decent hotel. We'll never know! "


This is all very worrying on so many levels - perhaps the boat does know that I don't think it knows anything at all.

and is therefore trying to get revenge on me.

But things break, not because the slug is self aware but because I do not spend enough money on it.


The other part is also worrying - I think that sailors watch the films to see how cheaply I can do it. I think this is a sort of sadism.

The most worrisome part of the comment from Planteater is that he appears to beleive that I am wealthy enough to stay in hotels. If I arrive at the boat and the tide is wrong I sleep in the car.

As for really dumping the slug... I am confident that more people would watch the films if I was sailing a more popular boat.

At the moment there are around 1000 sailors from all over the world who have stumped up to watch the films

3,000 centaurs made - I bet numbers would rise if I was sailing a Centaur

or even more if I was doing the journey in a mac of some sort

maybe a mac with a long shaft seagull on the back to keep the hair shirt people happy.

There is a small colony of macs in Wells - both they and their owners seem very happy with life.

But then I am not sure that blokes who own beautiful boats are appreciabky happier than blokes who own ugly boats.

which is uglier - a mac or a slug?

Dylan

 

[Madhatter]

Dylan,
the fact that you are using "the Slug" is a very good reason for watching your films, it gives us poor sailors a glimmer of hope and adventure on a small budget. If you were on a posh boat with a reasonable budget maybe we wouldn't watch them with so much interest and maybe you would not put yourself in such precarious positions leaving you unable to catch rare glimpses of estuary life !!

 

[nathanlee]

and that encourages us to treat the boats as much more than wood or plastic, as she/they represents such an important part of our lives.

Like our houses.

Seriously though. I'm not at all superstitious, about anything, and neither am I even slightly religious (or agnostic), but I do have a special place for my boat. I know she's just a bit of plastic, some wood, and stainless steel, but she's also a memory, and a dream.

If pressed I'll admit she has no feelings and is just plastic, but I'd prefer to keep her endeared as a companion. A companion to which I owe it to keep in good condition, and in return, she'll return the favour.

I love you Kudu. xxx

 

[VO5]

Well, I talk to mine......afloat...
On a beam reach, all I have to say is "Good Girl...Good Giiiiirrrrrllllll" and I detect an increase in speed immediately. It always seems to work.

Ashore...she gets a pat on her bottom...and "Not to worry...Daddy will be back soon"...and that works too. When I come back she hasn't drifted away an inch.

(its important to let them know you love them ).

 

[Mrs FG]

I now understand why Mr FG says "Bye, bye, boatie" when he leaves our boat, as he did with the previous one - he wouldn't want to risk calling her by another boat's name.

 

[Gwylan]

Well of course - it's one of those things you should not have to ask. Would anyone in their right mind trust their life to the sea in an inanimate collection of plastic and metal?

A kind word goes a lot further than an oath. Why else would boats be considered female.

Of course I talk to her. We have our special song as we set off, hope none of the crew read this.

Then there is Otto, Otto Matic the autohelm. He is a much valued and respected member of the crew. But sometimes he does need a bit of discipline. He got very confused when we repaired all his wiring and got the compass input wrong!

Hate to see her sitting about on her mud mooring all wintered up and with the engine in pieces waiting for me and the dosh to get it sorted.
Wires hanging from here and there as we sort out the wiring and improve all the electrical stuff.

I have promised her that we will fix everything up and she will be beautiful come the Spring.
As a gesture of good will I have taken the spray hood away to clean and repair

We have an agreement that if I get the headlining sorted then she will be much happier and hence warmer and altogether happier.

The dodgy stanchion will be fixed properly this year when the weather is warmer - and not bodged like it was this.

She gets really excited when we get the cruising chute out and usually has a sulk when we put it away.

 

[finbarr]

I think a lot of the charm in KTL is the fact you are in a little boat. I see you slowly circumnavigating Britain in a boat that I could afford (well, I own one, but thats an aside) and it leads me of on a dream of doing something similar. If you were in a "big" centaur (which, personally, I think are uglier than the mirror) then KTL would not be as relevant to me. Though it would no doubt be more comfortable for you!

As for talking to my boat, yeah I do it all the time. I say hello, and see you soon, and curse at the inboard. She's probably not sentient but I don't want to risk annoying her either lol!

 

[grumpy_o_g]

Let's face it - when you have a rant from the Slug about motor boats with their generators running all night, floating caravans, kids playing in over-powered tenders or whatever, you are doing it with a certain amount of moral high ground you wouldn't have from the deck of your brand new Oyster 56 (you would need to make the films either admittedly). I don't think it would lose anything if you were in say a Centaur but the managing of the money, the work, the family, etc. is one of the things that makes it so enjoyable. The little snippets of trying to anti-foul between the keels, sort out damage and so on make it so much better than a glossy Palin-style travelogue where you keep thinking "if this is such hard work how do you think the bloke who's doing it all while holding camera feels?".

 

[AliM]

Like lots of people here, we talk to our boat, say hello when we arrive, thanks her for a good sail, and apologise to her when we get something wrong and she goes aground or bumps into a pontoon or something. We have been particularly careful not to talk about her successor when she is close, or to tell her that we are selling her.

I guess it's a bit like the conversations you might have with a favourite horse - you don't expect him to talk back, or understand in any detail, but you make sure he knows he is loved, and are very careful not to offend him.

The slug - Dylan, would you be happy to throw a newer more expensive boat around the way you do the slug - bumping it into the shingle on the Deben/Ore bar for example, venturing into the creeks of the backwaters, as far as the slug can just float...? Stick with the slug - you know it (she?) will take the punishment of exploring all those places that we, in our grander boats, do not dare to go. Your films would not be nearly as interesting if you were constrained to stick to the safe, proper channels!

 

[dylanwinter]

slug abuse

The slug - Dylan, would you be happy to throw a newer more expensive boat around the way you do the slug - bumping it into the shingle on the Deben/Ore bar for example, venturing into the creeks of the backwaters, as far as the slug can just float...? Stick with the slug - you know it (she?) will take the punishment of exploring all those places that we, in our grander boats, do not dare to go. Your films would not be nearly as interesting if you were constrained to stick to the safe, proper channels!

You are correct, I have never stuck to the proper channels - both afloat and ashore

I do abuse the slug - and if it was a more expensive boat I could not do that - but it does seem to me that right now the people who watch the films "enjoy" the genuine lack of finances and general shoe string sailing I portray in the films.

Three years in and its still hand to mouth, actually the finances are even rockier thanks to my google encounter so I am clearly doing something wrong and not recruiting enough subscribers

However, these people

http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/boatblog.html

have just picked up their new Southerly 47 financed by the videos and TV shows

lovely shots of expensive boats, blue water, exotic destinations.

As Jill predicted I will end up with a few people who really, really like the films - partly because they like seeing a bloke sailing a boat that is worse than theirs and running sweepstakes on what bit is going to fall off next.

but I really need to widen the demographic

that is the problem

Dylan

 

[Twister_Ken]

but widening the demographic

that is the problem

Dylan

Keep using language like that and you'll end up wearing a suit and sitting in an office.

 

[Lakesailor]

but I really need to widen the demographic

Dylan

Done!