Etiquette

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Martxer

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This weekend we were on our way back to our home birth after a great day out at anchor, we were doing 24 knots minding our buisness when we were passed by a much larger vessel . The boat passed us at approximately 15m on our port side 2 female guests waved as the passed and I returned with a middle finger salute.
The wake from the other vessel was enough that we had to stop to pick stuff up off the floor and put back in cupboards.
We are new to boating and the wife is still a bit uneasy on a choppy sea so this really upset her and it wound me up enough to want to chase him down and knock 7 bells out of him.

What is the etiquette on passing other boats out at sea?
 
Leave as practicable a large wide gap so’s to minimise your wake on them ,Particularly if they are smaller and almost stationary ie fishing or something.

We cruise @ 28/30 knots so I,am concours of this type of thing .I go out of my way .
Where I can’t I drop it off the plane until passed then pick it up again .

I would never in open sea slide past another boat within 15 M .

More like this range

 
It’s open sea. Was it helpful. Probably not. Only in the U.K. do people get angry. I am currently on anchor in Mallorca. No one really cares. Wake is wake just like a wave. At least they waved at you.

the boat rolling about is part of life. I have a gyro so I no longer roll. Problem solved.

personally I would not pass so close but such is life.
 
Martxer said:
This weekend we were on our way back to our home birth after a great day out at anchor, we were doing 24 knots minding our buisness when we were passed by a much larger vessel . The boat passed us at approximately 15m on our port side 2 female guests waved as the passed and I returned with a middle finger salute.
The wake from the other vessel was enough that we had to stop to pick stuff up off the floor and put back in cupboards.
We are new to boating and the wife is still a bit uneasy on a choppy sea so this really upset her and it wound me up enough to want to chase him down and knock 7 bells out of him.

What is the etiquette on passing other boats out at sea?
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Accelerate and out-run them
 
Superyachts around here are a hazard to your health, but disturb them while they are at anchor and you’ll get the crew on deck asking you to slowdown. But to be honest in this world of stabilizers, they probably don’t care anymore.
Boat wakes are a big problem, but it’s a fact of life. I try to be considerate to others but come summer it’s madness out there
 
jrudge said:
It’s open sea. Was it helpful. Probably not. Only in the U.K. do people get angry. I am currently on anchor in Mallorca. No one really cares. Wake is wake just like a wave. At least they waved at you.

the boat rolling about is part of life. I have a gyro so I no longer roll. Problem solved.

personally I would not pass so close but such is life.
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a bit of wash passing though an anchorage would have wound me up a bit but being passed at speed so close as to empty cupboards, frightening the life out of someone new to boating , is a gyro that good??
 
I don’t know what boat you have nor how big the other one was but turn slight into the wake should remove most of it. Boats underway are pretty stable in roll so I am surprised there was a major internal upset - cupboards should all be locked in any event.

a gyro is totally effective at passing wake if stopped. Underway i run if if it is on anyway and it reduces roll- but there is not that much roll under way anyway.
 
On the solent when fishing at anchor, wash is a huge problem because of the size and amount of boats buzzing up and down. When we are cruising to and from a destination and we get passed by a bigger vessel, we just slow to half throttle then safely turn into the wake. Or if it’s a real big boat, come to a stand still whilst facing the wake.
Some people just don’t give a flying feck about smaller craft or even consider that there may be kids aboard!
 
Unfortunately something you will have to come to terms with , no amount of anger or angst will make this old problem go away.
99% of it is not deliberate , merely a lack of consideration from those aware of the problems caused to those on the receiving end of the wash and those simply not even aware that any problem exists .
Suspect that the sheer numbers of first time boaters buying fairly large and fast boats may have a bearing , as opposed to the started small and working your way up , which ensured you were inevitably
on the receiving end of excessive wash at some point . ?

Unless you are prepared to have some sort of enforcable marine Highway Code, acceptable boat speed will be entirely at the discretion of the skipper. ?
Above is from the point of view of somebody who has been on both sides of the wash " conversation".
 
I dislike dealing with wash. However our 25ton trawler (v slow) yacht normally hardly moves when encountering said wash. But just a month or so back we were out in Plymouth Sound and some idiot in a 46’ Sealine opened up almost along side us and we fell off his huge wash sending stuff flying and my partner shouting what the f was that! As it was otherwise flat calm I hadn’t turned on the stabilisers.

I later learned skipper of said Sealine lost both his cap and expensive sunglasses overboard as he stuck his head up above the flybridge windscreen on his way back to the marina. Oh how we laughed!

Oh the joys of having a son who has inherited my love of boating! :ROFLMAO:
 
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I read it that the other boat overtook you travelling in the same direction as you (maybe wrong?). If so, the easiest solution is to simply bear away (turn way from the wake) as it reaches you so that the wake is at 90 degrees to you and your boat won't roll from side to side (it will still pitch fore and aft, but since the boat is much longer than it is wide, it's more 'stable' that way). If you slow down a little, the wake will pass under you much faster.

If the boat was coming the other way then, as above, turn into it so it's at 90 degrees to you and you're pitching, not rolling. If it's a really big wake, throttle back so that you're not hitting it so hard until it's past.

Again, as above, if you're out at sea you're going to get waves, whether caused by weather or other boats. It wasn't very considerate passing so close, sadly some people think they are driving cars and never look behind to see or understand the effect they're having., but you need to learn to deal with waves however they are caused.

On the subject of etiquette, sticking The Finger up isn't regarded as very seaman-like behaviour. :)
 
ari said:
I read it that the other boat overtook you travelling in the same direction as you (maybe wrong?). If so, the easiest solution is to simply bear away (turn way from the wake) as it reaches you so that the wake is at 90 degrees to you and your boat won't roll from side to side (it will still pitch fore and aft, but since the boat is much longer than it is wide, it's more 'stable' that way). If you slow down a little, the wake will pass under you much faster.

If the boat was coming the other way then, as above, turn into it so it's at 90 degrees to you and you're pitching, not rolling. If it's a really big wake, throttle back so that you're not hitting it so hard until it's past.

Again, as above, if you're out at sea you're going to get waves, whether caused by weather or other boats. It wasn't very considerate passing so close, sadly some people think they are driving cars and never look behind to see or understand the effect they're having., but you need to learn to deal with waves however they are caused.

On the subject of etiquette, sticking The Finger up isn't regarded as very seaman-like behaviour. :)
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Thanks for the helpful advice I will bear that in mind next time and apologies for my non seamanlike response.

In my defence 1st I saw of him he was alongside and he passed too close turn to avoid his wake hence the sea rage, no need as there was plenty of empty sea about .
 
Totally agree, people are inconsiderate or just don't realise. See it all the time.

Always important to keep looking around 360 degrees regularly when boating and noting where people are and going. For example, if you'd had to make a sudden course change (debris in the water) you'd want to know in advance that he was there or you could have turned across in front of him. causing a collision. (that's not to absolve him of blame for passing so close).

It's all part of the (steep) learning curve!
 
Martxer said:
... we were doing 24 knots minding our buisness when we were passed by a much larger vessel...The wake from the other vessel was enough that we had to stop to pick stuff up off the floor and put back in cupboards...
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Did you perchance pass any sailing boats doing 5 knots and minding their own business whilst out and about on your travels? If as seems likely the answer to that one's 'yes', then can you honestly say that you afforded them the same degree of consideration that you appear to be asking the much larger/faster vessels to give you? Sail boaters learn quickly that stuff needs to be put away into secured cupboards. ;)
 
BobnLesley said:
Did you perchance pass any sailing boats doing 5 knots and minding their own business whilst out and about on your travels? If as seems likely the answer to that one's 'yes', then can you honestly say that you afforded them the same degree of consideration that you appear to be asking the much larger/faster vessels to give you? Sail boaters learn quickly that stuff needs to be put away into secured cupboards. ;)
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Whatever sins we inflict onto sailboats, pales into insignificance when compared to what they inflict on us (but as I said earlier, I always try to be considerate to others, even sailboats)?
 
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