How long before your bored on a motor boat?

[Nostrodamus]

So, someone gives you a nice big motor boat and as much fuel as you can use. You have all the creature comforts including tv, washing machine, wi fi, plush interior, large spacious bedrooms and lots of horse power. Everything you need is aboard including a well stocked drinks cabinet.

How long would it take before you got bored and hankered to be back on your sail boat?

 

[Giblets]

Is this some sort of coded message to tell us that you won the Lottery last night?

 

[Nostrodamus]

Is this some sort of coded message to tell us that you won the Lottery last night?

I was looking round a mobo with more creature comforts that a nucular power station could run. I have to say it was plush and had everything you could want but then I thought... how long before I got bored of the toys?

 

[Tomahawk]

They comission those big gin palaces close to us.. speaking to one of the lads doing a final polish before deliverey he said it can cost £10000 in fuel to take a trip along the south coast... one way.... It seems the biggest pleasure in one of those is saying "hey look I have so much money"... I can blow ten grand on fuel and not even notice it. The problem of course is there is always someone with a bigger wad and a more flash gin palace so you are really saying "hey look at me, I havn't got as much money as him"

Given that, I would be bored with one in about three nanaseconds

 

[bikedaft]

dunno

not bothered about gadgets, but the view is the same

the fuel ££ would get to my tight wad scottishness soon tho/couldn't afford it. some boats near here are £400 each way along loch lomond in fuel...

its a great feeling "getting somewhere for nothing" ie wind on sails. for a few short days every year. and excluding all the ££ that the boat/mooring/insurance all adds up to

 

[Zagato]

I have no interest in driving a double bed and cocktail cabinet around nor sail them around come to that!

Sailing for me is 80% of the thrill, skill and satisfaction. Take that away and you are just left with the scenery...

 

[Nostrodamus]

The one I was looking at can actually be driven by remote control.. similar to the ones model aircraft controllers use.... from the dock side... no one on it!

 

[Zagato]

Talk about the anti-4x4 brigade, wot about big stinkers and their 10K plus annual fuel bills!

 

[bikedaft]

The one I was looking at can actually be driven by remote control.. similar to the ones model aircraft controllers use.... from the dock side... no one on it!

that would be good for winding up the "prairie dogs" when you come in to an anchorage, follow in a dinghy at a discreet distance

(i'm just as bad at sticking my head out the hatch to watch where the newcomer is going to stick their anchor)

 

[colhel]

So, someone gives you a nice big motor boat and as much fuel as you can use. You have all the creature comforts including tv, washing machine, wi fi, plush interior, large spacious bedrooms and lots of horse power. Everything you need is aboard including a well stocked drinks cabinet.

How long would it take before you got bored and hankered to be back on your sail boat?

About 15 years

 

[Babylon]

About 15 years

About minus 15 years.

Mind you, I once crewed on a J105 for a Sunday morning race: both the boat and the activity left me stone cold. And when it was over, as I was rowing the tender back to my own tumbleholmed saily girl, I was overcome with feelings of love and other warm emotions for her.

 

[aluijten]

How long would it take before you got bored and hankered to be back on your sail boat?

Depends on the Mobo.

If it can act as a babe magnet, maybe never!

If it's just a Mobo with standard engine and nothing fancy: 1 hour.

If it's a RIB with 3 * 350HP outboard (there is one in our marina), half a day.

If it's the Steven Spielberg or Steve Jobs yacht, a week or so.

Bottom line is that in the end most of them become boring as the whole problem with Mobos is that going anywhere is more or less a process of waiting until you arrive.
At a sailboat is working the sails and hoping to arrive at the estimated time.

But I'm sure others will have different views!

Cheers,

Arno

 

[EugeneR]

For me, motor boating is more about the destinations you can reach within the available time, than the journey itself. As such, how long it will stay interesting will depend on location, range and amount of time you have.

 

[BrianH]

About ten years ago a rich Swiss friend of a friend with whom I worked, with a mobo on the Lake of Constance, bought a mega-yacht in Croatia and asked me, with my Adriatic experience, to accompany him for his first-ever excursion into salt-water cruising. At first I refused, it just wasn't my world nor my interest. However, my colleague who would also be aboard, kept the pressure on and I eventually agreed to a week of luxury and boredom.

It was an 'interesting' experience, but I wouldn't repeat it. I remain friends with the owner and we meet up often in some Croatian anchorage – once even a marina, which he had pre-paid for me – and I am royally wined and dined aboard, served by the permanent catering staff. What is beginning to grate is that I am always asked to show the guests aboard my own modest craft, ferrying them in my tiny inflatable, to ooh and aah at how anyone can live so simply as I do when cruising. “Tell them how you once cooked spaghetti in sea water, but it was too salty”, I once had to put up with, deeply regretting having once explained how I conserved my limited supplies. I am beginning to feel like some zoo specimen arranged to entertain the latest round of guests.

 

[flawed_logic]

Mate of mine has a power boat and often mentions how quick it is to get from x to y, except of course if the sea has any waves on it it's like someone hitting you over the head with each slam, then there's the constant noise. They don't seem to get sailing at all its all about getting somewhere then sitting on the boat drinking until the fridge is empty where by they might go a shore to refill

 

[Elessar]

So, someone gives you a nice big motor boat and as much fuel as you can use. You have all the creature comforts including tv, washing machine, wi fi, plush interior, large spacious bedrooms and lots of horse power. Everything you need is aboard including a well stocked drinks cabinet.

How long would it take before you got bored and hankered to be back on your sail boat?

I get bored when I go boating without my wife. And she just doesn't see the point of mucking around with sails when 2 thumping great engines will do the job. I love sailing, but not for too long therefore.

 

[Sandyman]

I wouldn't last very long because I wouldn't bother. Have never seen the point of MoBo's.
Never understood what peeps get out of them. A gentle cruise down the Thames on a sunny day, maybe, but whats the point of a gin-palace at sea ? to fly from A to B asap....?
then what ? drinks & dinner then fly back home. Crazy. No point whatsoever.
Apart from 'gentleman's yachts'' and the likes todays mobo's are just plastic toys for the boys.

 

[Elessar]

I wouldn't last very long because I wouldn't bother. Have never seen the point of MoBo's.
Never understood what peeps get out of them. A gentle cruise down the Thames on a sunny day, maybe, but whats the point of a gin-palace at sea ? to fly from A to B asap....?
then what ? drinks & dinner then fly back home. Crazy. No point whatsoever.
Apart from 'gentleman's yachts'' and the likes todays mobo's are just plastic toys for the boys.

I sepnd far more time at displacement speed just enjoying being on the water than charging from A to B.

Typical passage, 6 knots, autopilot on, have lunch without it sliding off the table, generally relax and enjoy being on the water.

Mrs E says , "I'd like dinner at 8". So that means shower at 1900, need to tie up/anchor at 1830. A quick adjustment of the passage plan and I announce that we'll go to planing speed at 1645.

We tie up at 1830, and life is good.

The times when the unexpected alter the passage and we are late are accepted because it's exceptional. When sailing it's all the time. And yes that is why sailing is fun, but it's why my wife doesn't like it.

 

[aslabend]

it'd be fun

I think if you gave me a mobo and all the fuel I could use and the west coast of Scotland to play in I could bimble around for a summer most happily. A stop here, a distillery tasting there, drop the anchor and climb a Munroe, fish a bit. Great fun, but in a way it'd only be like your best caravan holiday but on water.

I'd miss the sailing. The fact that a sail boat is slow (well mine is anyway) means it takes a bit off effort to get anywhere and not only does that effort make it seem more worthwhile but it makes you appreciate where you get to just that little bit more. Or so I think, maybe? Do all motorboats really have a drinks cabinet?

 

[ricky_s]

Motor boats and sail boats are like chalk and cheese.

Sailing seems to be about suffering and doing things as cheaply as possible while motor boats are mainly about arriving, hooking up to the mains in the marina of choice and then hitting the town for a nice meal after showering and getting dressed up nicely.

Different worlds.