How long before your bored on a motor boat?

[Ru88ell]

Now that [dinghy sailing] is something that looks really pointless to me!

You need to man up a bit.


http://www.wayfarer-international.org/WIC/Cruise.Logs/2010RR_London_Helsinki.pdf

 

[Slow_boat]

The ease of using a motor cruiser quickly bores the sailor, while the relatively slow and ineffectual yet serious labour & careful consideration of sailing situations, irritates motorboaters, who seem only to want to GET there, A.S.A.P.

It's not so much the 'ease of use' as it takes a lot skill to pilot a fast mobo quickly if there is any sea running. Even just cruising along there is a difference between ease of use and relaxing. There's the constant noise, for a start.
It's just that, for me, using that skill to go fast gets a bit boring after a while. After all, if I'm in a hurry to get somewhere there are quicker and cheaper ways of doing it.
I have enjoyed racing a mobo, which is about going fastest, whereas racing a dinghy, where it's all about tactics, bores me rigid. When I was racing in my teens I would often give up on the race course just to keep enjoying the thrill of the plane!
As may be guessed, I'm not the most competative person on the planet. I have never felt the need to prove anything to anyone.

I'd still rather be relaxed in my slow old comfy rag and sticks cruiser these days.

 

[Nostrodamus]

Sailing skilfully is not about proving anything to anyone apart from yourself.
There is personal pleasure in sailing from A to B without an engine and knowing you did it as efficiently as possible.
There are times in big winds and seas you think... I don't want to be here but get in somewhere safe and you feel good that you did it.
Sailing is all about the challenge. Often the quickest way to get there is not in one strait line but in many of them and continually working out the best way to do it.
Oh, and dingy racing... now that's fun!

 

[Greenheart]

Oh, and dingy racing... now that's fun!

Dinghy racing? Nicely renamed, "dingy racing". Well done, very apt! Now, dinghy cruising...that's the thing...

I heartily agree with all your other points though.

 

[Tidewaiter2]

Rule No1- Don't capsize- Rule No2 EVER!

Dinghy racing? Nicely renamed, "dingy racing". Well done, very apt! Now, dinghy cruising...that's the thing...

I heartily agree with all your other points though.

Absolutely, DC, it's a cheap way to get to Holland, Denmark and Sweden from Southwold, and you nearly always get free berthing etc, when you report where you sailed from to the Hamnvard

Downside is it's wet when it rains, and it takes a long time to get to Den Helder if the wind drops
And as you get older, the floorboards get harder!

 

[Coaster]

...Personally I cannot see the point, nor any enjoyment, in having three pedals in the driver's footwell. I learned in a manual and drove many for years, but now, I'll only ever drive an automatic as long as I have a choice...

...I don't see any pleasure or necessity to judge ratios and engine-speed and make decisions accordingly; I'm happy pushing the accelerator and letting the autobox do that...

...maybe that's the way motorboatists see a journey at sea? No need to treat it as a challenge, just open the throttle and get there. Except, at sea unlike on the road, I enjoy that challenge, however slowly I go!

As I see it the automatic car is equivalent to the motor boat and the manual transmission equates to the sail boat. The latter require more effort.

I'm amused by the narrow mindedness of so many contributors to this thread, although I suppose it's only human nature to look at things from individual perspective only.

Personally I like to travel at displacement speed, enjoying being on the water, and it doesn't much matter whether the boat's being propelled by motor or sail. Of course, if you have a particularly noisy motor boat or the wind's wrong for a sail boat that would be a problem. Which is why I like our motor sailer.

 

[Greenheart]

As I see it the automatic car is equivalent to the motor boat and the manual transmission equates to the sail boat. The latter require more effort.

That's exactly what I was getting at. I like messing about with sails and ropes, and I enjoy the necessity to think and even work a little, to make the wind move the boat as desired, however slow that may be...

...whereas on the road, I prefer the car to serve me, rather than regard each journey as needing my analysis & effort.

I hope that isn't narrow-minded? I was surprised by motorboatists' rather disgruntled response to my description of their style of seagoing, last night; because if they were to dismiss my approach to driving as being like Postman Pat in a pedal car, I'd agree...

...but the same observation, made the other way, was rejected.

I'm with you about the motorsailer though, Coaster. Best of both, in principle. I'd consider a car with a DSG gearbox, too!

 

[Kelpie]

Happiness is... a whole day of F4 and sun and good crew and a Wayfarer.
Much of the time I'm cruising in the yacht, in the back of my mind I'm thinking " this is good, but it would be better in the Wayfarer..."
And whenever I'm motoring in the yacht, I'm thinking " this will get me to my destination, but I wish I was sailing... "

When I think about it, I don't think I have ever set out on a trip on the yacht expecting to have to motor all the way there and back. A bit like the way I wouldn't take the car and do laps of the town in it for no purpose.