I can see why some people don't like yachties

[l'escargot]

I was in a well known south coast marina this weekend and a fleet of cruiser racers arrived yesterday afternoon.

The nearest boat having made a complete hash of tying up, getting one person ashore whilst ending up nearly 90 degrees to the pontoon (in relatively benign conditions) amid much shouting and leaping then bumped the back of my boat because they had no spring on. All four people on board looked away with steely gazes even though I was sat in my cockpit got up to look over the stern to see what had happened - no big deal, no damage done but a simple acknowledgement and "sorry" would have been courteous. It wasn't as if it was even a tight space and it was an alongside pontoon.

They then proceeded to drag various sails across the length of the pontoons for make and mend, again without even an acknowledgement to people trying to get by.

This morning when they left, two of the boats had to be fended off mine by more than one person, not exactly a tight space being some 40' or so wide and not particularly challenging wind and tide either - the wind was actually blowing them away from my boat!

From the class of boat and the demeanour of some of the people on board, they at least considered themselves to be serious sailors, but having seen how they handled boats in close quarters , I did look out for them on the way home in order to give them a wide berth...

Come on chaps (and chappesses) you are letting the side down!

 

[benjenbav]

I was in a well known south coast marina this weekend and a fleet of cruiser racers arrived yesterday afternoon.

The nearest boat having made a complete hash of tying up, getting one person ashore whilst ending up nearly 90 degrees to the pontoon (in relatively benign conditions) amid much shouting and leaping then bumped the back of my boat because they had no spring on. All four people on board looked away with steely gazes even though I was sat in my cockpit got up to look over the stern to see what had happened - no big deal, no damage done but a simple acknowledgement and "sorry" would have been courteous. It wasn't as if it was even a tight space and it was an alongside pontoon.

They then proceeded to drag various sails across the length of the pontoons for make and mend, again without even an acknowledgement to people trying to get by.

This morning when they left, two of the boats had to be fended off mine by more than one person, not exactly a tight space being some 40' or so wide and not particularly challenging wind and tide either - the wind was actually blowing them away from my boat!

From the class of boat and the demeanour of some of the people on board, they at least considered themselves to be serious sailors, but having seen how they handled boats in close quarters , I did look out for them on the way home in order to give them a wide berth...

Come on chaps (and chappesses) you are letting the side down!

Oh come on, Mark. Crabbing upwind off a pontoon berth requires a special skill and deserves some sort of recognition.

Glad there was no damage done.

 

[l'escargot]

Oh come on, Mark. Crabbing upwind off a pontoon berth requires some sort of recognition.

Glad there was no damage done.

But they were crabbing partly downwind leaving - they had to use power in order to collide and the first boat was rafted one boat out, I was alongside the pontoon...

 

[DJE]

I am becoming convinced that - in our club at least - we are training a generation of racing sailors without teaching them a thing about seamanship or seafaring in the wider sense. Perhaps this lot come from a similar background.

 

[tom52]

Good racers, aggressive, impatient, competitive, risk takers ; make poor seamen ?

 

[Seajet]

I ( sort of ) love the expression ' they had to use power in order to collide ' !

Sadly I have met a fair few racing sailors, dinghy and cruiser, who are good at shouting and the racing rules but wouldn't know seamanship if it strolled up and kicked them in the shins.

 

[doris]

Come on then. Name and shame. We all love the serious tittle tattle, that's why it's called Scuttlebutt

 

[photodog]

Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.


I nearly nailed a big red bouy today caused I tried to turn across the tide with not enough speed....

 

[Seajet]

Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.


I nearly nailed a big red bouy today caused I tried to turn across the tide with not enough speed....

Photodog,

I think that's called learning; I've been at it for decades and am still a novice...

 

[Woodlouse]

Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.


I nearly nailed a big red bouy today caused I tried to turn across the tide with not enough speed....

I did that once. Except I managed to hit it. Misjudged the tide and left an inexperienced girl on the helm whilst tidying halyards up around the mast.

 

[photodog]

Photodog,

I think that's called learning; I've been at it for decades and am still a novice...

Well, I don't think it's called learning... I think it's called " failing to apply" or maybe complacency, or maybe heing human!... Having been at it for 37 years myself I have learnt the lesson many times...

 

[photodog]

I did that once. Except I managed to hit it. Misjudged the tide and left an inexperienced girl on the helm whilst tidying halyards up around the mast.

I hit the rubbish skip at salcombe once... Made a big "bong"...

 

[Seajet]

I hit the rubbish skip at salcombe once... Made a big "bong"...

I heard the square rigger ' Astrid ' once swept Weymouth quay with her bowsprit and managed to kebab a Citroen 2CV through both windows, shuffling it along a fair bit; after that I consider all my cock-ups relative...

 

[lw395]

I heard the square rigger ' Astrid ' once swept Weymouth quay with her bowsprit and managed to kebab a Citroen 2CV through both windows, shuffling it along a fair bit; after that I consider all my cock-ups relative...

Poor show hitting a 2CV when there's audis and such to choose from.

 

[oldbilbo]

I consider it appropriate I keep schtum....!

 

[pisspoor]

possible source of problem could be the RYA and there initial dinghy sailing training courses .... exacerbated by the RYA's approach to instructor training particularly the sailing skills they look for in people wanting to become senior instructors .... as what I found that they were looking for when I went on senior instructor pre course day was people with really good racing sailing skills, seamanship skills did not come into the day at all ...

PP

 

[LionsDen]

I was in a well known south coast marina this weekend and a fleet of cruiser racers arrived yesterday afternoon.

The nearest boat having made a complete hash of tying up, getting one person ashore whilst ending up nearly 90 degrees to the pontoon (in relatively benign conditions) amid much shouting and leaping then bumped the back of my boat because they had no spring on. All four people on board looked away with steely gazes even though I was sat in my cockpit got up to look over the stern to see what had happened - no big deal, no damage done but a simple acknowledgement and "sorry" would have been courteous. It wasn't as if it was even a tight space and it was an alongside pontoon.

They then proceeded to drag various sails across the length of the pontoons for make and mend, again without even an acknowledgement to people trying to get by.

This morning when they left, two of the boats had to be fended off mine by more than one person, not exactly a tight space being some 40' or so wide and not particularly challenging wind and tide either - the wind was actually blowing them away from my boat!

From the class of boat and the demeanour of some of the people on board, they at least considered themselves to be serious sailors, but having seen how they handled boats in close quarters , I did look out for them on the way home in order to give them a wide berth...

Come on chaps (and chappesses) you are letting the side down!

It is a shame that a lot of people both sail and motor are pretty ignorant nowadays when they collide with another vessel in a marina - obviously not there boat and they paid there bit for charter so they are also covered on insurance - but that is not the point.
Boating should be fun and any dink no matter how trivial always upsets the owner as it is there pride and joy irrespective of the value of there boat.

 

[mrming]

possible source of problem could be the RYA and there initial dinghy sailing training courses .... exacerbated by the RYA's approach to instructor training particularly the sailing skills they look for in people wanting to become senior instructors .... as what I found that they were looking for when I went on senior instructor pre course day was people with really good racing sailing skills, seamanship skills did not come into the day at all ...

PP

In defence of dingy courses I learned to sail that way and was taught boat handling to a decent level including mooring and berthing under sail. If anything I'm worse at this now than I was then. Granted it was 20 years ago in Ireland but many of my friends in the north trained with the RYA and their boat handling skills are pretty good. I think a lot of mistakes you see come down to confusion with inexperienced crew, or crew who don't know the particular boat well. We have a rule that only me and the missus are involved in any boat handling manoeuvres. Anyone else on board is told to stand still and watch.

 

[vyv_cox]

possible source of problem could be the RYA and there initial dinghy sailing training courses .... exacerbated by the RYA's approach to instructor training particularly the sailing skills they look for in people wanting to become senior instructors .... as what I found that they were looking for when I went on senior instructor pre course day was people with really good racing sailing skills, seamanship skills did not come into the day at all ...

PP

The rudest and most unpleasant skipper we have encountered in getting on for 30 years of cruising was an RYA instructor in the Sporades. His behaviour to Jill was disgraceful, demanding that we move our dinghy so that he could berth alongside us. No idea what his sailing skills were but his personal skills required a lot of attention.

 

[nimbusgb]

Appologise? You may as well expect someone who opens the door of their car against yours in the supermarket parking lot to appologise!

Manners are a thing of the past as far as the vast majority are concerned. Actually more accurately, they were never taught any manners in the first place.