I learned today that some of us are WAFI's!

Capt. Clueless

Capt. Clueless

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We have a customer with whom I regularly have banter with when he comes in. He used to be an officer on a large merchant tanker ship.
We were talking today, and I happened to tell him that I had got a boat. "What boat have you got"? he asked. I replied "A snapdragon 23". He thought for a moment and said is that a sail boat? I told him it was. He then said "Oh, you're a f*****g WAFI then. This got me bewildered..."ok, what is a WAFI"? "Wind assisted f*****g idiot". Apparently this is quite a common term for merchant ship crew. He then went on to tell me about the fishermen in the South China seas....You don't want to hear that, There are not enough asterisks!!:D:D
 
FullCircle said:
A long used expression, and so true.
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So what would you call the merchant ship crew that nearly ran us down, crossing from port to starboard quarter at 0230 half way across Biscay? No response on 16 or 13 or when we lit up our wind-assisted vessel and its sails, let off white flare, etc etc.? We avoided the collision, but he never knew we were there. I'm sure there was either no-one on watch, or there was a much more interesting programme on the VHS. (This was pre-AIS days).

No point thinking up clever acronyms if sunk...

Easy to sling mud, but some of us WAFIs are actually careful and considerate seamen who want to get to our destinations in one piece.
 
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KAL said:
So what would you call the merchant ship crew that nearly ran us down, crossing from port to starboard quarter at 0230 half way across Biscay? No response on 16 or 13 or when we lit up our wind-assisted vessel and its sails, let off white flare, etc etc.? We avoided the collision, but he never knew we were there. I'm sure there was either no-one on watch, or there was a much more interesting programme on the VHS. (This was pre-AIS days).

No point thinking up clever acronyms if sunk...

Easy to sling mud, but some of us WAFIs are actually careful and considerate seamen who want to get to our destinations in one piece.
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Ewwwwwww, touchy!
 
prv said:
It's not very nice, but I believe...

Pete
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If by 'not very nice', you mean downright racist, then you might be on to something. I've sailed with a good number of Filipinos, most good and one or two useless. However, I could say the same of Brits, Croatians, Ukrainians, Russians, etc.

Do I need to find offensive sobriquets for them too?
 
Trident said:
I only heard it for the first time a few weeks ago - from a RNLI coxswain who said it was the normal term of reference from Lifeboat crews ...
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That's right. When I was a CG, that's where I learnt the term as well. Sorry to tell you that it includes all of us with sails, competent or not...
 
Trident said:
I only heard it for the first time a few weeks ago - from a RNLI coxswain who said it was the normal term of reference from Lifeboat crews ...
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Not too surprised by this attitude really, sad though it is. Similar mind set in aviation I reckon when chopper pilots regard passengers as "self -loading freight"
WAFI might apply to all kinds of floating idiocy, but I don't think it deserves wider publicity??
 
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