John Nott's "Yacht in South of France"

[tcm]

John Nott\'s \"Yacht in South of France\"

Has anyone been reading the serialisation of his memoires in the papers? Telegraph, praps, I think.

An up-to-date interview with him reveals the sheer toil involved in writing such a detailed autobiography. " Eventually, with all the distractions" he says "the only way to get it finished was to lock myself away on my yacht in the South of France for three months".

Oooh. Many will have had no idea that this one-time defence minister and ex- chairman of Lazards has a cruising vessel in the area. What would you think that might be? Big enough to run an office for a start, it must be quite a ship. A "Yacht" - perhaps big saily thing, or monster white steel jobbie with flunkies all around. I wonder if perhaps he invited M Thatcher down for a conflab and a few days R&R?

Ahem. We met John Nott, at Baie des Anges. BdA is that weird-looking marina between cannes and Nice, with big 70's pyramids of flats. The only reason to go there is that it has a swimming pool, altho mainly it's cos there's no space in Antibes and it's dead cheap. And what's his Yacht? It's a nanky ole Sealine flybridge, looks like a 36. This doesn't qualify as "Yacht" imho. And no, neither does a leopard.

Your own boat is a boat. If you say "Yacht" it had better be big and have sails, or very very big if it has no sails.

For a closer definition, (imho) on a "Yacht" with no sails you can walk around the deck on the third day aboard, meet a crewmember you've not seen before, and even though they're carrying a big tray of drinks you can pass each other easily on the way to/from the foredeck. A Sealine is never ever a Yacht unless you are very pretentious. I giggled, Mr Nott.

We were on my mates Az 42, with more space and aircon. They arranged to go to the islands (lerins, not Falklands) the next day. Strangely, Mr N went early on his own, without warning, as is his wont....

 

[hlb]

Re: John Nott\'s \"Yacht in South of France\"

Perhaps wanted some peace and quite <G>

Dont forget to order your Burgee. PM me.

Haydn

 

[Deleted User YDKXO]

Re: John Nott\'s "Yacht in South of France"

Come on, is that any worse than "judge me on the state of the transport network at the end of this Parliament" - Fatty 2 Jags (well his Toniness did but the rest of the electorate didnt) or "I did not have sex with that woman"
Anyway, as far as I can see, old Notty owns most of Cornwall so who cares if its a yacht or a dinghy
Reading his memoirs and listening to him on the steam radio yesterday reminded me that we used to have politicians that resigned when they f****d up. Pity the present encumbents dont seem to have the same good grace

 

[tcm]

Re: not political...

ooh, don't misread this as anti-tory, Deleted User, and i agree with all yr points. I'd have made the same point about any other "known" or even "unknown" person coming out with the same stuff.

I just sniggered at the boat/yacht angle. By the same token, I understand that he does have a large estate in Cornwall. A Volvo 740 perhaps?

 

[oldgit]

Oooh who was that then.

Err remind me who it was of the last lot who went then.And if they did it was straight to a directorship of whatever industry they had just privatised.

 

[Deleted User YDKXO]

Re: Oooh who was that then.

I'm not scoring political points here but with the Tories it was almost 'after you, no after you' when it came to resigning. Off the top of my head, here are a few, I'm sure there were loads more
Heseltine - Westland affair
Carrington - Falklands
Nott - ditto
Parkinson - dipping his wick
Hamilton - brown envelopes
Smith - ditto
With the present lot, I can only think of Mandelson and Robinson who have resigned and then only after overwhelming evidence of being as bent as a nine bob note. It doesnt seem that incompetence, failure or fraud disqualifies anyone from being a minister these days

 

[stewart]

back to descriptions...

So how you describe that money hole in the water. It's tricky one, especially when talking to non boaty friends (especially ones of the opposite sex in the pub on a Friday...errrm getting distracted now). Seriously though is it a boat, a motor boat, a yacht, a motor cruiser, what? For most people there's no point saying the make or model?

 

[tcm]

What to call your boat

You can say it's a sailing boat, or a powerboat, or a motor boat or a speedboat. You can use any of these as appropriate. "Speedboat" usually means it's little. "Motor boat" sounds a bit trudgy. A "powerboat" would have to be able to plane or at least be semidisplacement. "It's a powerboat - a cruiser" always sounds quite decent and it sounds as though it might have a few guns to the non-boater, but they won't dare ask. "Flybridge cruiser" sound even more military. "Open cruiser - a huge speedboat" is ok for non-flybridges but "med cruiser" may lead them to think that it is in fact in the med which may be a bit of a let-down if it's not.

You can tellem by how much the boat wouldn't fit in the room, the size (in litres/cc) of the engines, and comparison with 400bhp Ferrari, for example ("alhough they're only single engined...") and the weight in tonnes which always sounds loads and loads.

A "sailing" boat must have a mast of course. "We do some racing" or "It's a racer!" normally means it's an even more uncomfy sailboat than normal, full of wet sails and extra shouting - it very rarely means that you are involved in nutter powered catarmarans, tho wd be a good larf to invite someone along to crew or "trim" if you had such a beast. Or - if you're the one who goes along to crew and it's a saily boat- you can say "Sails?!! Blimmin sails? And just one teeny engine?! But I thought you said it was a Race boat"! Even my kids on their *bicycles* can go twice the speed of this thing! " Make sure you have your own transport, tho.

BUT. Use of the word "Yacht" is pretentious under all circumstances when referring to your *own* boat, IMHO.