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Time to announce the last (for now!) winner of ybw’s ‘Message of the Month.’ Just to refresh your memories, each month the most outstanding and entertaining entry – as judged by ybw’s forum moderators - wins a Ray106e state-of-the-art hand-held VHF. For November, the winner was MattS’s ‘Racism, Boatism, Big/LittleEnders.’ It read…
‘I wonder if the boatism can be packed in?
Some people with sailboats seem to feel entirely free to abuse and denigrate anyone who has, or uses or who has ever owned a motorboat. They refer to all such people in the same derogatory terms.
They attribute bad behaviour (even when criticism is justified) of one member of a group to all members of that group: this is the very essence of racism. I am almost certain that they would take exception to derogatory remarks about natives of one country, people with disabilities, and other groups of people.
In the Solent, where the history of sailboating and numbers of sailboats far exceeds that of powerboating, the problem is worst, with large numbers of sailboat users hurling abuse first, and being unhelpful or rude later. It would be awful if the same policy became as commonplace amongst motorboaters.
Do not confuse this with general banter about raggies, stinkiepotters, rag and stick brigade, smokiboats, nice example around, enjoined and enjoyed by me hereabouts.
I refer to a minority, but an unhelpful one. There's not a trace of this in the Med, where I often go boating - except amongst Brits. As an example, we offered to help a Halberg Rassy 36 (sailboat) owner moor stern-to in St Tropez. There was a torrent of scathing and sarcasm from the English flagged singlehander. We offered more firmly as got into difficulties alongside our boat. One of our crew (Oceanmaster qualified, not me) and another (Halberg Rassy 49 and Yachtmaster) hopped on board and helped him out, explaining how they knew what they were doing. He quietened down, not expecting useful help. I don't think we cured him though - we simply must be the exception.
"Some of them, you know, are really nice people, and really know their stuff". Some of whom, old chap? - black people? French people? Women? ....Oh, some motorboaters, haha sorry i wasn't quite sure which group of people you were denigrating when you mistakenly assumed that I have the same bias against others as you do, and find difficulty making friends amongst others unless at the expense of other people who don't have a white face, UK passport, male genitalia and a sailing boat, old boy!’
This posting led to a long thread, and a yachtie and a power boat owner agreeing to sail each other boats in the near future. The whole thread can be seen at…
http://www.ybw.com/cgibin/new/forum...=175158&page=1&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=31&part=
MattS, we’ll contact you soon.
‘I wonder if the boatism can be packed in?
Some people with sailboats seem to feel entirely free to abuse and denigrate anyone who has, or uses or who has ever owned a motorboat. They refer to all such people in the same derogatory terms.
They attribute bad behaviour (even when criticism is justified) of one member of a group to all members of that group: this is the very essence of racism. I am almost certain that they would take exception to derogatory remarks about natives of one country, people with disabilities, and other groups of people.
In the Solent, where the history of sailboating and numbers of sailboats far exceeds that of powerboating, the problem is worst, with large numbers of sailboat users hurling abuse first, and being unhelpful or rude later. It would be awful if the same policy became as commonplace amongst motorboaters.
Do not confuse this with general banter about raggies, stinkiepotters, rag and stick brigade, smokiboats, nice example around, enjoined and enjoyed by me hereabouts.
I refer to a minority, but an unhelpful one. There's not a trace of this in the Med, where I often go boating - except amongst Brits. As an example, we offered to help a Halberg Rassy 36 (sailboat) owner moor stern-to in St Tropez. There was a torrent of scathing and sarcasm from the English flagged singlehander. We offered more firmly as got into difficulties alongside our boat. One of our crew (Oceanmaster qualified, not me) and another (Halberg Rassy 49 and Yachtmaster) hopped on board and helped him out, explaining how they knew what they were doing. He quietened down, not expecting useful help. I don't think we cured him though - we simply must be the exception.
"Some of them, you know, are really nice people, and really know their stuff". Some of whom, old chap? - black people? French people? Women? ....Oh, some motorboaters, haha sorry i wasn't quite sure which group of people you were denigrating when you mistakenly assumed that I have the same bias against others as you do, and find difficulty making friends amongst others unless at the expense of other people who don't have a white face, UK passport, male genitalia and a sailing boat, old boy!’
This posting led to a long thread, and a yachtie and a power boat owner agreeing to sail each other boats in the near future. The whole thread can be seen at…
http://www.ybw.com/cgibin/new/forum...=175158&page=1&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=31&part=
MattS, we’ll contact you soon.
