Motoring past moorings

[Sybarite]

I was at the critical point of transferring the outboard to the dinghy when one of the bloody idiots roared passed a few yards a way. The result : a tumble, a slice off my toe, a saucer-sized bruise on my hip. Luckily I had as usual a safety line on the outboard and it was not lost.

John

<hr width=100% size=1>

 

[h4nym]

Try the French - they're just the worst! One night in Lorient... felt like someone was kicking a football up against the hull while they came in and out.

No - TCM - I'm not a francophobe... but blimey do they have something to learn about harbour manners!

What is it with the speed thing?!

H

<hr width=100% size=1>Life balance?

 

[tcm]

Aw, do i always jump in against the fracophobes? I agree with you. Must say some unbelievable manners out there. Firstly, there is generally a hopeless understanding of colregs - big 80-foot boats running around anchor lights, others at anchor with nav lights on, or more usually no lights at all. And of course, everyone breaks all the speed limits, and waterskis or tow donuts between anchored boats, narrowly miss each other etc etc. But nobody seem to complain. No waving fists, nothing. Amonst the worst seem to be so-called "professional" skippers, belting around til late at night. The water police/whatever are on duty from 8 till 7 ish - precisely OUTSIDE the favourite waterskiing times. Oh, and they all have to have a licence too.

<hr width=100% size=1>

 

[Birdseye]

Cant say I ever found it worse in France, though Spain was terrible. Motor boats out there have only two speeds - stopped and flat out.

In my view, the UK problem is different. Here it's a nasty "f*** you" attitude to your neighbour, mainly on the part of young males, and mainly in ribs / speedboats, and some Tart Traps. Sure, you get some in yachts, but much less so. And much of it is not thoughtlessness, but quite conscious "couldn't care"

The waterborn equivalent of road rage, which is equally likely to get you a mouthfull of obscenities if you dare to say anything.

<hr width=100% size=1>

 

[Sybarite]

I (reluctantly) have to agree with you. When these people roar past at close quarters they often give you a cheery wave at the same time. They all have their licences but I don't think boating etiquette is on the agenda.

I was once in an Irish stately garden where there was a notice " Ladies and Gentlemen will not , others must not, pick the flowers".

I reckon that some people just never learnt. However, if you met them in a bar, you could have a great time with them anyway.

As for those who are franco-philes/phobes, it is my experience, after having lived abroad for more than 30 years, that people are basically the same everywhere. Those who try to make out that there are fundamental national differences are led, IMHO, more by prejudice than sense.

John

<hr width=100% size=1>

 

[tcm]

Re: Difference french/brit

I took a chap out who motors in wales, flabbergaated at the sheer number of boats in the med )on a quiet day, actually). Not like this where we are, he said - you see a boat and know who it is - ooh, that's Blue Moon, etc etc.

I wonder if thisis the key to bad behaviour - not why it hapens but at least when - bad behaviour hapens when people become anonymous, in big cities, in the dark, in crowded places?

<hr width=100% size=1>

 

[h4nym]

Few weeks ago - brought SWMBO and her mother (the real SWMBO!) up to the Flower Show at Hampton Court... on Cinnamon.

Tied up at the palace, life was great! Then some oik in a rentaboat comes tearing past at least 2 metres from the boats moored up on the bank.

"Slow down", I shouted "look at your wake!"
"What about him, then...." was the response, pointing to a big passenger boat just docking 30 yards behind us.

He was out of earshot by the time I'd picked myself up off the floor

H

<hr width=100% size=1>Life balance?

 

[Birdseye]

People are very definitely not the same everywhere! The loutish behaviour of young British males is notorious with our continental neighbours.


<hr width=100% size=1>

 

[IanBry]

I assume you meant to say English?

/forums/images/icons/smile.gif

<hr width=100% size=1>

 

[Mirelle]

Rushing for something.

Our mooring is in a fairly narrow river (at least, at low water) and we are at a slight kink in the fairway, so the non-local may assume we are in the wrong place, depending on conditions. At all events we are usually passed very close (hope my insurers are not reading this!)

Anyway, upriver of us is a marina which is rightly popular but restricted by tide. We therefore get a Gadarene rush of people, pedal to the metal, in both directions, from -2hrs to HW. They rush up river to get into the marina and they rush down river in order to cross the bar at the mouth in sufficient water. For the other ten hours, peace apart from the chattering of the oystercatchers....

Behaviour varies quite a lot. Most people are fine, but some just don't seem to realise what they are doing.

Incidentally, I have no objection to anyone sailing through moorings - for one thing, I do it myself, and for another a sailing boat, sailing, seems to make much less wash for the same speed as she does when motoring. Does anyone else notice this?

<hr width=100% size=1>

 

[tcm]

Re: Notorious loutish brits

Yeah, loutish indeed - two world wars, Waterloo the previous century, Agincourt 1415 and Crecy 1348. But the continentals started it all way before all that - 55BC (italy) in 1066 (Normans) and the Teutones more recently. And not just the males either - Boadicea and M thatcher were amongst a few of those less worried about other people's reported tut-tutting.

Oops. How incredibly un-PC, even for me!



<hr width=100% size=1>

 

[SteveGorst]

Motoring THROUGH Mooring

We returned from the Isle of Man to find our mooring had been chewed up and spat out by something powerful rendering it totaly useless. We suspected the culprit was the local tourist cruise boat who always passes very close to our mooring, maybe they want to see what we are having for breakfast, anyway, in the course of talking to other club members about our suspicions we found out that the cruise boat had hit a "sunken log" (what do you think?) and had to have his rudder replaced at a cost of over a £1000. Ha Ha!!!

We have replaced the strop with another rope, but if it happens again we will use chain and we'll see who comes off best then.

<hr width=100% size=1>

 

[Peppermint]

Re: For what it\'s worth

I've only once had injuries as a result of wash.

We were on a mooring off the Ferry Inn at Salcombe. All of a sudden up we go and the kettle I was pouring splashes boiling water down my front. The howl from the fore cabin resulted from the wife getting a smack in the face from the loo door.

The cause of this excitement was "The Baltic Exchange" the Salcombe Lifeboat.

<hr width=100% size=1>

 

[Heckler]

ooh aint life sweet

sometimes, it is at times like that, that one can lean back and give a big sigh of sheer unadulterated contentment.
stu

<hr width=100% size=1>

 

[SteveGorst]

Re: ooh aint life sweet

absolutely
steve

<hr width=100% size=1>

 

[Birdseye]

Yes - English Scots and Irish, boyo!

<hr width=100% size=1>

 

[Jools_of_Top_Cat]

Never been to Caernarfon at night then ??

<hr width=100% size=1>Julian

<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.topcatsail.co.uk/Honda_00.html>Honda Formula 4-Stroke racing</A>