Powerboats and Optical Illusion ?

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alec

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Nothing against powerboating but I wonder if this is just an optical illusion.

I sometimes feel that powerboats are heading straight for me , particularly when water is a bit narrow.

Do others feel this ?

This post is definitely NOT knocking powerboaters as yachts and powerboat collisions seem rare.

I had an instance the other week when I really felt that a collision was imminent, particularly as the sun must have been in the powerboater’s eyes. I started waving and I suppose made a bit of a Pratt of myself .

Am I just getting old ?


Regards,

Alec .
 
It's probably because of the shape of the prow: pointing a few degrees one way or another doesn't make much difference to the picture.

Sailboats have the sail as a reference, which makes their attitude in relation to you more apparent, assuming they have their sails up.
 
Tiss an Opticians Illusion.
See, what,s happenning, your bellting along at 6kts. I,m ticking over at 16 kts.
What you saw as a dot on the horizon 10 minutes ago in good vis, is now a great bow wave with a big white hunk of GRP following it,about to bear down on you.
I,ve already blimped your Tick tacking ,gybing going abouty stuff (cos I,m an observing kind of stinkie) and I,m already deciding which plan of action I,m going to take in said narrow bit.
You don,t know that but I do cos I,m going that quick I,ve got to be looking further ahead than you do.
Your looking at what the tides doing the winds doing etc in a more concentranted way than Me.
So were both doing our"Own Thing" but in a different manner.
Your sailing away happily I get closer(relativeley rapidely) You think "Crikey what do I do"? You stay put mate cos I,ll do the adjustements, I won,t slow down if I,m in a planing hull (cos the faster I go there.s less wash).

Most of us think like that believe it or not.
However it amazes me how many peeps in Mobos "Hug" the cans when leaving or entering the Harbour or Marina. Its like there doing the "Join the Dots quiz! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 
It's the ones that will then take their course 25mm off your stern that would worry me, cos there are some out there that do. Some like me an that crazy Kawasaki look about a bit, and find some clear room to leave between all the sailing boats in the area, not just yours.


But even in a mobo, some crazy fools in big mobos get too close. I've got an advantage, at the speed mine does, if they cut me up, I can speed up and give them a taste of the same, but as I get older the need to do so seems to have died away.
 
It's like Brendan says. A buoy is a target. Acres (?) of empty water but put a buoy there and boats will graze past.
I was out on Ullswater with a novice boater in a small fishing boat and when he spotted their strange yellow poles to mark rocks, he started going really close to them. I had to insist that they were there to be avoided, not cosied up to.
 
One of the problems of faster boats (yacht or mobo) is that when they join a channel they do seem to aim at a reference.

Aiming at a slow yacht is reasonable as the yachts always show the position of the deep channel. Only when they are in the channel do they turn to line up with it. By aiming at the yacht you can guarantee that after the turn you will be ahead of it.

Hence slow yacht sees a perfect symmetrical bow for 5 minutes and at the last minute when his nerves are completely frayed it turns and goes past.

If only mobo and fast yacht headed at fixed buoys slow yachts skippers would live longer and need less alcohol when they get in.

Please never aim a vessel at a human. Take some thought and aim in front or behind. To the fast boat it will make very little difference. To your fellow boaty it will let them know you are a real skipper.
 
I believe it is a well known phenomenon. If there is something interesting / different in our field of vision, we look at it. We tend to go towards the things we look at. When I was racing bicycles, one of the things the coach told us was that if you see an accident in front of you, don't look at it - look away. If you look at the accident you WILL follow in and go down yourself. He was right.

Either that, or MOBO drivers are taught the same thing as NASCAR (North American stock car) drivers (so I've been told) - if you see an accident, aim for the car in the accident - because by the time you get there, that car will be gone.
 
The same thing was happening on the M180 on the way to Grimsby.
The section became the A180 with no real change to the outlook except it lost a lane. Then a gentle right bend over a very slight crest had a Parking Layby on the nearside. Drivers who were not concentrating only registered the fact there were a few cars ahead and lined up with what they thought was the flow. They kept piling into the back of the parked cars.
 
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