Practical boat owners... really?

[tom52]

I have had some really useful and helpful advice from forumites who obviously have much more knowledge and practical experience than I do on a whole range of technical matters. For their patience and willingness to help I am very grateful.

However in reading the posted replies I sometimes wonder how many of the posters providing advice really have boats or any real practical experience.
I am most suspicious of those who post replies of great and positive certainty. Some of the replies are theoretically plausible but in the harsh reality of the sea
going boat impractical or unreliable solutions.

Is it just me. Or was I too naive at the outset to believe most of the posters were wise old salty dogs.

What is your best estimate of the relative proportions..........

20% past or present practical boat owners 80% wannabes and fantasists ?
Is

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[jimi]

I reckon 99.9% past or present boat owners ..

<hr width=100% size=1>.. when's that again, but ..

 

[Mirelle]

So do I. People do sometimes become dogmatic, but that's hard to avoid I think.

Of course, the only sort of boat worth having is an ancient gaff wooden cutter.... (dogmatic, moi?)

<hr width=100% size=1>Que scais-je?

 

[starboard]

Thats boaters for you...try telling someone they are wrong...pay your money and take your choice...one thing for certain you will never stop learning as far as the sea is concerned...old salt or no!!!!

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[Rustyknight]

In much the same way there are boats out there that I wouldn't trust to float in my bath, and others that would think my own as too small even for use as a tender, I expect the same applies to their owners.

Having said that, the way the boats are used range from river trips to ocean crossings..... some problems are the same no matter what, some dependant on the manner of use.

Everyones experience varies, and more often than not there is more than one solution to any problem. If it works, don't knock it..... if it doesn't, try something else. As they say.......... caveat emptor.

I always wonder if a person asking for advice is too scared to make their own mistakes, or has tried to do something and failed........


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[BrendanS]

Why do you think 80% of the posters here are fantasists? It's a strange idea.

Having attended many of the forum meets and events, and just arranging to meet up on the water, I'm guessing I've actually met over 70 of them in real life, and will meet many more over the next year I'm sure.

Come along to some of the Poole based meets over the next year. There's usually quite a few of them, and meet some of these people in real life, and get a feel for how experienced some of them are.

When you've met people, you are better placed to assess the worth of their advice.

I'd say that the vast majority of people posting advice either have boats, or have had considerable experience of them in the past.

<hr width=100% size=1> I asked an economist for her phone number....and she gave me an estimate

 

[MainlySteam]

Certainly some of the advice, supposedly validated by practice, has put me off ever wanting to buy a second hand boat without pulling it to bits beforehand to make sure that all is as it should be.

On a more positive note some gems appear - I am forever grateful to the forumite with obvious seagoing experience who suggested a couple of years ago that door stops under the toilet seat of a fore and aft mounted toilet would stop it sliding sideways when the boat is heeled. Hadn't come across that before and it sure does work - and am very dogmatic about that!

John

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[graham]

Obviously the forum users range from beginners to proffesional yachtspeople .But a total novice pretending to be something else would stand out like Pavaroti at an "anorexics anonymous" meeting.

after a lifetime of yachting Ihave learned a lot from these forums.

Why do you think that someone with no interest or knowledge in boats would want to bother pretending?

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[claymore]

What a strange post

give us an example of what you mean by
<I am most suspicious of those who post replies of great and positive certainty. Some of the replies are theoretically plausible but in the harsh reality of the sea
going boat impractical or unreliable solutions.>


<hr width=100% size=1>regards
Claymore
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[Novice]

I wonder whether people with little or no practical experience would be capable of dispensing advice. I am just starting out - doing my Day Skipper theory, and we hope to get our boat in March. I have found these forums a fascinating source of information which you simply can't find elsewhere. For example, the discussion on the PBO forum concerning small boats and standing room is pretty interesting to me. However, there is absolutely no way that I can make a sensible contribution to the thread, so I just read and absorb. There may come a time when I know something that someone else doesn't, but until then, I'll keep quiet and watch (and perhaps post the odd question when I can't find the answer elsewhere).

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[VicS]

Re: Wobbly toilet seats

Not relating to the original post in this thread but specifically about toilet seats! I have seen moulded toilet seat buffers that locate positvely on the rim to prevent this problem on domestic toilets. In one of the many bits of junk mail that cover the doormat every day but I don't remember which. I didn't think of it as a solution to a boaty problem at the time but if any one else needs them they're out there somewhere.

<hr width=100% size=1><font color=purple>Ne te confundant illegitimi.</font color=purple>

 

[Boathook]

Re: Practical boat owners... really?re Rustyknight

From Rustyknight ..
I always wonder if a person asking for advice is too scared to make their own mistakes, or has tried to do something and failed........


I ask for advice where not to sure and then make my own mistakes ! But at least I know that I have done all I can to find out; and for that advice this forum has been very good. Long may it continue.

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[halcyon]

Funny how time changes your view, 25 years ago we started to supply the production boat builders, then we wanted a new plastic boat, and wooden were only fit for firewood. Now after 25 years, we still supply electronic controls to production builders, but now a wooden gaffer / sloop is beautiful, and I would not thank you for a new plastic tub.
OK I admit to a 32 year old plastiic tub, but after a number of years boating you tend to change what you thought you wanted when you started boating, to what you actually want from your experience. Before my current boat we looked at 3 wooden boats, put a deposit on a SCOD, then found a £10,000 repair bill, saw this Halcyon and why I do not really know fell in love with it, worts and all, it just as felt right .

Brian

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[Heckler]

i must say

that what he says could be quite plausible, sometimes we see replies from people who are of the type that think they are pretty clever, they look at a prob from their perspective and then in what they think of as very logical view, reply.

from the perspective of some one who knows the subject thru and thru it is quite obvious that they are plonkers! and are guessing.
stu

<hr width=100% size=1>http://www.beneteau-owners-association.org.uk

 

[ianwright]

The Gaff needn't be ancient, just the Skipper and the Scotch.
,,,,,,,but your point is well made, wooden boats are the real thing, plastic boats are, well, plastic, and somehow less.

IanW.

<hr width=100% size=1>Vertue 203, Patience

 

[starboard]

Re: i must say

Not such a person that knows the subject" through and through"..only one that thinks HE does.

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[rich]

Re: i must say

I'm keeping out of this one,,,I know nothing,

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[halcyon]

True a friend up the creek builds gaffers, upto around 50 foot, but in plastic.
They look as good as any wooden gaffer, but are built in current materials, over the years wooden boat boat costruction varied in material or design. Are we going to say a year, or type of construction is classic, or just wood no matter what construction.
Surely a classic is it's looks, not how or what it built from.
I have three friends with or have owned Vertues, all differant in type of wood used in there construction, but the feel you had about them is the same that the Halcyon generates, OK it's plastic, but it has the same feeling that the Vertues had.
Should we be trying to explain what a classic design is to new comers, not the wonders of wood. After all there are many wooden boats that in all honesty are fit for only firewood, just as there are many plastic ones that fit only for recycling.
It's education or random selection.

Brian

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[webcraft]

Re: i must say

I know nothing

Barcelona Yacht Club member?

- N

<hr width=100% size=1><font size=1><A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.bluemoment.com>http://www.bluemoment.com</A></font size=1>

 

[MainlySteam]

Re: Wobbly toilet seats

Haven't seen those out here in NZ (be great to have them if one was sitting on the home loo and one of our earthquakes struck too), but now alerted will keep a salty dog and very experienced /forums/images/icons/smile.gif weather eye out in case they appear. Thanks.

Life is great when ones own boat problems are little ones!

John

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