raggies v stinkies - a culture clash?

Birdseye

Birdseye

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good example down below (red diesel thread) of the animosity between (some) raggies and stinkies. I see the same thing in the area I boat in, though perhaps not quite as "in your face" as some of the comments below.

Been thinking about it, and it seems to me to be mainly a good old fashioned British class issue - tradesmen / small business owners (stinkies) vs middle class clerical / professional types (raggies). Raggies look down on stinkies and stinkies resent it. OK there will be loads of exceptions in both directions, but as a general proposition it seems to me to have something behind it. What do you reckon?

The other thing round here (and based on a strictly inadequate statistical sample) is that far fewer raggies smoke than stinkies. Why should that be? Does it matter - no it doesnt. But its a curious phenomenon all the same.

Personally , as a raggie, I was apalled when taking a trip on a stinkie to find that I had suddenly changed from the sort of person that the average raggie waved to into someone who became almost invisible. I was very tempted to open the throttles and pass a bit closer. /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif
 
where do you get the "tradesmen / small business owners (stinkies) vs middle class clerical / professional types (raggies)" bit from?

Certainly not true of the people I know, and not represented by the Mobo forum here. In my experience, it's probably the other way around.
 
Having recently analysed various bits of the boat finance market for a client, I too think you have the financial bit the wrong way round... just have a look at the cost of motorboats and the amount that their owners spend on upgrading the kit, and then the boats themselves.

Having owned a couple of motorboats before converting to sail (well, motorsail anyway /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif), I always wave to anyone in the vicinity - most of us are after roughly the same thing from an enjoyment p.o.v., & I can't see the point in trying to invent a level of animosity that shouldn't exist. But I will always make an exception for jetskis.
 
I can't see that divison on occupation either - just have a look at the occupations on here to see it isn't as simple as that, although in profiles it would seem that more stinkies declare an occupation than raggies.
 
Yes there is a culture clash. You only have to walk round the car parks and along the marina pontoons to observe it.
Yachtsmen are slightly more complex - either middle class to posh or working class eccentric in old boats ie ranging from Royal Crusiing Club with their noses in the air to the more likable proles in MABs.
Power boaters drive 4x4 s or BMWs and are generally vulgar particularly in speech with ghastly Cockney/Essex/Council estate accents, usually prosperous, self-satisfied, self-made, small businessmen just on the right side of legal and generally fairly repulsive.
In other words most boaters are typical of present day British society which is why we are such an unhappy country.
 
Hello Snarling Snail! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif Well he did say that there loads of exceptions in both directions, trouble is, it's always a bit of a slippery slope when you attempt to make generalisations of this sort innit?

Speaking as a "Raggie"............I can only say what my experience of moboters is in my area. Mostly, they are a pain in the arris. not when they are out at sea, but when passing or negotiating their way through moorings. They don't ever seem to have a thought in their heads, that there might be someone on board one of the moored boats, perhaps with a kettle of boiling water in their hands, or doing a bit of maintenance with a power tool, or even just having a kip. If they would just slow down, so they were not creating a wash, there would be no problem.

Ok folks, flame away /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
 
[ QUOTE ]
Yes there is a culture clash. You only have to walk round the car parks and along the marina pontoons to observe it.
Yachtsmen are slightly more complex - either middle class to posh or working class eccentric in old boats ie ranging from Royal Crusiing Club with their noses in the air to the more likable proles in MABs.
Power boaters drive 4x4 s or BMWs and are generally vulgar particularly in speech with ghastly Cockney/Essex/Council estate accents, usually prosperous, self-satisfied, self-made, small businessmen just on the right side of legal and generally fairly repulsive.
In other words most boaters are typical of present day British society which is why we are such an unhappy country.

[/ QUOTE ]

It sounds like you are saying that Moboters are they chavs of the boating fraternity?..........Hmmmmmmmm! an interesting supposition? /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Yes there is a culture clash. You only have to walk round the car parks and along the marina pontoons to observe it.
Yachtsmen are slightly more complex - either middle class to posh or working class eccentric in old boats ie ranging from Royal Cruising Club with their noses in the air to the more likable proles in MABs.
Power boaters drive 4x4 s or BMW's and are generally vulgar particularly in speech with ghastly Cockney/Essex/Council estate accents, usually prosperous, self-satisfied, self-made, small businessmen just on the right side of legal and generally fairly repulsive.
In other words most boaters are typical of present day British society which is why we are such an unhappy country.

[/ QUOTE ]

It sounds like you are saying that Moboters are they chavs of the boating fraternity?..........Hmmmmmmmm! an interesting supposition? /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

[/ QUOTE ]

Possibly, as Victor Borger said & I Quote " Your words not mine " /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif
 
CHICKEN!.......BurK.......BUK........BUK /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif
 
[ QUOTE ]
Yes there is a culture clash. You only have to walk round the car parks and along the marina pontoons to observe it.
Yachtsmen are slightly more complex - either middle class to posh or working class eccentric in old boats ie ranging from Royal Crusiing Club with their noses in the air to the more likable proles in MABs.
Power boaters drive 4x4 s or BMWs and are generally vulgar particularly in speech with ghastly Cockney/Essex/Council estate accents, usually prosperous, self-satisfied, self-made, small businessmen just on the right side of legal and generally fairly repulsive.
In other words most boaters are typical of present day British society which is why we are such an unhappy country.

[/ QUOTE ]
I think you've got it a bit nearer /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 
[ QUOTE ]
WHO are YER /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

[/ QUOTE ]

Who Me??? /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif
 
[ QUOTE ]
DONT know Yer /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif
bugger orf /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

[/ QUOTE ]

Ok Chavy Chops! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 
[ QUOTE ]
Q. What's the difference between a chav and a coconut?
>
>

[/ QUOTE ]

Ones thick and hairy, the others just a coconut? /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
 
[ QUOTE ]
Y bin peekin again

[/ QUOTE ] /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 
They are surely different pleasures, with different rewards, and therefore appealling to different character types, but I don't think the cultural difference is there.

A minority of motorboaters are a bit imprudent (planing around a bay where people are swimming), or inconsiderate (swamping dinghies), but even that isn't really a cultural difference, it's just down to ignorance. Motorboating is that much more accessible - salesmen tell people it's just like driving a car, and the punters believe them.

There is perhaps a cultural difference in the boating community but I'd say it's more new boat / old boat rather than sailboat / motor boat.
 
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