Sailing schools and smoking

[doris]

Looking for a school for a couple of the kids to do their YM prep course I was amazed when one of the bigger outfits had no policy on smoking. I asked them to start with as a friend had been with them and the instructor, a heavy smoker, had been happy for people to sit/stand in the companion way with a fag on.

We are completely non-smoking on board, as are most boats I know. Is this not the norm these days?

 

[Talulah]

Looking for a school for a couple of the kids to do their YM prep course I was amazed when one of the bigger outfits had no policy on smoking. I asked them to start with as a friend had been with them and the instructor, a heavy smoker, had been happy for people to sit/stand in the companion way with a fag on.

We are completely non-smoking on board, as are most boats I know. Is this not the norm these days?

I tolerate smoking downwind on deck but have a great dislike for it.
Give people an inch and they edge back towards smoking in the Cockpit. Not if I can help it.

 

[deep denial]

I'm not a smoker, but rather like the smell of second hand smoke in the open air. It smells of freedom!
But not on my boat, with a petrol engine!

 

[Boomshanka]

If you can't now smoke in a company car, what's the difference with a company boat?

 

[Talulah]

If you can't now smoke in a company car, what's the difference with a company boat?

Try stopping the boat for a fag break.
A car journey is usually far shorter than boat trip.
There are rules permitting smoking in company vehicles. These revolve around the vehicle being primarily allocated to one person.
Think of what all those passengers on the Cruise ships/Ferries etc would do if they weren't allowed to smoke in a designated area. Hence back of boat/downwind is usually designated area.

 

[rivonia]

Find another tutor/school. There should be absolutely "NO SMOKING" in any kind of public meeting place.

Good Luck

Peter

 

[Signed Out]

Try stopping the boat for a fag break.
A car journey is usually far shorter than boat trip.
There are rules permitting smoking in company vehicles. These revolve around the vehicle being primarily allocated to one person.
Think of what all those passengers on the Cruise ships/Ferries etc would do if they weren't allowed to smoke in a designated area. Hence back of boat/downwind is usually designated area.

Same offshore. Doesn't always matter though that there's a bloody great intake for the accommodation ventilation right next to where they congregate. Not nice waking up to seeming like someone's lit up a marley red in your cabin!

And Dutch seamen! Oh my...

Often see buses "not in service" with a driver smoking. Seen train drivers doing same.

 

[Resolution]

I tolerate smoking downwind on deck but have a great dislike for it.
Give people an inch and they edge back towards smoking in the Cockpit. Not if I can help it.

As a non-smoker who is liable to being seasick I positively hate smoking on board. (Few things trigger nausea more than the smell of smoke.) By and large, the few smokers with whom I have sailed in recent years have been very considerate and stayed well down wind. But I have noticed that even with a strong breeze across the deck I can still smell the smoke within seconds of them lighting up.
So just how does smell travel upwind?

 

[prv]

I'm not a smoker, but rather like the smell of second hand smoke in the open air.

Me too. I also used to like the smell of a bit of smoke in pubs - that and ale is what a pub ought to smell like as far as I'm concerned. On the other hand, like anyone, of course I didn't like it on my clothes afterwards or if the haze was so thick you couldn't breathe, so I'm not campaigning for it to be brought back.

If you can't now smoke in a company car, what's the difference with a company boat?

A car is a sealed box, a boat has plenty of fresh air blowing across the deck to take the smoke away. I don't have any problem with someone smoking on deck, especially to leeward. I wouldn't want to be on a boat where people smoke below decks; I think that's pretty rare.

Pete

 

[Signed Out]

I must ask...

What happens to the butts?

I am sick of seeing smoker's waste being a predominant form of litter. Either butts, celophane or boxes. But butts are the worst being non biodegradable, a danger to small animals that could choke on them (IMO, OK?) and stinky/dirty. And smokers (yes, I group them together through being sick of their behavior) have no regard to this, blatantly throwing butts anywhere but the places they belong. Do cars not have ash-trays? They don't get used.

Boats have limited space, and a cup semi filled with water and butts smells and risks falling/spilling. So where do the smokers on board dispose of the butts.

Tell me.

 

[AntarcticPilot]

I'd have thought it was illegal to smoke on a boat operated by a company; certainly anywhere where smoke could get below decks. After all, it is illegal to smoke in enclosed workplaces, and there is a ban on smoking in public places.

 

[Deleted member 36384]

I worked on a yacht where the butts and matches were placed in a jar with a lid for later disposal. The skipper did not want the risk of the matches going into the bilge and getting stuck in the pump flapper valves and nothing went over the side. Most of our guests smoked like chimneys.

 

[Deleted member 36384]

..... and there is a ban on smoking in public places.

Does the ban extend to outdoor areas where the public could gather?

 

[AntarcticPilot]

Does the ban extend to outdoor areas where the public could gather?

Good question! I don't know (being a non-smoker), but one thing is for sure - the answer will differ between Scotland and England, which introduced legislation at different times.

I know that it now feels very odd to go to some countries where there isn't the UK's taboo on public smoking.

 

[Signed Out]

Must be an exemption in certain places though, as many offshore installations have designated rooms with ventilation. Including recently built vessels. And this includes British owned that I have been on.

Lately spent more time working on Dutch vessels though, and they have very little concern about smoking. This rubs off on the British smokers, so they smoke where I work when I go out, and then moan when I return and bring it up. There is even smoking in the coffee "shack", which really gets to me. Grrr.

My partner's job takes her into people's homes, and they are told not to smoke before/during her visits, which is the law even. Sometimes though, it's not practicable/deemed suitable to enforce, and even when they've complied, but usually smoke so heavily it still reeks; and I am very conscious of the smell when she gets home. Ugh. Sorry love...

 

[prv]

I'd have thought it was illegal to smoke on a boat operated by a company; certainly anywhere where smoke could get below decks. After all, it is illegal to smoke in enclosed workplaces

Not illegal to smoke on deck - the ban only applies to enclosed premises (and there's a pedantic definition of enclosed, which "outdoor" smoking shelters sail as close to as they can). As noted, there is an exemption for offshore installations, also for prisons, mental homes etc although I think that one is time-limited and will go away. Specialist tobacco shops are allowed to have people smoke samples in them, and people can smoke on stage if the script demands it.

Stavros allows smoking in the waist, traditionally the smokers keep to the area around the Blue Watch lifejacket box (generally sitting on it). There's a metal butts tin which us deckhands periodically empty into the plastic waste for disposal ashore.

there is a ban on smoking in public places.

Not outside there isn't.

Pete

 

[Babylon]

I don't care

I'm an ex-smoker, but am in a minority of ex-smokers in that I don't care if people smoke.

However, most smokers I know are 'with the programme' insofar as they take care to remove themselves from buildings and vehicles (whatever the law says) before lighting up.

My brother still smokes and he sails with me. He stays on deck until the residue of smoke has largely cleared from his clothing and what's left of his hair before coming below. The same applies to other smokers I know.

There is no smoking below decks on my boat, nor as far as I'm aware on any school boat.

Stale smoke might pong a bit, but it isn't going to kill you!

Kids seeing an adult mentor smoke doesn't necessarily mean they're going to think its cool and take up smoking.

Most kids realise that only the stupid people still smoke. If they don't then you have to educate them.

We need to be less hysterical about this thing.

 

[Fantasie 19]

Does the ban extend to outdoor areas where the public could gather?

...it does... no smoking is allowed on train platforms for example, whether they are roofed or open...

...I note that this thread is slipping into an anti-smoking crusade (and I do worry about anti-booze being the next crusade), but in my mind the answer to the original posters question is pretty simple - the charter company, or school, will do whatever they are legally obliged to do - I have no idea what that is...

...I do know that on my recent Day Skipper course the instructor also did work for Sunsail, and as a pipe smoker he certainly told me that he used to smoke... not down below, and not when manoeuvring, or in any situation where action was needed to be taken...

...I like an occasional cigar, so I've adopted those rules as well....

 

[VO5]

Looking for a school for a couple of the kids to do their YM prep course I was amazed when one of the bigger outfits had no policy on smoking. I asked them to start with as a friend had been with them and the instructor, a heavy smoker, had been happy for people to sit/stand in the companion way with a fag on.

We are completely non-smoking on board, as are most boats I know. Is this not the norm these days?

No, its not.

It is nanny state nonsense that people are dumbed down to accept.

The more ridiculous these edicts so the more docile people become.

I am in favour of smoking on board both in port and afloat.

I keep a box of Havana Cigars in tubes for my shipboard guests and a variety of cigarettes and loose tobacco for pipe smokers.

I am very strict about alcohol at sea however. At sea I run a dry ship.

In port, the gin is offered as soon as the sun is over the yardarm.

 

[Talulah]

...it does... no smoking is allowed on train platforms for example, whether they are roofed or open...

Platforms are classified as enclosed or partly enclosed and hence fall under the 'No Smoking' ban.
There has been an exception made for Health and Safety Reasons where congregating at the end of the platform (level crossing) was considered too dangerous.