Smoking on board
- Thread starter DannyB
- Start date
Stemar
Well-Known Member
Outside only, and never when the sails are up.
Swanrad2
Well-Known Member
I gradually withdrew from smoking over the last 4 years (prior to that I was about 2 years on, 2 years off for the previous 15 years or so). Even as an ex-smoker I do not find the habit so offensive as to ban a good man from the boat - it stinks in the cabin (so, 'outside, if you wouldn't mind please?'), but is less unpleasant than diesel fumes in a following wind (even as an ex smoker with heightened sensitivities).
Give them a break as I have never heard/seen any example of damage to the boat from smoking. I have suggested that smokers switch to roll-ups at sea with (possibly) biodegradable papers and tobacco to avoid transporting around stinky cigarette butts. If this doesn't work a sealed coffee jar filled with water for the deck works.
Really it isn't that bad - rather a smoker than a snorer.
Give them a break as I have never heard/seen any example of damage to the boat from smoking. I have suggested that smokers switch to roll-ups at sea with (possibly) biodegradable papers and tobacco to avoid transporting around stinky cigarette butts. If this doesn't work a sealed coffee jar filled with water for the deck works.
Really it isn't that bad - rather a smoker than a snorer.
mjcoon
Well-Known Member
That's just your opinion! I think I would compare with someone who farted voluntarily for several minutes at a time. But then I'm partly deaf so can cut out the snoring, but have so far failed to give up breathing...
Mike.
Swanrad2
Well-Known Member
Take up smoking that helps by all accounts!
You would really rather have a snorer down below than a smoker on deck?
mjcoon
Well-Known Member
Smoking helps what? I have never had the slightest inclination, despite or perhaps because of my father being a smoker until shortly before his premature death.
It had never occurred to me to equate smoking and snoring. Perhaps because snorers would probably give up if they could because if it leads to sleep apnea it will do their health no good at all.
Mike.
Swanrad2
Well-Known Member
Most smokers would give up if they could as well. It is a stupid addiction (and they/we know it)- but not that bad for others, it is however bad enough dying prematurely without being ostracised during life. Let 'em smoke, invite me along and I will try to talk them out of it but don't write them off. The harm suffered by others on the deck of a boat is vanishingly small....
Babylon
Well-Known Member
The lack of tolerance in some people never fails to amaze me.
As an ex-smoker of many years, I never begrudged crew who smoked doing so in the cockpit, and was never bothered if on occasion it was a bit upwind. One poster however suggested that the cockpit was okay, as long as the sails weren't up! Huh? Its got to be hysteria to think that the glow from a cigarette is going to set the canvas ablaze!
As a reformed ex-smoker (ie I took it up again), I take care not to let my smoke discomfort others. I don't smoke in my house when I have my young son staying, and I don't smoke below decks on my boat, unless I'm alone and the hatches are all wide open. On other people's boats, I smoke in the cockpit or on the foredeck - but then all my friends are of the tolerant mould.
Having said that, I smoke rollies - the smoke from which doesn't ming half as much as that from regular cigarettes.
Swanrad2
Well-Known Member
Same as - tolerance is the word, why such hysteria over someone else's weakness? (Sorry to imply you are weak by the way, but it was that awareness that helped me stop, hopefully for good)
prv
Well-Known Member
vjmehra
Well-Known Member
I presume you're being slightly sarcastic here, suggesting its non-smokers being intolerant?
Of course there's absolutely nothing wrong with non-smokers allowing smokers to smoke on-board, however smoking (including passive) kills, that's a fact not an opinion, so to suggest non-smokers are the intolerant ones is ridiculous.
Woodlouse
Well-Known Member
It is very intolerant to ostracise smokers. Some people here seem to consider the fact that someone smokes as an impassable barrier to friendship and companionship. Personally if I adhered to the same principles I'd lose some of my closest friends and my best crew but each to their own.
Houleaux
Well-Known Member
I hate to burst your bubble, but the smell of rollies is just as bad as that from regular cigarettes (but not as bad as from pipes and, worst of all, cigars!). I have friends who smoke and I hate it when they light up because, as a non smoker, I find the smell really unpleasant.
As it happens, they don't sail with me - it's not their bag - but, if they did, I'd be OK with them smoking in the cockpit. They are my friends after all and, whilst I really don't like it, I'm prepared to accept it. I wish they'd give up though - for their sake more than mine.
vjmehra
Well-Known Member
Its not at all, smoking is not a right, not having smoke blown in your face on the other hand is (or should be) a right!
Personally I think most smokers are completely understanding of this and make every effort to smoke outdoors etc. But to suggest non-smokers are intolerant for not letting smokers smoke next to them is ridiculous. No-one has ever got cancer from telling someone to smoke outside...
Personally I don't think I'd have a huge problem with smokers, smoking in the cockpit if I owned a sailing boat (I own a rib with portable fuel tanks so its not an option on that!), but if I were to ban smoking its not me being intolerant at all, I am merely stopping myself and my crew being exposed to unwanted and dangerous second hand smoke, if they insisted on it they would be the intolerant ones.
Just to re-iterate I'm not saying smokers are intolerant here, merely in the hypothetical scenario that anyone insisting on smoking would be considered so.
johnalison
Well-Known Member
Smoking on my boat is forbidden by edict, but like others I don't have any close friends who smoke. A problem can occur when you moor comfortably in a finger or box and half an hour later someone arrives next door and starts to smoke in the cockpit, rendering your boat uninhabitable. This always seems to happen on hot days when you want to be out there yourself. The Danes, Dutch and Germans seem to be the worst offenders. If I arrived first I usually complain, but if not it is more complicated and a long walk may be necessary.
prv
Well-Known Member
Well, I hope they tell you where to go!
I'm amazed at the brass neck of ordering someone to stop smoking on their own boat.
Pete
vjmehra
Well-Known Member
Unless you have a magical device that stops smoke going into other people's boats I'd say its incredibly rude!
Smoking is not a right, its a choice for an individual, they have no right to force it on others!
Again I suspect most smokers, if they realised the smoke was blowing across onto someone else's boat, would be decent enough to stop, or move to the foredeck, or wherever.
Woodlouse
Well-Known Member
But we're not talking about people sitting next to you and blowing smoke in your face. We're talking about where and when you allow smoking on board your boat and a fairly frequent answer seems to be that if you want to smoke you can ***** off. I've never met a smoker anywhere who would intentionally gas someone sitting next to them and there are very, very few who don't automatically go outside to smoke when not in their own homes and many even do so there.
vjmehra
Well-Known Member
Why is that a problem though?
Smoking is only detrimental to everyone else, be it for health reasons or merely the smell.
Why should anyone feel obliged to let people smoke on board?
GrahamM376
Well-Known Member
As a 50+ year smoker I've seen attitudes change and yes, I do wish I had never started in the first place but, in the 50s & 60s most people had the habit. As I've said before, I wouldn't think of lighting up on someone's boat without permission but, my own boat is my territory and if people don't like my smoking then **** off and find somewhere else to moor up. I have to put up with people's cooking smells, loud music, drunken parties, dogs barking, noisy children and people tramping across my deck in walking shoes or occasionally hiking boots.
Fortunately, I spend most of my year in more tolerant countries where there are smoking and non-smoking restaurants and bars, it's far more laid back than the UK with far fewer complainers, except for some UK ex pats of course who never seem to be happy with the way "these foreigners do things".
I do wonder why some people don't become hermits and lock themselves away from anything which annoys them. As far as health is concerned, UK smokers on one pack per day pay around £2,200 tax per year on them so, I guess over 50+ years of smoking I've more than paid for some NH treatment and my pension payout will no doubt be for a shorter period.
