capnsensible
Well-Known Member
They were telling you it was half empty.
Sunsail in the Solent
- Thread starter brianhumber
- Start date
They were telling you it was half empty.
Giblets
Well-Known Member
Slight fred drift but some years ago I was on safety boat detail at our inland club during an Opi National Meeting. During the course of one race an unexpected line squall went through and promptly dumped 70% of the fleet in the water. One poor girl was in a terrible state and very badly shaken up so we hauled her into the RIB and took her back to land. All she was worried about was what her father would say at having to retire. When we landed the father promptly laid into the kid with a vengeance so my crew and I had a "quite" word with him and let him know that we as safety boat had alone taken the decision that she was not fit to carry on racing. He ranted and raved at us and stormed off to report our actions to the race officer who told him in no uncertain terms that the decision of the safety boat cox'n was final in such matters. A little later in the afternoon he did come and apologise most profusely to us for his outburst and fully appreciated that our actions were correct.
Tranona
Well-Known Member
At our club we have fleets of various dinghies - notably not Optimists - for the Junior Section to sign the book and take out - with a safety boat handy.
However I'm with Jumbleduck, anyone approaching an Optimist fleet does so at their peril, the little brats probably have North sails, are so cut-throat they'd make Jack Aubrey cringe and apparently learned their collision reg's from the Hayne's manual on the Exocet...
This thread is nothing to do with the behaviour of Optimist sailors.
It is about Sunsail. So why are you ignoring my polite request for you to share your many experiences of being hit by a Sunsail boat?
Twister_Ken
Well-Known Member
Please sir! I've been hit by a Sunsailer. I'd just picked up a mooring in Cowes Roads, and it was motoring through the moorings to go up the Medina. Then its engine stopped. We "arrested its progress" at the cost of some teak capping rail, which SS not at all reluctantly paid to have repaired. Charming bunch of very apologetic chartered surveyors aboard.
johnwest
Well-Known Member
Round here we call them Scumsail. If you see a herd of them out in the Solent get as far away as possible.
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ProMariner
Well-Known Member
I was hit several times by sunsail boats, while secure alongside. Always a chuckle. (when you are on another sunsail boat). Come on folks, this is not about sunsail charterers and skippers, or even the whole world of charterers and sailing schools. This is about experience and manners, we all pick them up as we go through life, and as we have, at times, we have probably left people in our wakes shaking their heads in amazement. We all have to start somewhere, and gently nudge our limits and skills up, I hope this process never ends.
Be a good sport, give those folk with less or different experience the occasional pass, should he bump you in port, lest 10 years ago you did the same to someone else, or got by on dumb luck. Pity the harassed skipper on a busy day who blows up in front of an audience and finds out, at that exact moment, that they have found and crossed their personal limit. It does not translate to a whole industry, company, nationality or choice of vessel, generalities are usually based on skewed information.
Be a good sport, give those folk with less or different experience the occasional pass, should he bump you in port, lest 10 years ago you did the same to someone else, or got by on dumb luck. Pity the harassed skipper on a busy day who blows up in front of an audience and finds out, at that exact moment, that they have found and crossed their personal limit. It does not translate to a whole industry, company, nationality or choice of vessel, generalities are usually based on skewed information.
lpdsn
Well-Known Member
At our club we have fleets of various dinghies - notably not Optimists - for the Junior Section to sign the book and take out - with a safety boat handy.
However I'm with Jumbleduck, anyone approaching an Optimist fleet does so at their peril, the little brats probably have North sails, are so cut-throat they'd make Jack Aubrey cringe and apparently learned their collision reg's from the Hayne's manual on the Exocet...
The Melges 32 fleet aren't afraid of Oppies.
Tranona
Well-Known Member
Well done, Ken. Let's hope Seajet is as honest about his experiences.
jac
Well-Known Member
I've never been hit by a Sunsail boat, or had them raft next to me but I have seen them racing several times in the solent.
I have been hit by another charter boat and have had lots of other charter people traipsing across my decks though.
I have been hit by another charter boat and have had lots of other charter people traipsing across my decks though.
horatio_nelson
Well-Known Member
I think that on average they're no better or worse than any other corporate / charter boats. It's just the sheer numbers and prominent branding of the things that skews opinion against them.
jimbaerselman
Well-Known Member
Great post, ProMariner.
I shudder with horror when I remember my first effort departing from a pontoon (down tide) skippering a boat someone foolishly lent me. All my previous experience was sailing off (and returning to) moorings.
Result: one broken bowsprit, one crunched wooden gunwale and railing, rope around prop, followed by an hour rigging warps to pull out of the mess, five crews shouting at me, own crew confidence zero. First degree humiliation.
Moral, skippers in novel situations make mistakes. And novice skippers will often be in novel situations. After a few such shocks, I learnt to recognise novel situations and approach them with a great deal of forethought.
I'm sure all of us have been through variously similar embarrassments.
Certainly, a few decades later, lots of people we taught to sail in the Ionian made plenty of mistakes. Mostly, pre-briefed about the traps awaiting them for each leg, but with help to hand in case things went wrong. Many now confidently own their own boats. And they enjoy a good late afternoon's entertainment watching the next generation of charterers having fun with anchors lowered too late, bouncing off quaysides, wrapping ropes round props. It's better than television.
Rites of passage.
Seajet
...
Spiffing if one just replies ' Ho Hum, rites of passage ' when one's own pride and joy gets thoughtlessly clobbered, requiring hard work & money to put right, or increased insurance premiums probably involving research into ' who had witnessed it or had CCTV on the area ? '
Manners means owning up and dealing with the consequences of ineptitude, not ' think I got away with that one '.
Manners means owning up and dealing with the consequences of ineptitude, not ' think I got away with that one '.
Tranona
Well-Known Member
Are you still compiling the list of the times that you have been hit by Sunsail boats? Did they all own up apologise and compensate you for your losses?Spiffing if one just replies ' Ho Hum, rites of passage ' when one's own pride and joy gets thoughtlessly clobbered, requiring hard work & money to put right, or increased insurance premiums probably involving research into ' who had witnessed it or had CCTV on the area ? '
Manners means owning up and dealing with the consequences of ineptitude, not ' think I got away with that one '.
TSB240
Well-Known Member
Spiffing if one just replies ' Ho Hum, rites of passage ' when one's own pride and joy gets thoughtlessly clobbered, requiring hard work & money to put right, or increased insurance premiums probably involving research into ' who had witnessed it or had CCTV on the area ? '
Manners means owning up and dealing with the consequences of ineptitude, not ' think I got away with that one '.
Have you had a problem with multiple insurance claims against Sunsail?
I have been clobbered hard by another boat. Never an apology just "Oh we didn't think anyone could possibly be sleeping on such a small boat!" They thought they had got clean away with it!
I had no problem on getting names of culprit and insurance details just in case the old fibre glass needed a bit of a fill and polish!
We are members of the same yacht club! (Mutter mutter the rif raf they let in etc etc etc)
Interestingly they flew a defaced blue which I cant be bothered with perhaps we should put defaced blues and sunsail boats in the same category?
flaming
Well-Known Member
Given that Seajet has been asked a number of times on this thread to actually state that he has in fact been hit by a Sunsail boat, and hasn't....
Tranona
Well-Known Member
Exactly. Just like much of what he posts here, seems to exist only in his imagination.
No doubt he will explain sometime.
doris
Well-Known Member
I
Careful you might be getting as chippy as Jetters!
Careful you might be getting as chippy as Jetters!
jac
Well-Known Member
Sod that - what anchor did they have - can't trust those blighters with a new fangled {insert anchor name here}
Seajet
...
tranona is the only person on my ' ignore ' list, so apologies if I haven't rushed to respond.
Of 2 cruising boats I've owned, they have been collided with by Sunsail boats while mine was berthed 3 times, 2 in Porstsmouth & 1 in Lymington.
Each time the ( instructor, not chartered ) perpetrators tried to slope away without owning up.
The damage was relatively slight so I did the repairs myself rather than go through an insurance claim; it was the ' let's try to get away with it ' attitude that got me, same as the several occasions I have theoretically had right of way, but had to take quite drastic action to avoid ' Corporate Races '
Tranona
Well-Known Member
tranona is the only person on my ' ignore ' list, so apologies if I haven't rushed to respond.
Of 2 cruising boats I've owned, they have been collided with by Sunsail boats while mine was berthed 3 times, 2 in Porstsmouth & 1 in Lymington.
Each time the ( instructor, not chartered ) perpetrators tried to slope away without owning up.
The damage was relatively slight so I did the repairs myself rather than go through an insurance claim; it was the ' let's try to get away with it ' attitude that got me, same as the several occasions I have theoretically had right of way, but had to take quite drastic action to avoid ' Corporate Races '
If you removed me from your ignore list you could have cleared this up much earlier. I assume you wrote letters of complaint to Sunsail about the behaviour of their employees. Would be interested in their response.
