What's the least accurate TV/film portrayal of sailing/boats that you've seen?

[greenalien]

A couple that have been on TV recently - in 'Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade', the powerboat chase starts in Venice, then cuts to Southampton Docks for the action sequence, then back to Venice for the last bit.
In 'Titanic', the officer of the watch, on spotting the iceberg, calls 'hard a starboard'. Guess which way the helmsman turns the wheel...

 

[Fire99]

In 'Titanic', the officer of the watch, on spotting the iceberg, calls 'hard a starboard'. Guess which way the helmsman turns the wheel...

That is actually accurate..

http://www.rmg.co.uk/explore/sea-an...-why-does-the-helmsman-turn-the-wheel-to-port

 

[greenalien]

That is actually accurate..

Given the attention to detail in the rest of the film, I suspected that may have been the case - However, given the circumstances, I still thought it was funny!

 

[Tomahawk]

A couple that have been on TV recently - in 'Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade', the powerboat chase starts in Venice, then cuts to Southampton Docks for the action sequence, then back to Venice for the last bit.

Just for the sake of being a pedant .. but it was Tilbury Docks.. not Southampton.. I was working on the ship in the background that is just visible for 1/4 seconds between the two ships that are closing together...

 

[greenalien]

it was Tilbury Docks.. not Southampton

Fair point - as I live in Southampton, I should have known!

 

[jpcarter30]

Just finished watching 'Captains Courageous' so another vote for that! All those schooners under sail...marvellous. Made me want to take up pipe smoking immediately and I don't think you'll see many films where a skipper cuffs an impertinent lad around the ear and nobody moves a muscle!

 

[Lakesailor]

Films where a year-old thread miraculously comes to life.

 

[jpcarter30]

Well, I was thinking of starting a separate thread on "Favourite Sailing Films' but as I found this one in the search I thought I'd resurrect it.

 

[Lakesailor]

It's a self-defeating prospect. By the time people read through 3 or 4 pages, before reaching your post, and realise it's an old thread - possibly even coming across one of their own posts - they become discouraged and move on.
Always better to start your own, new, thread.

 

[LittleSister]

Good grief, I just saw the end of the PD James, A Mind to Murder...

...old Roy Marsden running across the mudflats, towing a transom inflatable, to save a chap sinking into a muddy pool...

...and having passed the dinghy's painter to the victim, having actually touched his hands, rather than simply heave him out, the 'hero' then runs to the stern of the boat, unbolts the outboard & tosses it aside...

...then stands on the transom, pulling on another line attached to the bow, in order to lift the muddy victim out, using the whole inflatable as a woefully unscientific 'gin pole'!

One needn't know about boats to see how ludicrous it was.

As bad as Kenneth More and Taina Elg, unseatbelted, crashing a car at speed into a wall, and jumping out unscathed in The Thirty-Nine Steps. I'm a bit of a writer myself, so I have to wonder what cloud these scriptwriters inhabit..?

It's a curious thing (and it took a philosophy book to draw it to my attention) that we find it very disturbing and unconvincing to read or watch glitches like those, but a giant ape hanging off the top of a skyscraper, or the like, is perfectly acceptable!