Who do I moan at?

[martin]

Hi,

Moored outside St Kats yesterday for 2 hours waitin to get in. During the 2 hr period I saw many large passenger boats come and go from St Katherines Pier perfectly safely.

Unfortunately, the same could not be said of the Thames Clipper launches. On at least 3 occassions they passed within a few (2-3) feet of my boat, causing considerable concern to myself and passengers. Initially I asked them nicely to keep clear as they were passsing. The Captain simply ignored me whilst his mate stood by him, smiling and laughing at our worried faces. The next time, I told them in no uncertain terms to to stay away, this had no effect as they repeated the manouver some time later. This time, I contacted a River Police boat on VHF Channel 14 that happened to be standing by in the area. The police boat informed me that he would "have a word with the Captain later". This brought an angry response from the skipper. He claimed that my boat, a 40ft Sportscruiser, was too large to be moored in this position and that I should have more common sense. At this point I declined to take part in a public slanging match on the VHF and decided to take this matter up when safely ashore. Since then I have considered dropping the matter. However, having thought about this incident I have decided to complain. I just want to make sure of my facts first so here goes...

1) I am unaware of any limits to size on these moorings.

2) If I had ventured into the middle of the field of bouys my manouverability was reduced and I could have risked hitting other smaller boats that were moored up there.

In any case simply ignoring the fact my boat was there and continuing to make his normal approach was not the conduct of a professional seaman. Any views?

 

[miket]

Sounds reasonable to me.
Start with the PLA.
Then possibly RYA Cruising, if you belong to RYA?

 

[Deleted User YDKXO]

How charming these professional boatmen are! I take it you were just moored on one of the waiting buoys outside St Kats which I seem to remember are very substantial and, judging by the size of many of the boats inside St Kats probably well able of taking a boat much larger than 40'. I would say a stiff letter to the PLA making grave references to danger of loss of life (they're still paranoid about another Marchioness tragedy) should do the trick. The trouble with professional seamen is some of them think they have exclusive rights to the patch of water on which they operate and sometimes they need to be disabused of this notion.
Apparently, the skippers of the Woolwich ferries take great delight in reporting all motor boats to the river police for excessive wash whatever speed they're doing so maybe this attitude is endemic on the Thames

 

[oldgit]

Complain direct to office of company concerned with name of vessel.
Skipper of boat will take no notice of anybody else.

O my Gawd its still going ahead......

 

[trev]

Please do not confuse 'Rivermen/Lightermen' with professional seafarers. The majority of them are excellent fellows but far too many of them think they own the bloody river and no-one else has any right of passage!!

Trev

 

[tcm]

Re: Attention Boatone!

I think is a very serious issue indeed.

Firstly, you have used "who" in the nominative case, rather than in the accusative or dative. So it should be "whom", not "who".

Secondly, it is poor grammar to end a sentence with a preposition. So it would be a further improvement to write "At whom do I moan?"

Thirdly, the verb "moan" would more correctly use the preposition "to" when in the active sense. The preposition "at" would more normally precede the subject matter. In the passive sense, one could use "at", as in "the cow moaned at me" but this confuses the object of the moan, and the reason for the moan. One could consider improving the clarity by using examples: "He moaned AT the lack of moorings" and (even better) "He moaned TO the marina manager AT the lack of moorings". So, it would be better still to have written "To whom do I moan?"

Finally, one might consider using an alternative to the verb "to moan", which is best left without an object, and frequently (but in slang form) used in place of the more direct and clear verb "to complain". The meaning of the sentence "The waiter brought a large helping of sausages and my wife complained" is quite unambiguous. By contrast, in the sentence "the waiter brought a large helping of sausages and my wife moaned" it is unclear whether your wife did not like the sausages, or was actually aroused by the sight of them.

So, best of all, the original text should be replaced with "To whom do I complain?"

Hope this helps

 

[wakeup]

Re: Attention Boatone!

This would get you a thick lip where I'm from!

Just as well I've moved!!!!

yada yada..

 

[ccscott49]

Re: Attention Boatone!

Shouldn't that be the "cow moooed at me"?

 

[wakeup]

Re: Attention Boatone!

Is 'moooed' a real word and spelt correctly surely 'mooed' would be the proper spelling if at all correct?

yada yada..

 

[tcm]

Re: Attention Boatone!

ah indeed - further demonstartion of the ambiguity of the verb "to moan". Did the sentence mean "the cow mooed at me" (as you suggest) or would the context be perhaps "I went for a walk in the field with my wife and the cow moaned at me". See? "Complained" or "Mooed" would resolve the issue. And thank you for the very valuable contribution. I really think we're getting somewhere.

 

[ccscott49]

Re: Attention Boatone!

Could well be, but it was a long winded cow!

 

[ari]

Re: Attention Boatone!

What goes "Oooooooo"

A cow with no lips!

Is this what's known as thread drift? (What were we talking about again?)

 

[tcm]

Re: \"moo\" verbs

This is an intersting issue. Generally, it's best to avouid the past tense with verbs like Poo, Moo, Shoo. Otherwise you end up with awkward past participles such as "the baby poo'd (poohed?)" or "the cows mooed (or moo'd?)" and so on.

It's for this reason that, when writing your novel, I strongly recommend that you avoid countryside settings. If this is unavoidable, describe the cows as "strangely absent". Otherwise you end up with something like

"At last, closing in on his prey, Darrant moved swiftly yet cautiously across the field of grazing cattle. One of the mooed at him, and another one poo'd. He shoohed them away. But he knew that the readers were giggling...."

 

[wakeup]

More thread drift - Boat hire in SoF

TCM,

I am gonna be in SoF during the first 2 weeks of September.

Whilst there SWMBO and I would like to charter a boat for the day. We both have ICCs for what they are worth. Can you receommend a company that could offer a decent sized single engine boat for hire for the day and any idea of what it would cost, by the way we're gonna be based in Cannes.

Or would you do a deal for a day out on Dianna 2.

Any info would be helpful.

Cheers



yada yada..

 

[martin]

Re: "moo" verbs

so er.....I should moo at any cows passing by and not confuse them with professional seamen...

right... got that!

 

[tcm]

Re: More thread drift - Boat hire in SoF

A very logical development of the conversation.

I can't recommend them as I haven't used them. But a compnay called "Winner" is in la napoule, near cannes is on 04 93 49 74 04, and they speak English. There'l be loads of others, and it shouid lbe a load cheaper in sept than in august.

 

[ccscott49]

Re: \"moo\" verbs

Whatever you do don't "moon" at them!

 

[boatone]

Re: \"moo\" verbs

I supoese we should be grateful that one has not confused a load of bull with professional semen ;-)

<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.arweb.co.uk/argallery/mobochat> My P32 and Boaters Picture Gallery</A>

 

[ccscott49]

Re: Semen?? NM

.

 

[boatone]

Re: Semen?? NM

You see .....! My point entirely re 'grammer' ......how the absence of a single letter can completely transform meaning and understanding.........
However, there was a tenuous link between 'semen', 'moo-verbs' and 'old bull' but it may have been a little too early in the morning for you ?

<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.boatsontheweb.com> My P32 and Boaters Picture Gallery</A>