Why are motorboaters generally nicer than people who sail?
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oldgit
Well-known member
For many moboers,usually the more ancient ones,the simple pleasure of tootling along around tickover,watching the world go by and finding a benevolent tide to assist us ,is the whole point of a day out.
For us the noise and wash of the "Must get there and back" brigade is also an inexplicable expensive mystery.
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Firefly625
Well-known member
...not just the ancient ones...I agree with you 100% and I'm very young! (honest)
henryf
Well-known member
I'm not sure I entirely agree with you.
When travelling at 25 knots considerable concentration is required if one is to avoid collision with other vessels, the seabed, the various marks and upsetting fellow users of the water.
It is when pottering around at slow displacement speed, trying to eek out the last morcel of assisance from the elements that one's guard can be dropped. Navigation reference points come slow and steady, there is ample time for decision making and even scope for putting the kettle on so one might enjoy the heady combination of a scalding hot cup of tea and wake from some long departed vessel.
Motorboats, by design, tend to offer more scope for socialising, sailing yachts are, metre for metre, that bit more cramped.
I have a foot in all camps. I have enjoyed dinghy sailing, I potter around at displacement speeds and I'm also familiar with speeds north of 30 knots.
I wouldn't want or expect people to keep a respectful distance from me. Come and say hello.
Henry
Nigelpickin
Active member
Yeah right, apart from when they're tacking across the channel when they should be under power...or that last bit when they just broadly aim the bow at the pontoon and use my boat as a break
andy59
Well-known member
use my boat as a break
very clever bit of misspelling there Nige
very clever bit of misspelling there Nige
oGaryo
Active member
Why are motorboaters generally nicer than people who sail?
and there you have it
and there you have it
l'escargot
New member
Apart from local instructions such as Pompey small boat channel, when else should they be under power?
Greenheart
Well-known member
Why are motorboaters generally nicer than people who sail?
(DAN's QUOTE: ) Just keep a respectful distance
(HENRY F's QUOTE: ) Come and say hello
...and there you have it
I doubt it's fair to say ALL sailing men want to be left in peace like I do - and I'm equally sure (from comments in this thread) that some motor-boaters prefer to be left alone...
But I reckon we're a bit like cats and dogs...dogs share lots of motor-boaters' tastes - noisy and boisterous and inclined to be seriously unhappy when left alone somewhere quiet...
...whilst sailing men are more feline...(stay with me, here)...we're happy to have adventures, but don't really welcome other boaters dashing up to sniff our bums & ask who we are.
It comes back to what I said earlier - under sail, the process of using the elements to move a boat is deeply engrossing and rewarding, and need not be shared while we're doing it...
...but being on a motorboat seems mainly just to allow rapid progress, very possibly towards rendezvous with other likeminded folk. And that's fine, if it's what you want, but seeking togetherness is not at the heart of why sailing men do what we do. We tend to wait to discuss stuff, at bars or on these fora. When we're sailing, we're too busy.
rubberduck
Well-known member
Most Rag & sticks are nice enough on the east coast. Only met one so far with a problem, used to amuse myself by talking to him & being pleasent when he was doing his best to ignore us.
henryf
Well-known member
I doubt it's fair to say ALL sailing men want to be left in peace like I do - and I'm equally sure (from comments in this thread) that some motor-boaters prefer to be left alone...
But I reckon we're a bit like cats and dogs...dogs share lots of motor-boaters' tastes - noisy and boisterous and inclined to be seriously unhappy when left alone somewhere quiet...
...whilst sailing men are more feline...(stay with me, here)...we're happy to have adventures, but don't really welcome other boaters dashing up to sniff our bums & ask who we are.
It comes back to what I said earlier - under sail, the process of using the elements to move a boat is deeply engrossing and rewarding, and need not be shared while we're doing it...
...but being on a motorboat seems mainly just to allow rapid progress, very possibly towards rendezvous with other likeminded folk. And that's fine, if it's what you want, but seeking togetherness is not at the heart of why sailing men do what we do. We tend to wait to discuss stuff, at bars or on these fora. When we're sailing, we're too busy.
I'm still not convinced.
We are quite happy to cruise around as a family and don't have to have pre-arranged people to meet at the other end. That said I can recall countless occasions when chance meetings have turned into great evenings over something to eat. Yachtists only eat spam of course which limits their options
In the Solent many sailing boats seem to need a hefty crew to keep the thing moving, particularly when racing which happens a lot. One hardly thinks of Cowes week as a quiet occasion with people keeping themselves to themselves.
Do I speak to sailors when on my boat? Yes, of course I do and there are several who frequent this very forum with whom we have shared merriment. We haven't forced them, they join in of their own accord.
As boats grow in size there is an assumption that they become "off limits" to approach and say hello to the occupants, that works for both motor and sail. I actually feel a bit sorry for the owners sometimes as they must feel. Bit left out.
One of the things I would say is many motor boat owners are lacking in spare time and that's why they own motor rather than sail and travel at speeds higher than 7 knots. They make use of 2 days on the boat rather than needing 3 or 4 days plus to go anywhere. When longer periods are available speeds can drop and cruising grounds extend.
Ultimately motor boating is more expensive and so that will have a bearing. Yes, incredibly posh people probably end up in a big yacht rather than a motor boat because there is a somewhat "vulgar" image to motor boats but the reality is any display of wealth can be seen this way. A large house in the Home Counties, cars, clothes, fancy restaurants, jewlery and so on.
There are exceptions on all sides, you meet weirdos, lovely people, ignorant, arrogant, intelligent and the odd village idiot. Some people surprise you for the right reasons, some for the wrong. Some are masters of their craft, others run into you whilst you're enjoying a Sunday morning lie in - and it did happen to be a sailing boat the other Sunday in East Cowes
but I've seen a few motor boat disasters as well.Henry
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paultallett
Active member
We all know there's a difference, just as glider pilots are different to power pilots.
Nobody is better and nobody is worse...... But there is a difference.
As has been said a million times, you can be an afse hole no matter what type of boat you own, likewise you can be lovely. Life's too short, I've been ignored by both types of boater, just as I have had a giggle with both types.
I guess at least it makes a change from the normal 'too much wash' thread
Nobody is better and nobody is worse...... But there is a difference.
As has been said a million times, you can be an afse hole no matter what type of boat you own, likewise you can be lovely. Life's too short, I've been ignored by both types of boater, just as I have had a giggle with both types.
I guess at least it makes a change from the normal 'too much wash' thread
scubaman
Well-known member
In Madeira I once observed a very nice 60-something foot sailboat come into the marina after an obviously long open sea crossing. Even looking from the pier, I felt the achievement that was so apparent from the faces of the crew. I struck me there and then why, and I'm speaking with the same light hearted terms as the OP, there will always be that glitch. Crossing an open sea in a sail boat is just so much more demanding that the point and go, as Sneds aptly put it, moboers just appear amateurs.
But let's face it and hand on the heart, who here does not have at least a hint of a similar attitude towards people with caravans? Maybe not enough to end an conversation upon finding out, but what happens in those situations is down to the size of the individual's soul.
Of yes, joining MapisM in the search for cover...
But let's face it and hand on the heart, who here does not have at least a hint of a similar attitude towards people with caravans
? Maybe not enough to end an conversation upon finding out, but what happens in those situations is down to the size of the individual's soul.Of yes, joining MapisM in the search for cover...
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clyst
Well-known member
Noticed in marinas, during my sailboat tidal dayskipper practical and elsewhere that generally people who motorboat are nicer than people who sail, why is that? Many people who sail seem to have a stick up their *** like we say in Swedish?
Any thoughts on this fascinating subject?
TW@T
Designo
New member
In Madeira I once observed a very nice 60-something foot sailboat come into the marina after an obviously long open sea crossing. Even looking from the pier, I felt the achievement that was so apparent from the faces of the crew. I struck me there and then why, and I'm speaking with the same light hearted terms as the OP, there will always be that glitch. Crossing an open sea in a sail boat is just so much more demanding that the point and go, as Sneds aptly put it, moboers just appear amateurs.
But let's face it and hand on the heart, who here does not have at least a hint of a similar attitude towards people with caravans
Of yes, joining MapisM in the search for cover...
I once arrived to Madeira in a very nice 60+ foot sailboat (made in Finland
), coming from Gran Canaria, and I felt it was an achievement. But I felt even better winning an Offshore Powerboat Race with 73 knots average speed. But the OP is probably just experiencing the normal "we and them" attitude, like in sports teams. Maybe when it is expensive toys involved it can be the bigger is better attitude as well, but as a "multi-boater" I have never seen any real difference between sail- and powerboaters.
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rustybarge
Active member
In Madeira I once observed a very nice 60-something foot sailboat come into the marina after an obviously long open sea crossing. Even looking from the pier, I felt the achievement that was so apparent from the faces of the crew. I struck me there and then why, and I'm speaking with the same light hearted terms as the OP, there will always be that glitch. Crossing an open sea in a sail boat is just so much more demanding that the point and go, as Sneds aptly put it, moboers just appear amateurs.
But let's face it and hand on the heart, who here does not have at least a hint of a similar attitude towards people with caravans
Of yes, joining MapisM in the search for cover...
It's always struck me that marinas are just floating caravan parks, but with posher more up market floating caravans.
I once met a man who owner several caravan parks, and he took me on a guided tour; I have to say the parks were superior in every way to the average marina, especially the spacing between the caravans.
Visit even the most upmarket marina in the S of France, and you can pi55 from the your Superyacht onto the deck of your neighbour no problem; and many do.
oldgit
Well-known member
Am thinking of buying a jetski....
Nigelpickin
Active member
Searush
New member
I think it's more of a social thing, just like golfers. New members of the golf club aren't there a wet day before they are taking on the affectations of the social melee; committees, speeches, dress codes etc etc...
Same for saily people, they are all club members, blazer wearing commodores on the committee boat blaa blaa blaa....
Most mobo owners are just ordinary people having fun on their boats, and not members of snooty clubs.
That says so much about you & your perceptions rather than real raggies.
Greenheart
Well-known member
Searush is quite right, that was an astonishingly blinkered statement by rustybarge.
Was it meant to be funny? I mean, ironic? Very hard to take seriously because it ignores so much reality. :suspicion: