Wot is a Yottie?

[V1701]

A think of a "Yottie" as an over privileged pain in the a*se who thinks he owns the water and is better than everyone else...

 

[Tom Price]

Nah!

A think of a "Yottie" as an over privileged pain in the a*se who thinks he owns the water and is better than everyone else...

That's a MoBo.

 

[Coaster]

That's a MoBo.

I thought a MoBo was a boat (a Motor Boat), not a person?

This thread is quite illuminating. Just shows how disputes tend to arise if words don't have clear definitions.

It also shows what rubbish many modern words are, being pretty meaningless for many of us.

 

[Wansworth]

Yottie is in the same class as a crockle........summer visitor with knotted hankie on its head rolled up trousers sitting in a deck chair!

 

[Tom Price]

Correction

Yottie is in the same class as a crockle........summer visitor with knotted hankie on its head rolled up trousers sitting in a deck chair!

The word is GROCKLE, not crockle.

I was living and working in Brixham when Peter Draper, one of our pub crowd, coined the word and used it in the 1964 filmscript of Michael Winner's The System, a B/W film shot in Torbay starring Oliver Reed and Jane Merrow.

To elaborate:
"In The System we are privy to the point of view of Tinker and his colleagues as residents of the resort, complete with a hugely cynical assessment of the tourists that they prey on. At the beginning of the film Tinker educates a new member of his cabal by contemptuously referring to the tourists as ‘GROCKLES’ and defining them thus:

'The GROCKLE is closely related to the Troglodyte. The troglodytes lived in a natural cave, stoned their grandparents to death and came out three times a year for food. A GROCKLE puts his grandparents in an old folks’ home, lives in a pre-cast concrete cave and comes out once a year to make a religious pilgrimage to the sea from whence he came. There he ceremoniously rolls up his trousers and dips his feet into the water.'

 

[sighmoon]

I had no idea it was a derogatory term.

I always find it amusing at boat shows that the people who look like they can't afford a boat are generally the boat owners who a) have no spare money now because they own a boat and b) feel no need to prove a point. Meanwhile the ones who make the effort to look like they can afford a boat usually have no idea about sailing - but for some reason nobody seems to have explained this to the young temp staff hired to man the stalls who therefore seem to concentrate their effort on the people who look like they could buy a boat but probably won't. Or am I way off the mark on this?

Never had that experience. I turned up at SIBS dressed in worn out Tesco's clothes, and was still allowed on the Swan 100 without a prior appointment; trick is to avoid the weekends.

 

[wotayottie]

There's a fair bit of inverted snobbery / thinly disguised jealousy in some of the above responses.

 

[Woodlouse]

You're not a true yottie until you have strutted around a Hamble marina wearing Dubarries and Henri Lloyd shorts over thermals.

I could be viewed as a yottie by some, but I am reprieved somewhat by the fact that even though I have all the expensive designer gear, it is all grubby, worn and mismatched. Also underneath the fancy oilskins I'm more likely than not sporting rolled up trousers and a canvas smock.

 

[mcframe]

The derogative use of "Yottie" is (imho) the coastal equivalent of a "Sloane Ranger", everyone else is "just" a sailor.

I'm a sailor*,
You are a yottie,
He is a boater**.

'tis like:
My boat,
Your yacht,
His Gin Palace.

*Yo no soy marinero, Yo no soy marinero, Soy capitan, Soy capitan, Soy capitan :->
**Gawd, I hate that expression - more so now that the RYA have started using it.

 

[Boomshanka]

"Wot is a Yottie"... so what yacht has Wot got?

 

[DaveS]

I'm a sailor*,
You are a yottie,
He is a boater**.

'tis like:
My boat,
Your yacht,
His Gin Palace.

*Yo no soy marinero, Yo no soy marinero, Soy capitan, Soy capitan, Soy capitan :->
**Gawd, I hate that expression - more so now that the RYA have started using it.

Or...

I am a traveller, you are a tourist, he is a tripper.

I have firm views, you are biased, he is a bigot.

 

[Keen_Ed]

There's a fair bit of inverted snobbery / thinly disguised jealousy in some of the above responses.

Standard fare around here.

IMHO, inverse snobbery is just as bad as straight up snobbery.

 

[VO5]

I'm learning a lot. It seems I may have had the wrong ideas.

I thought a sailor or a sailorette are people who sail, not motor.

I thought a yottie was a poser who dresses up with the idea somehow of becoming contaminated or confused with real sailors and sailorettes, and also their percieved glamour of the yachting scene.

One sees lots of people meandering around wearing deck shoes, shorts, polo shirts and hats around town. Some of them haunt the marina cafes and restaurants and bars, but none of them get afloat.

I thought a boater was a hat.

 

[VO5]

As for the Mobo crowd ?

"Stinkpotters".

 

[Flying Penguin]

I thought a yottie was a poser who dresses up with the idea somehow of becoming contaminated or confused with real sailors and sailorettes, and also their percieved glamour of the yachting scene.

One sees lots of people meandering around wearing deck shoes, shorts, polo shirts and hats around town. Some of them haunt the marina cafes and restaurants and bars, but none of them get afloat.

That's pretty much what I thought, except I assumed they occasionally did some mild boating...

Maybe we're both barking up the wrong tree

Jamie

 

[VO5]

Boating...On the Head type or Wind in The Willows type ?

 

[Flying Penguin]

Boating...On the Head type or Wind in The Willows type ?

Either, perhaps even both at the same time

 

[Tidewaiter2]

From our observations, a Yottie

That's pretty much what I thought, except I assumed they occasionally did some mild boating...

Maybe we're both barking up the wrong tree

Jamie

(it's Vic S's fault)IMHO, the type of boat is immaterial;
'Yottie's' 'mild boating' is constrained by;
never when it's cloudy,raining, cold, more than a F3, only in July/August, daylight, and use of a paid passage crew if venturing outside the Solent, Salcombe, Dartmouth confines.

Also, constant need for ShorePower and Walkashore(Yarmouth, IoW now likely to be a Yottie Ground Zero). Always appear immaculate in top sailing kit and clean, POLISHED deck shoes.
Never, Ever, Cook on board.
They never offer to assist an exhausted shorthanded crew just in from a rough passage, trying to berth in a tight spot, in an off pontoon F5+.
They raft up to you, but never put any shore lines out, in case they get wet.

Oh, and have permanent 'No Raft/Mooring Alongside' notices, but never go out, loud, braying cockpit drinks late at night/quiet anchorages! Haw, Haw, giggle, shriek....etc...etc....

Then there's us riff-raff

 

[wot]

"Wot is a Yottie"... so what yacht has Wot got?

I've got a Caprice 19' actually. never knew that so many people were interested in me......

wot

 

[arriviste]

Elsewhere on the internet a "yottie" is described thus: "What is a Yottie? Aboard Britannia, the former Royal Yachtsman were affectionately known as Yottiesand each year Britannia hosts Yotties' Week where a number of the Yotties return!'. That definition is too narrow, and I reject the rather snobbish idea that a yottie is a boat owner who never goes to sea but just bobs in the marina.

I consider the current meaning of yottie to cover young sailors who hang around ports hoping to get a crewing contract (usually unpaid) on a yacht in order to upgrade their skills and extend their sea time.