Yachty snobs?

[maby]

Mr Sealine may be looking across, thinking, look at that lucky bu&&er, thats costing him diddly squat, this is costing me 10 quid a minute in fuel! (fuel consumption purely fictional as I have no idea how much it costs to run a mobo at 20 kts, I just know its a lot!)

Then Mr. Sealine should go back to school and learn to trim a pair of sails! The yacht will not cost him any more than his enormous gas guzzler...

I'm not sure about a Sealine, but I do remember reading that the QE2 did about ten feet per gallon! Ouch!

 

[Victoria Sponge]

I sail on the East Coast. We don't have snobs here we just have people who like being on the water.

 

[Gwylan]

Interesting thought.

I love sailing most of the time.
The motive power is relatively free and you are only constrained by the direction of the wind and tide. You can chose to ignore these if you wish, it will just take a lot longer to get wherever you were trying to go.

As I wallow in the wash of some passing gin palace or ponced up Ford Transit of the sea I do despair and wonder if they ever look at the mayhem they leave in their wake.

Then I console myself with some thoughts -

we certainly spend more on wine & gin than diesel in a season
we never have to choose our destination with a thought to the price of diesel
we do not need to find a restaurant with a sea view - we anchor up and we're right there
we are not totally reliant on various bits of engineering hardware strung together to consume lots of diesel and defy my attempts to fix them
the arriving is much more interesting than the speed of the journey - except on Southeastern Rail
washing and polishing are something we do once a year and not every time we tie up somewhere
we manage indefinitely without the umbilical cord that delivers electricity, fresh water, broadband and multi channel TV.
there will be a special place in Hell for PWC and rib tear-aways.

 

[maby]

Interesting thought.

...
we manage indefinitely without the umbilical cord that delivers electricity, fresh water, broadband and multi channel TV.
there will be a special place in Hell for PWC and rib tear-aways.

Hmmm, 'fraid I need them even though we use the wind for motive power - sorry, I'm too old and soft to rough it out on anchor!

 

[Searush]

(snip)
Then of course there are the blue flag yotties in expensive boats which never stray far.......

Hmm, I have a warrant for a blue ensign & I seldom go far these days especially with the family aboard & my boat cost me almost everything I had some years ago but is now 38 years old & long since paid for.

You lot are simply exposing your own pedjudices with these posts. Give us a break please. Phill was taking the P why so many dive in to expose themselves I don't know.

 

[Poignard]

You lot are simply exposing your own pedjudices with these posts.

I think 'insecurities' would be more accurate.

(So would 'prejudices', come to that. )

 

[boaterbaz]

Someone more famous than I once said "I dont want to belong to any club that would have me as a member. Just asking the slobbery question answers the question.

 

[AdeOlly]

Mr Sealine may be looking across, thinking, look at that lucky bu&&er, thats costing him diddly squat, this is costing me 10 quid a minute in fuel! (fuel consumption purely fictional as I have no idea how much it costs to run a mobo at 20 kts, I just know its a lot!)

My mobo, a 31' Hardy not a Sealine, costs me about 80 pence per minute at 22 knots, but a lot lot less at six knots. Sometimes I do look across (and wave) thinking lucky bu&&er that's costing him diddly squat... Other times when the wind is too strong, too weak or wrong direction, I don't. (but will still wave )

My previous boat was a 24' Sealine, at today's diesel prices that cost me about 40 pence per minute at 22 knots.

 

[maby]

My mobo, a 31' Hardy not a Sealine, costs me about 80 pence per minute at 22 knots, but a lot lot less at six knots. Sometimes I do look across (and wave) thinking lucky bu&&er that's costing him diddly squat... Other times when the wind is too strong, too weak or wrong direction, I don't. (but will still wave )

My previous boat was a 24' Sealine, at today's diesel prices that cost me about 40 pence per minute at 22 knots.

I think you need to install a mast!

 

[JomsViking]

Minutes

My mobo, a 31' Hardy not a Sealine, costs me about 80 pence per minute at 22 knots, but a lot lot less at six knots. Sometimes I do look across (and wave) thinking lucky bu&&er that's costing him diddly squat... Other times when the wind is too strong, too weak or wrong direction, I don't. (but will still wave )

My previous boat was a 24' Sealine, at today's diesel prices that cost me about 40 pence per minute at 22 knots.

In 71 minutes You'd have used the same amount of fuel that we've used in a season (including heating)... I feel like a snob now

 

[Poignard]

Running with the hare and the hounds?

I think you need to install a mast!

Last Friday, in the Solent, I saw a planing power boat coming towards us at high speed and, as it approached, I ws astonished to see that it had a mast and sails. I think it was named 'Vega'. I have never seen anything like it before.

Of course, a boat like that creates great difficulties for a raggie like me. Tradition demands that I scream abuse and shake my fist at it, (as one would do to any run-of-the-mill motorboat) but the presence of mast and sails meant that here was a fellow raggie, (with whom the usual courtesies must be observed).

In the end, and after examining this strange craft and its lady helmsperson through my binoculars, I decided to wave. And my wave was graciously returned.

 

[maby]

Last Friday, in the Solent, I saw a planing power boat coming towards us at high speed and, as it approached, I ws astonished to see that it had a mast and sails. I think it was named 'Vega'. I have never seen anything like it before.

Of course, a boat like that creates great difficulties for a raggie like me. Tradition demands that I scream abuse and shake my fist at it, (as one would do to any run-of-the-mill motorboat) but the presence of mast and sails meant that here was a fellow raggie, (with whom the usual courtesies must be observed).

In the end, and after examining this strange craft and its lady helmsperson through my binoculars, I decided to wave. And my wave was graciously returned.

McGregors and Legend Edges can shift it under power provided you don't mind the fuel consumption. I've seen someone waterskiing behind a Legend 27 Edge!

 

[maby]

In 71 minutes You'd have used the same amount of fuel that we've used in a season (including heating)... I feel like a snob now

In 71 minutes he would probably have gone as far as you have in a season!

 

[Phoenix of Hamble]

In 71 minutes he would probably have gone as far as you have in a season!

 

[JomsViking]

Or not

In 71 minutes he would probably have gone as far as you have in a season!

Doing 22 knots for 55 hours would mean he had, just - (Not counting the miles made in other boats). He wouldn't have had the pleasure of watching porpoises looking at us wondering why we were moving so slowly, though

But a very good point

 

[Searush]

I think 'insecurities' would be more accurate.

(So would 'prejudices', come to that. )

Sorry, it would seem that I have a sticky "r's".



OOoo, err, is that too much info?

 

[john_morris_uk]

Size and snobbish (or to use an old fashioned term 'boorish') behaviour do not necessarily correlate.

Years ago we were between boats except for an home built wooden Optimist dinghy. We were wondering whether to buy a larger boat or a trailer sailor and had looked at Cornish Shrimpers. One day we took the children to Rock (actually it was the beach opposite but I don't recall the name of the place) and I took our daughter sailing. The local Shrimper fleet were getting under way for an evening race and as I sailed round one (I was lying athwartships with toddler daughter enjoying the trip) in the Oppy I said hello to the elderly gentleman getting his boat ready on his mooring and mentioned we were looking at Shrimpers ourselves.

"Huh," he sniffed, "I suppose a cat can look at a queen". The problem was that this was said without any humour or irony - but with a complete disdain for this tiny dinghy sailing past.

Ignorant idiot snob, was my silent thought...

Conversely when locking in to a N Brittany town marina in our SCOD we also experienced the height of arrogant rudeness from a large (getting on for twice our size) AWB who clearly thought that cruising with a family of 4 on a 26 foot boat was beneath contempt - and would I mind keeping our boat well clear of his topsides? Considering our SCOD topsides were mistaken for GRP sometimes, and we had lots of fenders out both sides, we were not impressed...

Despite the occasional incident, the huge majority of people we meet sailing or 'boating with engines' are charming, polite, and a pleasure to meet.

 

[mcframe]

Would you yacht owners say that the more money you have, the bigger more modern boat you own and the bigger snob you are ? Do you snub your nose at mere Moboers because, in your view, they are not as capable as you?

Nope - the bigger more modern boat you own, the more money you *had*, and the less you have now.

The smaller more older boat you own, the less money you *had*, and, err, the even less you have now.

I quite like Mobos 'tho, and might spend, say, half the p/a cost of mooring a bigger-than-mine-yacht on a mobo charter once every decade.

q.v. the sums that suggest the "savings" on a <30 footer on a drying mooring in the UK can pay for a >30-foot med charter every other year. ;-)

 

[maxcampbell]

I do have to hold back my snobbery when (as quite often) I'm on a canal and see a narrowboat. They're not really boats, are they?

I think I've allowed it (the snobbery) to surface as far as it has, because despite driving these awful things, they do look down on me, and not only literally, when I'm in my electric canoe. Narrow boats, narrow minds, I tut to myself.

 

[Elessar]

Size and snobbish (or to use an old fashioned term 'boorish') behaviour do not necessarily correlate.

OK serious question for you in particular John, but I'm sure others will contribute.

On this thread, reasonable people have said things like "you just push the throttle and sit there" on a mobo, whilst some mobos have been known complain about raggies tacking.

8o% + of safely taking a boat out is the same, power or sail. Raggies could soon learn how to trim the tabs, legs and throttles, to navigate at higher speed and drive on the throttles in rougher weather - we can leave out the big waves when you have to tack a mobo. Mobos could soon learn how to get the sails up in some semblance of order - it's not hard after all 6 year olds do it in dinghys. Again we leave out racing and very heavy weather stuff. Both could get to learn the very different handing characteristics and thus challenges facing their fellow boaters at close quarters.

where am I going with this.......

The Yachtmaster exam is supposed to show a high degree of seamanship. I think that to get one for sail you should have to be able to demonstrate handling of a mobo to helmsman level and to get the mobo one you should be able to sail to a similar degree.

The removal of the ignorance (meant literally not nastily) would help us all get on better I think.

So as an examiner, what do you think?