Three Times Unlucky...

[MarkJ]

Originally Posted by Don Lucas

Seems in the orginal posts the problems are boating event and are non sailing events. .

I reckon Don is spot on. In all 3 occurences the boats were acting as motor boats ie not actually sailing. They did stupid things. Their ain no law against stupid people buying sailing boats (or power boats).

Next year you will probably have 3 stupid power boaters trying to sink you!


Mark

[Mariness]

You may be getting a "little knowledge is a dangerous thing" problem too. One thing I've noticed around here, is that a fair number of sailboaters believe that Rules of the Road give them the right of way all the time, no matter where, when, what situation. And they act like it! I'm sure they read somewhere about vessels under sail having ROW over powered ones, and then stopped reading and made the leap to "Sailboats - Always - Everywhere".
It gets almost comic when your radio heats up with some 21' sailboat (sometimes actually sailing, but not always) trying to shout a cruise-liner out of the main ship channel because he thinks he's in the right by virtue of owning a mast.

[Blue Stocking]

Bill,

Just because we have a stick in the boat doesn't mean that we're not in the incompetent pool, although we would never admit it. :

[Bill Lee]

Thanks for the posts/replies. I read an article in Pacific Yachting magazine a few years back about a freighter pilot working out of Vancouver Harbour. It was extremely well written and entertaining. The 2 relevant points were that non-commercial boats don't always realize that freighters are not only restrcited in mobility by their size and weight but by their draft. What may appear to be wide open water to non-commercial boaters may be very limited to freighters because of their draft. The other point (and here I get to stick it to the stick boats no offence ) the boats that gave freighters the most problems were inevitably (can you hear the drum roll.....) sailboats! They just won't get out of the way - even if its a commercial shipping lane. One example he gave was really not the sail boater's fault - the captain of the sailboat was too busy copulating in the cockpit to realize he was in the way.....

[Minggat]

Originally Posted by Blue Stocking

Bill,

Just because we have a stick in the boat doesn't mean that we're not in the incompetent pool, although we would never admit it. :

Barboat charter skipper radios in to ask "Where is the third anchor?"
Charter co. "What? Why do you need a third anchor?"
Skipper, "well,.... this is our third night"

Sometimes the free entertainment is priceless.

[Bill Lee]

LOL
My wife just reminded me of a power boat that anchored in the middle of the channel to the guest dock at Roche Harbor - I gotta name names becuase the boat's name was that good: "Kiss My Aft".

[David M]

In all my years on the the water, amateurs on sailboats don't seem any better than amateurs on powerboats. Its not the type of boat, its the skipper that matters.

[Eleven]

Apologies to all power-boaters. It's particularly hard to berth a single screw cat. The wind controls the bows, there are no thrusters, and turning circles are huge.
However we do get annoyed with big power boats using us a turning points in their random charging around looking for wakes to bounce over.
And some half the sail boats here seem to motor everywhere, regardless of wind strength.
I guess it's not really understood that to change course when sailing means at least re-trimming the sails, settling to new heading, fine trimming again, assessing next tacking point etc etc. It does make us a little reluctant to change course for someone who's not having to try very hard to get to their destination in a quarter of the time it's going to take us and can swoop and swerve just for the hell of it on the way.
My pet hate is the rowers, they themselves deserve room and respect for not burning fossil fuels, leaving no wake, staying healthy - it's the damn blimp with a megaphone that believes the whole world needs to know how good a coach he is. What's wrong with radio headphones?

[Bill Lee]

I thought about David's post for a few days before replying. My first thought is that he's right - its the skipper - not the type of boat. But most if us would agree that it takes a particular type of person to have a sail boat or a power boat (yes, people change, as does their needs, so the boat can change). Owning a power boat I KNOW that a sailboat under sail has the right of way over me. I suspect that a sail boat owner KNOWS he's got the right of way over me (at least under sail) over a power boat. Even though sailboats use their engine 80% of the time in the PNW I feel their disdain for power boats (of course not all owners think like this or behave like this). Perhaps it is the type of boat that leads to this attitude (in some people) and the attitude carries over in other aspects of operating a sailboat.

[Bash]

lets not oversimplify the rules of the road. If a sailboat under sail is overtaking a power boat, the sailboat must keep clear.

(i suppose one could also argue that when the skipper is copulating in the cockpit, the vessel is not under command. either that or we'll have to redefine the parameters of keeping a proper watch. )

[sneuman]

Here's an interesting statistic quoted at a Safety at Sea seminar a few months ago: of the appx. 700 boating-related fatalities in the U.S. last year, fewer than 20 occurred on sailboats. Go figure.

[Livia]

Having lived at Port of Sidney for a while I will say that sooo many people there (powerboat or sailboat) leave their boat sitting all year and go out once or twice. Based on the size (under) and sparkling shiny-ness of their anchors I would say that they don't anchor that much either.

I imagine that is true of a lot of marinas but still I would imagine that the anchoring skills of people heading out of Sidney to Sidney Spit have to be some of the least polished around the islands. We prefer to anchor but when we've gone, we've taken a buoy at the Spit because it enforces some distance between boats and puts us between a bunch of moored newbies rather than anchored newbies.

[hellosailor]

"700 boating-related fatalities in the U.S. last year, fewer than 20 occurred on sailboats"
Could mean there are 35x more motorboats than sailboats in the US (or 35x more motor-boating-hours than sb-hours) and the number of Darwinners is the same on both. Or, the slower speed of a sailboat favors the slower reaction times of a drunk?

[Bill Lee]

A fatality is a serious statistic. I wonder how many fatalities are caused by small power boats (say 18') on lakes with drunk operators (I won't dignify such people with the label "skipper" or "captain"). I suspect most of the fatalities are linked to smallish power boats - and yes these operators are idiots. But that strays from the original post. I googled "boat crashes" on youtube.com. There's some amazing footage (of both sail and power boats). One was filmed from a very large yacht (at least 100') with a 60' (or larger) power boat coming toward it from the starboard side. It appears to be open water. Neither boat takes evasive manouvres. Its quite the crash. In another video, a beautful sailboat (30'+) turns into and under the bow of either a cruise ship or large ferry. Stupid. There are bound to be stupid examples with all types of vessels. My complaint stemmed from my anecdotal observation that sailboats seem to think they always have the right of way. We know they don't always have the right of way. So, is my experience the result of being unlucky or is there some substance to this observation?
Cheers,
Bill (unlucky - or statistically affected....?)

[daysailc]

Personally I think BASH has hit it on the head ! As a Captain of "RACING" sail boats of various sizes and speeds...as well as large M/y's...sailing vessels may come closer than expected while maneuvering it is usually due to the fact they draw much more water and are avoiding a rock or shallow spot in that area and for the most part are in control of the situation even though it may look close..we like to say.."LOTS OF ROOM".

As far as anchoring goes he also hit a good point that a lot of them are charters and have no clue! Others just have no CLUE! I have seen the same with power boats also. Try flying a kite off your power boat..that just may keep them at bay because they don't want to get it caught in their rig !
Either way I also would like to apologize for the sailing community and the bad situations you have come across..we are not ALL that bad !

Good motoring to you and enjoy !