Is There a Caste System in Sailing?

[Travelnik]

Originally Posted by sailorchic34

WOW you had air..

I was born in a vacuum....

We were air.

[tropicalescape]

Originally Posted by hanami2

Interesting question and it depends on how you see the world.
I do not think there are 'castes' as they existed in ancient India but there are different categories of people and consquently of boats.
To keep it short I would say you have the hip, expensive and 'exclusive-looking' places (eg:in the Carribeans, Monaco and a few other ...) where jet setters can be found, then you will have all the other ones.
You may get the 'caste feeling' if the look and cost (mainly cost and its consequences) of those places makes you 'feel' that you don't belong there and don't have the 'guts' to enter.
This would be most probably wrong as, as soon as you start talking to the marina's folks or the boat owners and the crews you are in the sailors' community and even if differences exist, castes are not really there.
Of course there places like Moustique where it will be close to impossible to go as they are private islands but there are not that many. It's a bit like an exclusive Golf Club but they don't have a 'No women, no dog' policy as far as I know.
Now, talking to a few of the people who rent those expensive boat (and her associated crew) for a day, a week or a month, you may well get a totally different feeling.
Of course you will find exceptions with absolutely unbearable people, but I believe it will be on an invidual basis ... and not that often.
Good luck;

I have never been to India but I have been to Bali and they have a funky caste system that seems to work like the one in India,there are Untouchables etc from what I was told..

[Travelnik]

Originally Posted by Jammer Six

We were so poor, when we threw a stick for the dog, he wouldn't bring them back.

We could not afford a dog. We had to use our tapeworms for pets.

[Jammer Six]

We didn't have a dog right after each Thanksgiving.

[Travelnik]

Originally Posted by Jammer Six

We didn't have a dog right after each Thanksgiving.

You could afford Thanksgiving?

If we wanted to have days, we had to scrape together the missing hours from the daylight savings time changes!

[Allio]

wow. Thread drift

[boatman61]

Originally Posted by Bluewaters2812

Lol, well I bet it is for the owner?

Hey Boatman, you're not set off across the pond from the US yet?

No... not yet.. join when the boats in NY... some time next week..

[Jammer Six]

We were so poor we broke grains of rice in half so everyone could have some.

[Travelnik]

We had to be the tapeworm inside of our own tapeworm if we wanted to eat anything.

The String Theory was invented after seeing us!

[Seaworthy Lass]

Originally Posted by Jammer Six

We were so poor we broke grains of rice in half so everyone could have some.

Luxury

[David_Old_Jersey]

We were so poor we had to share a Nanny.........

and only one house had a Butler.

[Zanshin]

Originally Posted by Allio

...the antigua sailing week recently, and the video exclusively showed the million dollar boats, abercrombie and fitch sporting clientele...

I was at the Antigua Sailing Week and apart from some who wore polo shirts just about everyone wore T-shirts even to the evening events. Of the sailing fleet only 20 or so were big and very expensive racing boats partially filled with professional crew, the majority were charter boats crewed by mere mortals. If you watched a commercial video then they will have concentrated on the biggest and slickest boats, since that is the image they are trying for when selling the footage to sports shows.

I only got to see the big racing boats during the races, as I was volunteering on one of the start/finish line boats and we worked the 'big boys', but even there most of the people aboard were just normal sailors having a fun for a week.

(I put together a slideshow of some of the photos I took at Antigua Sailing Week 2013 Slideshow - YouTube which perhaps that shows a bit different view of the regatta than the professional videos)

But it remains that in order to participate in the Regatta one still needs to get a week off work, then fly to Antigua, share in the charter boat price with the rest of the crew and then also find lodging. This isn't going to be cheap and thus it limits the participants.

Once on shore there is definately NO distinction between sailors from the bareboat fleet and those from megayachts - we all belly up to the bar and exchange tall tales about the day's events.

[flagorio]

Here is the secret to success in surviving the snoot ability of sailing that I learned while walking through a boat show. I was interested in particular expensive item but dressed like crap due to current boat projects. You know ratty shorts, flip-flops, holy T-shirt et cetera et cetera. I thought that the salesman would ignore me, but to my surprise immediately paid attention to me. always the student of human behavior, Afterwards I asked him why he was telling me all information I needed. He replied, You're a cruiser, you have maybe nine dollars worth of clothes on and a 10,000 watch. So If you want to be successful in sailing, boat shows, or dealing with brokers, wear a Rolex!!!!

[sailorboy1]

Originally Posted by flagorio

So If you want to be successful in sailing, boat shows, or dealing with brokers, wear a Rolex!!!!

So in short, yes there IS a caste system!

[gettinthere]

Catamaran owners! In our travels, a high percentage of them have been 'snooty'. Certainly not all, but a high percentage. It's in part the money, cats are expensive. But there is something else, perhaps a need to justify the decision to be 'different' within the mostly monohull world?