Why is it 99.9% of the time Motor Boats

[ireaney]

Click the link, the pics run a bit fast but it seems to be a motor boat thing!!

YouTube - Greatest Boat Crashes - boating, yachting, shipping, sailing

[Pblais]

Just more of them I suppose. Many require a fair amount of speed to get the results too. I did see 2 sail boats. As a percentage probably close.

[ireaney]

Hi Paul, Basically I think the reason is that anybody who fancies boating can buy a motor boat, put it on the water, start the engine, grab hold of the wheel and drive it like a car - so they think.
Whereas with sailing there is a vast amount more to do and which way do you point it??? as it wont always go where you want it to go.
Don't get me wrong, I am not having a pop at motor boat owners as there are a lot of good sensible ones and I suppose as we all get older and still want to be on the water but find the sailing a little harder work or we are unable to manage it, then the motor boat is the answer - luckily and hopefully I am a long way before I get to that stage.

[C.Hill]

i made the mistake of clicking on the "Terrific Boat Crash Accident" in the related videos sidebar. wow. that was quite the mistake by the captain of the yacht there. Even more depressing than that was reading some of the comments on it. I have never seen so many anti-sailing people congregated together, laughing at what appears to be a very tragic situation for all aboard the small vessel.

and on that depressing note,

Hello all, long time lurker, first time poster!

[David M]

Greater speed is probably the most obvious answer. I have also seen sailboaters do plenty of stupid things on the water..they just don't do it as fast.

It's also a fact that sailboats are generally pretty much just for pleasure and many power vessels are for commerce. Perhaps 1/4 to 1/3 of those vessels were commercial. Commercial boats simply have much more time underway since they don't sit at the dock all week and maybe once a month get underway on the weekend.

It's implied here that sailboaters know more than motorboaters. Not in the commercial world with people who do this for a living.

If one wants to compare a sailing yachtie to a motorboat yachtie...then sure, the sailor probably knows a bit more...they have to. As far as doing dumb things though...it's about a tie from what I have seen from a commercial guys perspective.

When I hear five blasts it is invariably a sailboat about to get run over by a ship where the ship has rights. The examples are endless.

[shellback]

David,

Well said! I could have not said it better!

sailboaters do plenty of stupid things, they just don't do it as fast....epic sentence! I love it and amusingly, soo true!

thanks for the honesty, you pegged it perfectly!

Mark
s/v Booty Call
1976 Oday 27
Green Bay, WI

Originally Posted by David M

Greater speed is probably the most obvious answer. I have also seen sailboaters do plenty of stupid things on the water..they just don't do it as fast.

It's also a fact that sailboats are generally pretty much just for pleasure and many power vessels are for commerce. Perhaps 1/4 to 1/3 of those vessels were commercial. Commercial boats simply have much more time underway since they don't sit at the dock all week and maybe once a month get underway on the weekend.

It's implied here that sailboaters know more than motorboaters. Not in the commercial world with people who do this for a living.

If one wants to compare a sailing yachtie to a motorboat yachtie...then sure, the sailor probably knows a bit more...they have to. As far as doing dumb things though...it's about a tie from what I have seen from a commercial guys perspective.

When I hear five blasts it is invariably a sailboat about to get run over by a ship where the ship has rights. The examples are endless.