Bad, Bad Seamanship

[carstenb]

I'm appalled at an example of terrible seamanship I saw today - especially since it was the skipper of a whale-watching RIB with 18 passengers on board - A skipper doing this must have a professional qualification.


Here's the scenario:

Outside Lahaina, Maui there is a good sized mooring filed right along ´side the marked channel leading into the harbor.

We are in a 8 foot dinghy and have just turned out of the channel to get back to our boat. We are heading north.

Coming at us, heading south, is a 34 foot sailboat with his mainsail and gennaker up (this is also bad seamanship to come blasting through a mooring field carrying that much sail.) Coming from the west is the RIB, with 2 x 250Hp outboards. So the RIB has the sailboat coming from port and us coming from starboard.

The RIB is the give way vessel for both the other boats. Instead of giving way, the skipper decides to put the pedal to the metal and zip between us. The RIB makes it, but throws up a huge wake, drenching us in the dinghy.

So bad seamanship - the RIB should have given way and waited. We had changed course enough to pass the sailboat green on green.

The RIB action was also illegal. Hawaii law states very clearly that if passing an anchored or moored vessel within 200 feet - no wake is allowed. There were a couple of boats moored within 200 feet.

Bad, bad, bad. And why? To save 2 minutes or so?

I almost followed the RIB to ask which bubblegum machine the skipper had pulled his captains license from but decided against it - such people tend not to admit they might have done something wrong

[Knot Safety]

You will see people doing stupid stuff nearly every day on the water. Some chose to ignore it and recognize that not everyone is perfect. Others chose to complain about it. Life is too short to complain about every little thing. No harm, no foul. You got wet. In warm waters of Hawaii.

[billknny]

Originally Posted by Knot Safety

You will see people doing stupid stuff nearly every day on the water. Some chose to ignore it and recognize that not everyone is perfect. Others chose to complain about it. Life is too short to complain about every little thing. No harm, no foul. You got wet. In warm waters of Hawaii.

^^^^^^

98% of everybody we encounter on the water is courteous and doing the best they know how.

Rather than sweat the rare idiots, here is a challenge for you:

We all know exactly how to visually express our displeasure with another boat if they go by too close, or go by too fast. The hand gesture is clear and unambiguous.

What we REALLY need is an equally clear and unambiguous gesture that means "I'm sorry! My bad!" The Japanese have it: a very deep and long bow. I am not aware of anything similar in any western culture.

Anybody?

[JPA Cate]

Originally Posted by Knot Safety

You will see people doing stupid stuff nearly every day on the water. Some chose to ignore it and recognize that not everyone is perfect. Others chose to complain about it. Life is too short to complain about every little thing. No harm, no foul. You got wet. In warm waters of Hawaii.

It's true one shouldn't let every little event bother you. However....

People in dinghies are run down every day of the year. I've had the experience of getting soaked. When you've just used some of a limited water supply, for two of you to have on fresh clothes and have had showers, such a dunking is most unwelcome!

Sometimes those guys do it intentionally, they think swamping the dinghies is funny. Yeah, big joke.

Personally, I wish it hadn't happened to foreign visitors that way in American waters. Yes, you get what you get, but it is really hard to unlearn your cultivated trust for professionals, and that's what is at stake here. This was apparently not only extremely rude, but illegal, as well. Do you really think hot dogging big RIBs with passengers is a good idea?

To me, this has nothing to do with people making mistakes because we all are error prone, but it has a whole lot to do with a macho self-concept in charge of two very powerful outboard motors. 500 hp for 18 people, if you allow 100 for the RIB, works out to 2.2 hp/person. Ridiculous!

For me, what this really is is a wake up call for those of us who cruise and use our dinghies a lot, to stay vigilant, be prepared for everyone to do something dumb. You really see a fair number of power boat vs. much slower boats, sail, and dinghies, which end in deaths. A friend of mine came close to death that way, overtaken at dusk in a low dinghy, by a speeding powerboat. Emergency treatment plus some days in a foreign hospital. One tends to become bitter about it, are their arrivals at their drinking spots so important as to risk others' lives?

So, be aware, look astern as well as ahead, and look out for *whatever* is coming too fast, or carelessly.

Ann

[Sojourner]

I dunno... I'm a very live and let live kinda person in most of my life (you sort of have to be the way we live, or risk being a hypocrite, which is the WORST).

BUT. I am all in favor of putting people on blast who endanger others. There are kids swimming and paddling around, cleaning their hulls, people enjoying the water at an anchorage. I view asshats who pound through them the same way I would a douche who tears through a suburban neighborhood at 45 mph.... get 'em if you can. Did y'all know the Danish use peer pressure on the roads with great success? I had just ridden across Germany on a high speed bike at near infinite (and legal) autobahn speeds. Got into Denmark, still with an itchy throttle palm. I passed hundreds of cars on the highway tooling along at the exact speed limit, but didnt see any cameras. Still, I thought, they must know something, so I slowed down along with them. Turns out there aren't any cameras, my Danish friend later told me. They shame speeders whenever they can as a society. And it works. Do the same on the water.

[HankOnthewater]

Originally Posted by billknny

What we REALLY need is an equally clear and unambiguous gesture that means "I'm sorry! My bad!" The Japanese have it: a very deep and long bow. I am not aware of anything similar in any western culture.

Anybody?

I agree with above. What about a flat hand on one's chest and a simple bow, bending of the neck, with optional words like: ""I am sorry, my apologies or similar".

[carstenb]

I'll explain a bit more about why I was appalled. This wasn't some person with a big wallet who was tooling around in a big RIB showing off how big his penis extension is. This was a professional skipper.

I'm used to pros showing that they truly are pros - In all my years of sailing I can't recall seeing a pro make a mistake like this - this was amateur night.

Generally I just shake my head when I see or experience something like this - but again - this was a pro

[sailingharry]

Lots of idiot pros out there. A few years ago, I was sailing out of St Michaels harbor (good wind, low traffic, set sail deep in the harbor). Rolling along at about 5.8 with speed limit of 6, hugging the right side of the channel (and very little water out of the channel). The Patriot a 75' or so tourist boat got underway behind us. They clearly were breaking the speed limit because they caught up to us. He got on the PA system and blared out "sailboat, get out of my way, you have no rights."

He is wrong on multiple counts.
* Breaking the speed limit.
* Power has no rights over sail (no, this is not an appropriate case of law of tonnage -- he is as manuverable as me and no more draft).
* Overtaking boat has no rights in any situation ever.

I had no options, under sail or power because I too was constrained by draft. And in 100 yards, the channel would widen and the issue would be over. But slowing to 6 kts in a 6kt zone was more than he could bear.

Idiot.

But he had a big speaker.