Fun Thread - Best Sailing Quotes

[skipperpete]

Everyone wants to be captain.... until there’s captain stuff to do!

[MicHughV]

No other hobby or sport or activity describes the toilet as the "head "

[rls8r]

Two poems I came across when I was much younger - one on a poster somewhere; the other taught to me by my grandfather (a commercial waterman).

"It's not my job to steer the boat,
The horn I cannot blow.
It's not my job to say how far
To sea the ship may go.
It's not my job to throttle down;
I cannot ring the bell.
But - let the damned thing hit the dock
and see who catches Hell!"

now, from my grandfather ... whose opinion was that the only correct answer to the question about who had the right-of-way was "The other guy."

"Here lies the body of John O'Day.
He died maintaining the right-of-way.
He was right - dead right as he sailed along.
But, he's just as dead as if he was wrong."

[Lodesman]

Crossing to The B'mas, unforecast squally weather, night-time, dodging thunder cells - wife says "are we having fun yet?"

[El Pinguino]

Not quite a quote, but from an old Peyton cartoon I once had taped to a bulkhead.
The scene, heavily overcast and bucketing down with torrential rain. Yacht motoring up an East Coast (UK) river - or maybe it's a Patagonian channel.

In the cockpit, one of the crew to the skipper 'So - all things considered - this sailing game costs you £5000 each day you are out here?'

I don't think why I keep thinking of that cartoon.

[Tupaia]

"Standing in a shower tearing up £50 notes" ($100 bills)


when sailing to windward kids normally ask.


"Dad are we nearly there yet?" repeatedly.....

[GordMay]

Vigor’s Black Box Theory

It states that there is no such thing as fortuitous luck at sea.
The reason why some boaters survive storms, or have fewer accidents than others, is that they earn their "luck", by diligent and constant acts of seamanship.
According to Vigor, aboard every boat there's an invisible black box.
Every time a skipper takes the trouble to consult the chart, inspect the filters, go forward, on a rainy night, to check the running lights, or take any proper seamanship precaution, he or she earns a point, that goes in the black box.
Then, in times when human skill and effort can accomplish no more, the points are cashed in as protection.
The skipper has no control over their withdrawal. They withdraw themselves, as appropriate.
Those skippers, with no points in the box, are the ones later described as "unlucky."
Those, with points to spend, avoid the mishap, but must start immediately to replenish their savings - for the sea offers no credit.

Originally Posted by JohnVigor

“... Every boat possesses an imaginary black box, a sort of bank account in which points are kept. In times of emergency, when there is nothing more to be done in the way of sensible seamanship, the points from your black box can buy your way out of trouble. You have no control over how the points are spent, of course; they withdraw themselves when the time is appropriate. You do have control over how the points get into the box: you earn them. For every seamanlike act you perform, you get a point in the black box ...

... No matter how good your seamanship, there are times when there is nothing left to do but batten down the hatches and pray. If you have a credit balance of points in the box, you’ll be all right ...”

~ by John Vigor

Full article here ➥ https://goodoldboat.com/vigors-black-box-theory/

[jjernigan1972]

Ships and men rot in ports.

[Redboat]

Ocean racing is like standing in a cold shower in your foulies tearing up thousand dollar bills.

[Don C L]

"He's right on top of us! I wonder if he is using the same wind we are using?

-Inigo Montoya

[HankOnthewater]

In my native language was a saying that goes like this:
"The most skilled skippers stay ashore"
This was an ironic reference to what we call now: armchair or keyboard sailors

[Jim Cate]

The Portuguese (and I believe many other voyaging societies) said that the wind always blows from the bow.

Jim

[GordMay]

The great man told his followers, 'There are 2 things in life that matters above all else - Integrity, if you'd made a promise, you carry it out, even if it bankrupts you, cripples you or kills you.
The other thing is common sense, like, not making that promise'.

[rls8r]

Picking up on Don C L's nod to the performing arts coupled with HankOnthewater's native saying:

"Stick close to your desks and never go to sea
And you all may be rulers of the Queen's Navee."

- Sir Joseph Porter, First Lord of the Admiralty in HMS Pinafore

[carstenb]

Sailing is the fine art of going nowhere, very slowly, at very great expense (old Danish sailing proverb)

"Oh poor me,
I went to sea.

Oh poor me
Mommy help me

Oh mommy
I went to sea

Oh mommy
I joined the Navy

Oh poor me
I miss mommy

Oh Mommy
please help me

Navy exercise chant