Jerks or just stupid?

motors on boats are for those not intelligent enough to sail

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Rich Vilvens
F-18 5150
[email protected]
http://www.sailblogs.com/member/f-185150sailing/

You've been to too many Oriental massage parlors.

First of all, is Asian Massage Parlors, and I would not consider 6 too many.

6 is too many huh? I gotta make a phone call and cancel an appointment.....


As far as boaters on the water, how many times do you get cut off in traffic. Or for that matter just wish to lock one of your fellow drivers in a porta-john and light it on fire? Same stuff, different medium to travel on.

The power boaters in ohio seem to have this misconception that the faster boat has right of way......

I say, "let them hit me. I have a hefty life insurance policy. My benificiary's can live the high life for a while and I can know I went out sailing"....better than slipping on a bananna peel and falling in front of a car.

I don't know, maybe we're being a bit judgemental. I mean, not every single person that owns a power boat is drunk and stupid. Just few of them, but those are the ones that are going to kill or get killed. All I can say is, stay the heck off the water during the major holidays. That seems to be the time most of the beer and bikinis and boneheads are on the water.

I usually make it a point to hold my course and if they don't get out of the way, make it close enough for them to be worried. I nearly hit a jet skier once who was gauking at me flying a hull. Altering my course had 2 options, turning into shore or flipping the boat by turing more into the wind... I chose option 3.. hold course and try to run his stupid ass over. He moved out of the way and gave me a wierd look... I paid no attention.

Today I went out... was a blast.. tons of sailboats actually, I sort of messed with their course a little bit, some "J" boats, I think... I buzzed passed one of their buoys, might have been in their way a little bit, but not enough for any of them to alter their course, I was so much faster than them it really didn't matter.

As a rule of thumb, power determines right away, seconded by maneuverability... and tonnage always wins, no matter what. Giant shipping boats win everytime, cause you should give them a wide berth anyways, but power boats.. meh, sail right at them!

I've sailed on the 4th, I just make sure to get off the water early, long before idiots gather for local firework displays. They are busy driving around getting drunk at that point.

One thing that most have neglected to mention. A power boat pulling a skiier has right of way over you. I don't feel like looking up the reference, but I remember when going back over my boating safety stuff last year that I was surprised to see that boats under sail didn't always have the right of way.

And I complain about the powerboaters that run across my bow all of the time. My wife tends to freak out a little earlier than I do.

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1984 H16 - #80541

also tonnage or not, commercial has right away over recreational.

JRagg,
Are you sure about that statement? I rarely deal with skiers but I have tangled with para-sails. Those guys think its cool to fly their paying customers over my mast while I'm underway. It really didn't bother me until they drug a steel cable up my mast. As they were purposefully altering course to intersect me the Coast Guard ruled them to be at fault. I can't see how a sailboat could be responsible if a ski boat cut across your bows and drug their tow into you. You have no brakes or reverse power. Now a vessel in tow is another thing, but a skier or tube rider cut you off! How could that be the sailors fault?

I could have sworn I read that somewhere, but I can't seem to find it now. I've been wrong before (as hard as it is to admit).

The boat with right of way is supposed to hold their course, so if they turn directly into you it doesn't matter who has right of way. It's their fault. Just like if you've got a powerboat overtaking you and you tack in front of them.

You can't really reverse power if you're towing a skiier either. I just stay clear of them altogether, but they generally stay near the windward shore of the lake for the smoother water anyhow.

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1984 H16 - #80541

Last year at the Barneget Breezer on Barneget Bay NJ while waiting for the next race to start I was standing in 36"-42" depth water holding my boat and a 38' Silverton Cruiser, on plane cut through the fleet passing between me and the boat beside me maybe 25 yards away!!!! I was amazed. The wife and kids sitting on the Flying Bridge just looked down at me like there wasn't anything wrong.

Years ago in one of the C-100s I was beating/pinching to windward on starboard tack w/ the shore maybe 50 yards off my starboard I had a small point of land sticking out in front of me. This recreational fishing boat (an mid 20' outboard) was on my port side pacing me ... it was obvious we were on a converging course .... as we got closer I hailed them and asked them if they could alter course or speed so I would cross their bows. Their reply was that they were trolling and would not do either. I again hailed them and explained they were a recreational craft not commercial and had no rights ... that I was on their starboard side between "Dead Ahead and 1 Point (11degrees) in front of their midships and had right-a-way under power boat rules and since I was obviously under sail I had rights under that rule also. They ignored me ... We got closer to each other, and to the point of land ahead. Finally when we were under 20yds apart I hailed again ... "We are on a collision course, I have obstructions in front of me and to my starboard ... I am altering course". I put the helm down ... reached across their stern at maybe 20', in the process cleaning all six of their fishing rods of their riggs !!!! I re-established my course/heading on their port side. They were not happy at all and made their displeasure known LOUDLY! My reply hail was " I repeatly hailed and asked you to obey the rules of the road and for some common courtesy .... I suggest you read your CHAPMAN'S PILOT BOOK on the Right-a-Way Rules when underway gentlemen. They stayed clear of me after that.

In my youth, my family had power boats up to 30', I took the Coast Guard Boater Safety Course ... the Power Squadron's Basic Piloting 1&2, Basic Navigation and Advanced Navigation classes also ( I was the only kid in the Navigation courses among all the adults working towards their "Captains Papers".)

I wish ALL boaters would take the time to take those courses !!!

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HarryMurphey
H-18 mag/ #9458
Fleet 54 Div 11

I will honestly say that I've expressed my displeasure to powerboaters several times, rather stridently, of their disregard for the "rules of the road". In an effort to enact a self-imposed (rather than court-ordered) anger management class (which really pisses me off), I've taken the "long view".

In order to not villify them, I treat powerboaters like wild animals in a drive-through zoo (remember "The Omen"?). I respect that they have no idea what they're doing, they're only acting on instinct. They don't know any better, and I doubt that mandatory testing will improve this any more than drivers' licenses help with rush hour traffic. I can't help that, regardless of how many books I read or my score on the OUPV. My getting enraged doesn't change their behavior, it only scares the crap out of my crew. I can only exercise as much caution as is reasonably possible without staying at the marina all day. I may point out the several examples of other people's powerboating idiocy while we're out, which only bolsters our "superiority" under sail power.

In all fairness to GDMFPB's (aka "stinkpotters", I'll let you figure out the acronym on your own), I've had yacht club monohull sailboat racers treat me with similar disdain for the rules of the road because they're racing, and I'm just cruising down the lake (that they don't own). I always apply common courtesy, but if it's a choice between jibing or sailing across their leeward mark, I don't sweat it (and I always toast them as I cruise by). It's in our nature to divide people into groups other than ourselves to feel superior to and to justify our own behavior. I only hope that I constrain my own behavior to minimize my impact on others.

I think there are three factors that ultimately make us sailors: we're trying to minimize our impact on the environment, we feel the need to exert our will over an otherwise chaotic universe by taking advantage of what Mother Nature offers, and we need to feel unconstrained by the mechanics of engines and fossil-fuel burning lemmings in order to feel superior to them. NOT NECESSARILY IN THAT ORDER.

We all know that it takes a whole lot more skill to sail a boat poorly than it takes to just drive a powerboat, otherwise sailboat racing would be superfluous and just a matter of engine displacement. If we give them a wide berth, we'll both be better off. With that being said, if you allow a car length between you and the car in front of you for every ten miles an hour you're travelling, and people keep changing lanes into the gap, you'll eventually end up in reverse.

In the thirty years that I've been sailing, I've never had an exchange with a powerboat where either party came through feeling like they'd learned something from the other party. With that being said, I've had very few altercations with other sailors where I've said to myself, "Wow, I was wrong", even after looking it up in the regs. Try towing a powerboat with a sailboat sometime. That'll really give you cause to celebrate, even though you're required to render assistance to a vessel in distress. We're different species, like Homo Erectus and Cro Magnon Man. Eventually one of us will die out. Considering the price of crude oil, I'll take that bet...

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Sea ya,
Chris Larsen
Co-Pilot of the Hobie Getaway
"The Twins"

~~(\_~~

As someone who, in addition to sailing cats, also spends a lot of time racing on a large monohull. My attitude has always been if I can discern that sailros are racing, then I make it my responsibility to stay out of their way, as a courtesy to them. Racing is intense enough without my interfering with their wind, heading or tactics.
I know I wouldn't appreciate it.

For power boaters, I assume they just don't understand the rights of way and am pleasantly surprised if one of them actually gives way to me. I've had far too many close calls in 30 years that I don't need to take the risk.

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Chris
'88 H18SE Arís

And what about fishermen 'trolling'? I recently had one cut across my path, I was beam reaching, I had the choice of falling off to a broad reach, or pinching to try to get across him first. I chose the latter, even running a little to give the unseen lines plenty of clearance before heading up back to a broad reach. It was not enough, still had the guy yell to me that his shallow surface lines were hooked on my rudders once I 'thought' I was o biggie, just an annoyance on both parts. Some of those guys fishing think thier trolling operations take complete precedence over every other activity. Once while powerboating on Sebago Lake in Maine (very busy lake), I was coming out of a marked channel, and some guys were trolling back and forth across the opening of the channel. No way to get around them had to wait 'til thier boats were past by about 100 yds or so, then proceded before on of the other trolling boats passed our path. Did not catch thier lines w/ my ob, but did catch an earfull. I was like, hey, you guys are the ones who chose to troll across a busy boating lane!

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Jim

2007 Hobie Wave