Grumpy old men and boats.

[weavis]

Originally Posted by Delancey

Wives and girlfriends don't want to conquer the seas. They don't want to have to suffer through violent storms. They don't want a "blue water" boat that is capable of handling anything Mother Nature throws your way. They don't want your Macho Stupid attitude.

What they want is for you to intelligently use your head and available weather forecasting and communications technology to make sure they don't have to suffer through violent storms. What they want is smooth sailing and comfort. What they want is to have fun and not feel terrified. What they want is to make the right passage in the right season and leave the rough stuff to the Grumpy Old Men.

Seriously do you go out looking for trouble? Does that make you feel like a man? I made the wrong ocean crossing in the wrong season once. Challenging to say the least. Won't make that mistake again. I have logged some 3,000 miles in the past six months and the only time I encountered severe weather was when I was safely at anchor in a snug harbor. This was no accident.

If you think my desire to avoid severe weather makes me a pussy I am okay with that. I think it is sad that you are out sailing around alone with no one to share the experience with.

To quote boatman61 "The superior sailor uses his superior knowledge to avoid situations requiring his superior skill."

I think once more, you have misconstrued what has been stated.

1/. Its a boat.
2/. Boats reside on water.
3/. Water makes boats jiggle.

For this very reason and because boats are inherently bouncy, in design terms it is not advisable to have the same criteria applied to sharp edges and jutting out surfaces.

For the record, I am a wimp when it comes to storms. I have nothing to prove to anyone and no macho lives left to play with. However because of the above reasons, ie, boats are jiggly.. I dont want to get caught out in ANY
situation that might propel me into a sharp edge or something that is there for design only and cause me or my friends grief. I will not sacrifice safety to satisfy a womans desire for something that will cause grief. In Florida, storms will arise out of nothing and I prefered to concentrate on getting away from them and not on worrying about people below banging off ill designed furniture.

My last girlfriend decided that she would not wear the life jacket because she didnt like the colour........... Did I take her out that day? No I did not. She came round in spite of herself in due course...

That is my take on boats and safety...

[Delancey]

Misconstrued? I have NEVER advocated sharp edges or square corners on a sailboat!

[UNCIVILIZED]

Evidently this bears repeating. Yet again.
I'm starting to think I need to copywrite it & charge royalties.

Originally Posted by weavis

Some modern designs on boats dont have handholds where you need them.
Not to mention the sharp edges instead of rounded....

A tendency to use non sailing interior designers to appeal to a certain market potential.

Originally Posted by UNCIVILIZED

When I hear people getting really, really enamored with such interiors, my commentary & suggestion goes something like this:
Okay, so (think) you truly love this boat's interior. Time to test out how much. And to do so, have your spouse/partner push or slam you into the edges & corners said furniture with all of the force that they can muster. That'll pretty much mimic what happens when you get thrown across the boat into that beautifully styled faux wood, with it's sharp edges, due to the lack of sufficient & proper handholds here belowdecks.

Then, as you're recovering from said shove by your lover. Once you're done contemplating whether or not to call Law Enforcement & a divorce attorney about this. Ask yourself the question:
"If the designers phuked up the cosmetics of the interior this badly, how well did they do when designing the sailing & structural bits"?

Some people get it, others, much to the detriment of the human gene pool, are allowed to live quite long, "safe", unintersting lives. All while propogating similar madness throughout every aspect of our culture. Doing things like padding playground equipment. And creating an environment of social conditioning where we're all brainwashed to where our first response to a looming or occurring problem, is to call someone else for help on our smart phones. Rather than excercising such traits as; self reliance, ingenuity, common sense, good judgement, thinking on our feet, & problem solving, etc.

YUCK!

As to obtaining, & heeding women's input on some of a boat's styling, I'm definitely for it. Though when it comes to the technical sailing aspects, engineering, & safety bits, such are all gender neutral in my book. They need to work, & work seamlessly. Otherwise everyone loses.

That said, a boat should look sharp, period. And those looks surely do influence a crew's mood, enjoyment & health; above & below the neck.
Besides, there's the 1st rule of sailing...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGiCkd1kBHU

[Kenomac]

Originally Posted by weavis

I think once more, you have misconstrued what has been stated.

1/. Its a boat.
2/. Boats reside on water.
3/. Water makes boats jiggle.

For this very reason and because boats are inherently bouncy, in design terms it is not advisable to have the same criteria applied to sharp edges and jutting out surfaces.

For the record, I am a wimp when it comes to storms. I have nothing to prove to anyone and no macho lives left to play with. However because of the above reasons, ie, boats are jiggly.. I dont want to get caught out in ANY
situation that might propel me into a sharp edge or something that is there for design only and cause me or my friends grief. I will not sacrifice safety to satisfy a womans desire for something that will cause grief. In Florida, storms will arise out of nothing and I prefered to concentrate on getting away from them and not on worrying about people below banging off ill designed furniture.

My last girlfriend decided that she would not wear the life jacket because she didnt like the colour........... Did I take her out that day? No I did not. She came round in spite of herself in due course...

That is my take on boats and safety...

I'm in 100% agreement with Delancey, and it's nice to see someone else taking the heat for expressing his opinion in this same old argument for a change.

BTW and FYI: If my wife didn't like the color of her life jacket, I'd head down to the chandlery on the way to the boat and have her pick out a new one.

Married for 40 years now; she likes red.

Think about that.....

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=HAKLm8vaR2k

[Kenomac]

Originally Posted by weavis

Ken
With a Foresail you cant see squat if it sweeps the deck...

3/. I have been on boats with deck sweeping sails and you really cant see through them unless they cut plastic views in..

Now I know why this didn't make sense to me last weekend, we have a cutter rig with both the yankee and staysail cut very high. It's actually easy to see under them, an unobstructed view. But I can understand your point now regarding normal sloop rigs which have the jib cut down low to the deck. It's been a few years since I last sailed on a sloop with low-cut sails.

Yes, it would be difficult to see with a normal genoa or jib in place.

[Kenomac]

Now to change the subject:

Our biggest grip is when our boat turns parallel to the waves in what would normally be considered a calm anchorage, then starts into a pendulum rocking motion, this happened all the time in Spain which had us considering a catamaran. Fortunately, it only happened to us twice last season and hopefully, it won't happen at all from now on.

We just added a pair of Magma Rock n Roll Flopper Stoppers to our arsenal and will be trying them out for the first time in about 10 days. I'll write a review on the system in a few weeks when I know more. It might take a while to really put them to the test, since I'm much more picky these days about choosing an anchorage, and in Croatia, there're many more places to hide from the waves.

[chris lewis]

All my life I wonted a pilot house yacht as sailing in the uk was wet and cold . For the last two years I have owned a feltz scorpion ketch with a pilot house . And we are at the moment in Lanzarote in the sun we're we don't need it so much but I still love my pilot house

[weavis]

Originally Posted by chris lewis

All my life I wonted a pilot house yacht as sailing in the uk was wet and cold . For the last two years I have owned a feltz scorpion ketch with a pilot house . And we are at the moment in Lanzarote in the sun we're we don't need it so much but I still love my pilot house

Pilot houses are wonderful. Feels like a proper boat..

Can always turn the A/C up.....

[jkindredpdx]

Originally Posted by Kenomac

Gary,

People don't steer their boat like that anymore, Mr. Auto Pilot takes care of it. That chair (drivers seat), wheel and stuff is just in the way taking up valuable cockpit real estate.

People these days only "steer" their boat when inside marinas or docking.

LOL... assume that's a Joke.

[Kenomac]

Originally Posted by jkindredpdx

LOL... assume that's a Joke.

No joke. I was referring to this picture when I made the comment. Nobody that I know of, sits behind a wheel in the cockpit of a boat and steers it like a car for endless hours... unless the auto pilot is broken.

We sailed our boat 55nm today, and spent less than 10 minutes during the nine hours hand steering.

[a64pilot]

Maybe a little clarification.
I'd bet most cruisers don't often manually helm their boat, while I'd bet most racers usually do.
Since I got the AP, I use it, but I'm not experienced either.

ICW and other congested areas excepted of course

[ArmyDaveNY]

Originally Posted by Kenomac

No joke. I was referring to this picture when I made the comment. Nobody that I know of, sits behind a wheel in the cockpit of a boat and steers it like a car for endless hours... unless the auto pilot is broken.

We sailed our boat 55nm today, and spent less than 10 minutes during the nine hours hand steering.

Steer? Isn't there an app for that?!! In fact, why do I have to plan a passage? Why can't I just have an app tell me when and where to go and order my provisions?!!! Better still, why can Amazon Prime deliver my boat in two days for me?!

[Cadence]

Originally Posted by ArmyDaveNY

Steer? Isn't there an app for that?!! In fact, why do I have to plan a passage? Why can't I just have an app tell me when and where to go and order my provisions?!!! Better still, why can Amazon Prime deliver my boat in two days for me?!

Probably not far away. Hal will take over and you can sleep port to port,

[ArmyDaveNY]

Originally Posted by Cadence

Probably not far away. Hal will take over and you can sleep port to port,

Port? How did you know I like port? I also like wine. Rum too. Oh yes, and shots. Come to think of it, all of them help me to sleep. Sometimes it's port to rum. Sometimes it is port to wine.

Good call regardless of the method!

[Cadence]

Originally Posted by ArmyDaveNY

Port? How did you know I like port? I also like wine. Rum too. Oh yes, and shots. Come to think of it, all of them help me to sleep. Sometimes it's port to rum. Sometimes it is port to wine.

Good call regardless of the method!

We need Hal to take over. You can have a wine cellar and I a beer cave. We need to refrigerate the bilge.