It is a lovely Saturday evening in peaceful Pulpit Harbor. There are a few folks out for a row, two kayaks are paddling nearby, and a trim cutter has dropped her hook to windward of us. Although there is 100% overcast, the sun has created enough illumination to cast a golden sheen on the calm water, with just a hint of ripple from the dying breeze.
And then there is this “Picnic” boat blasting out of the harbor, throwing a substantial enough wake to roll Wind Horse, and really get our smaller neighbors going. This is exactly the type of behavior sailors expect from powerboat drivers.
Of course there are a few other things under the heading of bad manners, or perhaps lack of knowledge, that get more polite mariners exercised. Now, we know that no SetSail visitor would fit into this category. But you may know someone who does, so in an effort to educate the lower classes of yachting, we offer the following suggestions.
- Watch your wake. And go slow or at minimum wake speed around other yachts that may be rolled by said wake.
- In a crossing situation with another yacht, back off the throttles, slow down for a few seconds, and let the right of way vessel pass ahead, so as not to throw your wake at his bow. The powerboat driver who speeds up to cross ahead, blasting the stand-on vessel with his wake, is both discourteous and taking a chance of being holed if distances are misjudged.
- When anchoring, give the other yachts room to swing, and do not anchor directly upwind of another vessel, if at all possible. Keep in mind that vessels react differently to the breeze and current, and in light conditions often are facing different directions.
- If you are going to run your genset at all hours, then isolate yourself from the quieter inhabitants of the anchorage. While your generator may be quiet on the boat, it most assuredly will be noisy to the other inhabitants who are close by.
- Finally, know the rules of the road.
We invite comments on this subject from both sides of the aisle.
Posted by Steve Dashew (September 1, 2012)
September 1st, 2012 at 1:02 am
Steve,
The situations you describe above seem universal, and living on our boat 12 months of the year, we could not agree more to your simple rules of behavior and gentleman-ship in ports and anchorages. Thank you for running such an interesting website. We are avid followers since many years!
Peter
September 1st, 2012 at 11:00 am
Hi Steve,
My wife and I have been boating nearly 50 years now (started at age 10). We now live on a large power boat on the eastern Pacific coast. We are surrounded by large fishing boats who come and go and never bother us with their wake—-they’re knowledgeable and courteous. Then the weekend fishermen and boaters come. We roll half the day. We don’t think it is necessarily they are discourteous,we think it is more they don’t know any better. They go into the ocean in small open boats without life jackets (they say they’ll put one on if they get in trouble—that’s like saying I’ll put on my seat belt if I have a car accident and half a dozen people die each year here from drowing). They often have to be warned off by freighters for fishing in the ship channel and they are generally uniformed of the rules of the road.
We don’t know what the solution is as we think it mostly a lack of experience and knowledge. Various states have enacted mandatory boating classes, but they seem to have had little effect and what we see of law enforcement is surely lacking.
Thanks for letting us vent on the subject.
September 1st, 2012 at 9:32 pm
Just this afternoon, as I was sailing past the anchorage in the lee of Island White in Long Beach harbor (California), a powerboat came thru the anchorage at maximum wake producing speed, rolling everyone in the anchorage.
September 2nd, 2012 at 8:39 am
They’re the ones that really get me, they slow down just enough to just fall off the plane and then proceed to wheelie through an anchorage with their ass dragging, it’s like they have a Mark on their speedo, maximum wake point, and they sit on it.
September 4th, 2012 at 6:51 am
I went out for a last minute, end-of-summer ride to a nearby harbor with a very experienced sailor yesterday in his Grady White 25 with a 250 hp Yamaha. I was shocked at how differently he behaved on that boat versus when I have sailed with him. The speed capability and GPS ‘watch the cursor’ mentality seemed to simply take over his previous good sense. I was dismayed at how he cut close to other boats (“I’m staying on course. I won’t hit them.”) He ignored his wake, went too fast in mooring fields (as mentioned in the post above) and at one point simply cut off a cruising sailboat maneuvering in tight quarters as it approached a landing float. I had to warn him to reverse sharply… but he sped up to cross in front.
It was mortifying.
Meanwhile, I avoid sailing in my daysailer on weekends now. The crossing, heaping wakes and (mostly) powerboaters not attending to or knowing the rules of the road make for an unsettling “washing-machine day” of sailing.
September 4th, 2012 at 6:54 am
Steve,
Despite my comments above, will you be coming through Boothbay Harbor on your way out of Maine? I’d dearly love to see your Windhorse up close, if only in passing.
September 4th, 2012 at 9:02 am
Not yet sure which way we re heading, but Boothbay is a difficult place to anchor these days.
September 4th, 2012 at 8:21 am
Gigantic wakes are certainly a common problem, Steve. (Those of us with under-1-tonne boats really see it!)
Drivers of big planing hulls really need to know what happens behind their boat at different speeds. Many around here, in an attempt to be courteous, will slow from 22 knots to 12 knots; in many cases, this screws up the boat’s trim and doubles the size of the wake. I would much rather pass behind a seven-tonne cruiser that’s flying at a full plane than one that’s plowing around with her tail in a trough.
September 4th, 2012 at 7:07 pm
Rumor is that those Hinckley ‘picnic’/jet boats are devilishly hard to steer at slow speeds, just as a jetski is. Not an excuse though. The first one had an I/O, which handled more predictably, and why they went to the jet is a mystery to some. A friend who shared ownership of one said (as did his partner) that with the jet it was ‘as independant as a pig on ice’ It may be that the joystick control was developed and implemented to help helm it.
September 6th, 2012 at 5:53 am
Absolutely agree Steve !
Last week I was coming back from Musket Cove to Vuda Point in Fiji…I had a line out with a luer on it…never know, something might bite ! Went below to make some coffee and heard this roaring sound. Stood up in the companion way and saw a 30 something foot plastic power boat cutting across my stern…couldn’t have been more than 20 metres away…his outbopards snagged my fishing line (its an 80kg line!) which he clearly noticed as it wrapped itself round his props. He slowed down. I lost my luer and trace….hope he had the devils own job unwinding that line off his props !!
Idiot…no idea of the rules of the road or even common courtesy…which is seemingly much less common these days.
They only think of themselves…they miss out on so much!
BTW I do know power boaters, mostly older chaps like us, who do respect the rules of the road and are courteous … but they’re dying off I think !!