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STINKPOTS! A question... A rant...

6K views 30 replies 18 participants last post by  soul searcher 
#1 · (Edited)
OK, I guess that all of us here on this site (or at least most) have (or would like) a sailboat for various reasons.

I can see the general dislike among the boaters out there by what type of boat you have, a 'blowboat' or a '********'. We all know this.

Being a newly reformed powerboater myself and now under sail I notice things that I find just defies logic on all levels.

We know that the blowboaters hate the stinkpots and the feeling is pretty much reciprocated from the powerboaters. Then you find out that the cats (even though a sailing vessel) although not so much hated but frowned upon from the monohulls. But yet almost ALL of us have a good ol' fashioned piston engine in the very boat we sail. Some of the sailors even go hog wild on their 'tender' or 'dingy' motor! Sailors use the words like "I can get this baby on plane with 3 people, two coolers, and three bags of trash". But I ask, this is 'not' a ********?

From me personally I have seen what idiots powerboaters can be. But to be completely honest, I see that 'most' sailboats are nothing more than a slow power boat with a big pole sticking up from their deck. But now that I am under sail I see what idiots the blowboaters AND the stinkpots can be. I guess it all comes down to the skipper.

I love boats. Big or small, power or sail, hell you can be in a old plywood flat bottom for all I care. To me they are all still boaters and doing what they love, 'being on the water'. Do we hate each other so much as to cloud our perception of why we ALL do what we do?

At what point, or at what HP, or at how much fuel consumption does one need to have or not have to be a ******** or not?
 
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#2 ·
Sea. I love boats, all kinds. Right now I own a sailboat. This is one of the boats I grew up on:



Along with a Bertram 28. I don't like to bad mouth stinkpots in general. Like you said, just dumb skippers, stink or blow.
 
#5 ·
Unfortunately, idiots, fools, and jack@sses are present in all walks of life and all parts of society. Sailors are not exempt from this.... there are good powerboaters and bad sailors... Just try to avoid being one of the bad, and minimize the time you spend dealing with them as well...and you'll be ahead of the game.
 
#6 ·
Geeze, now it's OK to call a powerboater a ******** but not use the term blowboat? WOW! I will only use the term vertically challenged from now on to describe any person that is not tall in stature and I will only refer to fat asses as horizontally challenged. Thank you for your insight.

Yes, I am sure that could come up with a less attractive term to describe just about everyone. How sensitive can you be? Blowboat is bad but a ******** is a good term? Lemme guess, you never fart either. You just release green gasses from your rectal area.

Geezy peezy.

I OWN A BLOWBOAT AND I'M PROUD OF IT!
 
#7 ·
Seaspot-

A powerboat does stink, especially if it has two big two-stroke outboards. I've never, ever, seen a sailboat "blow". :D They catch wind, not make wind. Therefore, IMHO, ******** is an accurate description of most powerboats, but blowboat is not at all accurate for sailboats. :D
 
#9 ·
Fstbttms said:
"Blowboaters"? It's clear you've been a stinkpotter all your life. Could you possibly come up with a less attractive term to describe sailors? Please never darken this doorstep with that misuse of the language again.
Yea...I preferred to be called a "Rag Bagger" myself..:eek:

I suppose an ahole in a powerboat is much more obvious with big wakes, excessive speed, etc...

I too like all kinds of boats and just like to be on the water. I really enjoy the old wood/mahogany boats sail or power. Even had a few.:)
 
#13 ·
I won't call them stinkpots.... earned my living on the sea all of my adult life. (Some would call it an extended childhood). But I do enjoy both Sail and power. But don't care for the PWCs or those high speed boats that look like they came out of an adult toy store.
Actually whether they are a ******** or not depends on whether how clean the crew keeps the vessel. Some would make old sneakers smell clean. "Blankety blank" lazy captain & crew.
Have gone aboard some boats and it smells as if they never knew what a shower or clean clothes are. Even the bedding stinks.... Now those are stinkpots. Sail or power.
 
#14 ·
I have my own opinion about what you are trying to say here, and I disagree a little with what you say. Sorry.

I think that the difference lies not in the fact that a sailboat has an engine or not. A sailboat is intended to sail at sailboat speeds, even with engine on.

In my opinion it is simple, even with an engine, a sailboat skipper is still using his boat as if it was on sail...AND THAT is the difference. A sailboat person, tries as much as possible to turn the engine off, to show off his skills, a powerboater wants more power to show off how small his penis is...

That is in my side of the ocean, the difference...I do have an engine, and God knows how much I hate to use it, if I could get away from it, I would...I can't unfortunately. However, even with the engine on, MY BOAT is manouvered and handled as if it was under sail.....thus even on power I am a sailboater...a power boater...will allways be a power boater, he has no more locomotion options...that is an advantage.
 
#15 ·
Fstbttms said:
"Blowboaters"? It's clear you've been a stinkpotter all your life. Could you possibly come up with a less attractive term to describe sailors?

I think the other term that I hear powerboaters call us is "Rag Boater." It is probably more appropriate, although my "rags" cost a lot of cash.

BTW I haven't used my motor in about 4 years, but I sail on a small lake. :p
 
#16 ·
seaspot said:
Yes, I am sure that could come up with a less attractive term to describe just about everyone. How sensitive can you be? Blowboat is bad but a ******** is a good term? Lemme guess, you never fart either. You just release green gasses from your rectal area.

Geezy peezy.

I OWN A BLOWBOAT AND I'M PROUD OF IT!
As an admitted novice, and pretty unsure of the physics behind the sail, but don't the sails actually create a suction on the leading edge. So technically we would not be a blowboater, but suck-N-blow boaters
 
#17 ·
I think the whole elitist thing about boat type detracts from the beauty and pleasure that is being on the water along with the possibility of friendship and comradery that two people can share in common interest.

No matter what your ride, you're still out there and that can't be bad. What benefit is there to finding some way to insult someone rather than look for the things you like incommon?
 
#18 ·
Giulietta said:
I think that the difference lies not in the fact that a sailboat has an engine or not. A sailboat is intended to sail at sailboat speeds, even with engine on.
Unfortunately, there are those that aren't really good sailboats, like the MacGregor 26 that tries to be both...

In my opinion it is simple, even with an engine, a sailboat skipper is still using his boat as if it was on sail...AND THAT is the difference. A sailboat person, tries as much as possible to turn the engine off, to show off his skills, a powerboater wants more power to show off how small his penis is...
LOL... unfortunately, not all sailboat skippers believe in trying to keep the engine off as much as possible. :( They may have some latent powerboater genes in them.

That is in my side of the ocean, the difference...I do have an engine, and God knows how much I hate to use it, if I could get away from it, I would...I can't unfortunately. However, even with the engine on, MY BOAT is manouvered and handled as if it was under sail.....thus even on power I am a sailboater...a power boater...will allways be a power boater, he has no more locomotion options...that is an advantage.
There is a huge difference in mindset between a "sailor" and a "power boater". To the powerboater, the boat is merely a method of transportation-to get you from Point A to Point B as quickly as possible. To the sailor, the journey is as important as getting there-and the boat requires you to think about where you are going and how you are going to get there. You can't generally just bludgeon your way to your destination in a sailboat-you have to account for the tidal currents, wind direction, depth of water and such, rather than just aiming and kicking the throttle to max.

Last weekend, working down at the marina, I noticed that the five boats who went out were all asking about directions on how to get various places. They were all powerboaters, and between the five boats, I don't think they had a single chart of Buzzards Bay among them. One asked how to get to Newport, and another said just keep going right (west) and you'll hit it eventually. Well, from Buzzards Bay, that's a pretty primitive set of directions...
 
#19 ·
yotphix said:
Seaspot, there are boaters, and there are A-holes. Boaters are nice. A-holes are...A-holes.
What he said! It's possible that powerboaters (as a group) contain a higher % of a$$holes (esp PWC and cigarette boats), but sailors aren't 'higher beings' just cuz they're sailors. (It could be argued that sailors are smarter due to the fact that they have two forms of propulsion, and should be able to get home if one gives out, but that's a technicality.)
 
#20 ·
ReverendMike said:
What he said! It's possible that powerboaters (as a group) contain a higher % of a$$holes (esp PWC and cigarette boats), but sailors aren't 'higher beings' just cuz they're sailors. (It could be argued that sailors are smarter due to the fact that they have two forms of propulsion, and should be able to get home if one gives out, but that's a technicality.)
Actually, it can be argued that it takes more intelligence to sail a boat than it does to drive a power boat. You have to work within a certain set of limitations when you're sailing a boat, especially if your destination lies upwind of you. That isn't the case with a powerboat, as most powerboaters I've seen just aim the boat and hit the throttle... and many don't even have charts aboard... as I pointed out earlier.
 
#21 ·
bestfriend said:
Sea. I love boats, all kinds. Right now I own a sailboat. This is one of the boats I grew up on:

Along with a Bertram 28. I don't like to bad mouth stinkpots in general. Like you said, just dumb skippers, stink or blow.
I love Bertrams.

I own both a sailboat (and another that I rent out), and a powerboat. So I guess that precludes my defining myself in terms of being one or the other. But doesn't it seem a bit facile to define oneself in terms of one's boat in any event? Are our tribal impulses still this pervasive? Do we honestly believe "sailboat owners" and "powerboat owners" can be spoken about in monolithic terms?
 
#22 ·
This past weekend, my wife and I spent both Saturday and Sunday sailing around Narragansett Bay. We took advantage of Saturday's brisk winds by sailing from our marina to a quiet Bay island cove for an overnighter.

The winds on Sunday however, were very light - 5-8 knots . . . my wife's favorite type of sailing ;) . We decided to weigh anchor and relax on a broad reach and downwind sail to the Kickamuit, before heading back to the marina. It would be hard to imagine a powerboater mentality enduring the passive experience of slowly gliding over the water - no time schedule and no point B destination. Here's an extremely boring video of that sail: (warning - this may put you to sleep)

trueblue-lightwinds

Shortly after, another Nauticater with a NC331 - Christy Leigh, who posts here regularly, sailed alongside True Blue for a while. I took a few pictures of his boat and he of mine, until we slowly went our own ways. Such is a sailor's life.

 
#24 · (Edited)
I don't have a problem with powerboats as a rule. The biggest thing I see is a lack of knowledge where sailing craft are concerned from some of the power folks. It's not that they wanna be a-holes, some just don't know any better. Now don't get me started on PWC's. I think the African Carp have the right idea about those. Yes, there are sailors who qualify for a Darwinian exemption as well but sailors typically have a deeper knowledge because thwey have to to survive. Face it, we're usually the slowest thing on the water, are restricted in movement and more sensitive to tides, current and weather. We have to pay attention and learn or pay the price. The average weekend powerboater doesn't have to learn these things, even though they should. Me? I love a nice powerboat. I was aboard a nice Carver 39 that I would love to own. I doubt I'd care for the fuel bill though.
 
#25 ·
That was pretty nice TrueBlue. I'm very new to boats and my wife and I want to buy our first one mostlikely over the winter months and then customize it to our needs.

I don't understand the need to go fast on the water. I mean I understand speed and the thrill of it, I've had a 105mph ride in a muscle boat and ripped along in a fishing boat at around 50 mph. You can't see anything. It's bang bang bang and you go deaf from all the racket the engine makes.

So what am I missing?

Looking at your video, I thought that is what it was all about. Chillin, soaking up the sun and breeze with someone nice surrounded by fantastic views in all directions.
 
#26 ·
Feel free to call me a ragbagger if you wish, after all, that is part of the reason we named our vessel "Ragtime." I, too, like certain power boats, and have owned and enjoyed skiboats, fishing boats, canoes, and sailboats. It is not the stinkpots that bother me, but the idiots who run high powered boats much faster than their skill level would justify. From my standpoint, the name calling is usually only good natured kidding. I enjoy telling my power boat friends that last year I used 16 gallons of fuel and the year before 15 gallons, while spending virtually every weekend (Friday night thru Sunday) on the Mississippi. However, I would never tell them what a suit of sails would cost for my 37 foot Endeavour!
 
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