SailNet Community banner
  • SailNet is a forum community dedicated to Sailing enthusiasts. Come join the discussion about sailing, modifications, classifieds, troubleshooting, repairs, reviews, maintenance, and more!

Music Etiquette at the Dock

11K views 81 replies 43 participants last post by  RichH 
#1 ·
Ok, the day at sea is over, you've pulled into a marina for the night, button up the ship, pour a cold one, light off the BBQ and put on some good tunes... and everyone around you stares at you like your from Mars. :eek:

Is there an unwritten rule concerning music in a marina? This actually happened to me last week. The tunes were from inside the boat and barely audible in the cockpit, but folks were straining to see where the music was coming from.

Here's the funny part. The group who was doing all the looking from accross the fairway did the evening wine drinking thing and the ladies were cackling in no time. You could here them 6 boats away. :rolleyes:

Do any of you have speakers installed in the cockpit?

Dave
 
#3 ·
I have no speakers in the cockpit, but the sound from the surround sound system in the boat carry a very long way across and through the water, therefore, I don't play them louder than whisper quiet at an anchorage or at the dock. Keep in mind that while anchored, there is essentially nothing to absorb the sounds coming from your boat - nothing!

Additionally, not everyone enjoys the music styles that you enjoy. Some folks only want to hear the sounds of nature, or the sounds inside their minds while enjoying a day on their boats. You might like hip-hop or rap, but personally, I cannot stand either. I don't consider them music - I consider them irritating.

Some folks can only get into a song when it's played at ear-bleed volume. As a full-time musician/singer/entertainer I think that's insane. It drives me nuts when I'm sitting at a traffic light and some teenaged adolescent-adult pulls up behind me with his sub-woofers blaring so loud that my van shakes. Sometimes I want to get out and take a hammer to his speakers. Unfortunately, the DB laws are rarely enforced. If they were, this kind of thing wouldn't happen.

The next time you're out on your boat, walk 50 feet down the dock and listen to see if you can hear the music. If you can, it's way too loud. Additionally, most men loose a lot of their high frequency hearing by age 35 so have a young woman walk with you and ask if she can hear it as well. If you can, it's too damned loud! ;)

Gary :cool:
 
#4 ·
Maybe they were looking to get invited over to the party where the excellent music was playing. Or maybe the wine-drinking ladies think you're hot.

Life is better when you assume the best in the poeple around you.

If I was your marina neighbor and you were listening to music I liked and I could see that you were drinking beer, I'd probably come over and introduce myself.
 
#5 ·
Gary-

If you have a young woman with you, and can hear her speak, then you haven't lost your high frequency hearing. :rolleyes:;)

Marinas are inherently noisy.
People blabbing while walking past, bars blaring music until 2am, cars in the parking lot, and lots of boats and people in close proximity.
I say that in marinas, it's not rude to play music at a respectable volume, until a reasonable hour. If people don't like it, tough sh*t.

Anchorages are where people go for peace and quiet.
I won't run a generator.
I won't play music that can be heard outside of my cabin, at ANY hour.
I keep conversation in the open cockpit at a low volume.
No "wine cackling".
 
#6 ·
I think it sort of depends on the atmosphere at your marina. Ours is small with only a handful of permanent slip holders scattered along two docks.

We have cockpit speakers (came installed when we bought the boat). We rarely use them in the slip (rarely use them at all, really) but when we do, we make sure that anyone standing on the dock looking down into the boat can barely hear the music.

Our slip neighbor directly opposite likes to play his guitar in his cockpit when he returns from his sails. He's OK. No Joe Satriani. We know that his time on his boat is his break from being primary caregiver of his wife so we turn off our music when he's plucking away just out of respect and on the off chance our music would interfere. He probably doesn't care and we never asked if he can hear us, we just do it.

Two slips down our other neighbor plays reggae from his iPhone in his cockpit. Unless we're sitting in his boat, we can't hear it.

The only time we muttered amongst ourselves was when a power boater was there for the week to repair his boat. Boat name "Mad Dog" or "Big Dog" or some such name in two foot letters on his transom and rock music blaring across the marina. We all decided that we'd let it go unless he became a permanent slip holder. No need to cause a fuss if he was leaving eventually anyway. Which he did.
 
#7 ·
put on some good tunes... and everyone around you stares at you like your from Mars.

...

The tunes were from inside the boat and barely audible in the cockpit, but folks were straining to see where the music was coming from.

Here's the funny part. The group who was doing all the looking from accross the fairway did the evening wine drinking thing and the ladies were cackling in no time. You could here them 6 boats away.
Music tastes vary.

"Barely audible" means different things to different people.

Sound travels very well over water.

Someone on the next dock may be hearing your music AND the music from another boat that you can't hear that, together, is really bad.

Boisterous talking, laughing, and "cackling" is just as rude as intrusive music.

Most marinas have quiet hours that should be respected. 10p to 8a is common but you should check the regulations at your own marina.

Those who engage in activities that impact others (music, other noise, smoking, barking dogs) have no organic right to intrude on others. I can't think of anyone ever accused of being too quiet.

Good for you for noticing - the easy next step is to ask "is this too loud for you?" That certainly puts you on the high moral ground when the cackling starts.

My opinions are my own and YMMV.
 
#8 ·
I have cockpit mounted speakers, but don't use them in the marina.

Here in the PNW I rarely hear music being played inside marinas. I've spent the last week in the San Juan Islands staying in state parks, anchored out, and in marinas (right now I'm in Rosario Resort). Last night I was surrounded by lots of big boats since they put my 28' sailboat in a 40' slip, but I still haven't heard any music.

I like it this way.
 
#9 ·
When I was about 19 one of my budies pointed out that it was inherently rude to play music loud enough that others had to listen to it, as though you had some right to expect them to listen to your tunes. That was the last time I played music with the windows down. How would you feel I came over and changed the channel, since we share the same air and I'm forced to listen to them too? Don't I have a right to chose your tunes? I bet you wouldn't like that.

Unless the cabin is closed up, or at moderate volume when well separated from other boats, I don't think there is a place where it is polite to play music. As for the notion that marinas are inherantly loud, you are only perpetuating the problem.
 
#15 ·
Hm...let me clarify a bit:

I don't have cockpit speakers and will never install them. My cabin stereo barely outputs at a level that can be enjoyed up in the cockpit and I have no plans to change that.

In a marina, I would not feel as if I had a right to contest the "Big Dog" powerboat from blaring his music, until the theoretical 10pm quiet hours that Dave alluded to.

I have neighbors that raise a loud racket right up until 10pm in my neighborhood. I don't like it, but I can't do anything until "quiet hours" so I don't hassle them, in order to preserve harmony in the neighborhood.

That doesn't mean that I reciprocate and blare my own music.
My behavior is the same on the boat.
 
#10 ·
I try to keep my music at a level where I can't hear it at all one slip away if played on the cockpit speakers. Since there are music styles I do not like, I assume nobody likes mine either and find it selfish to force others to listen. I sometimes wear a set of Bluetooth earbuds if I am going to being working on the outside of the boat and want some loud rock and roll to keep me going!

Some marinas are strict about outside grilling too.

I installed cockpit speakers in this boat and my previous one.
 
#18 ·
If the music was barely audible in the cockpit, how can people across the fairway hear it?
Many marinas do not allow using a grill - even a small propane Magna type - on your boat when docked there. Are you sure that wasn't the culprit?
These two posts support my point: David E does not know why the neighbors were looking at him or even if they were looking at him. I understood him to say he had his music at low volume, so I assume that music wasn't the cause for attention. Talking with people directly is much more fun and effective than making assumptions about them.
 
#12 ·
Bubblehead, when I have young ladies in the boat, which is much of the time, I do my best to accommodate their wishes and demands. Most of the time, I'm not playing music, just letting them sail the boat, while I prepare their food and mix the Green Coconut Margarettas. Yes, I'm a galley slave, and damned proud of it! ;)

One of the best aspects of sailing Chesapeake Bay is weekday sailing. I usually try to schedule at least one day off in the middle of the week for sailing, mainly because weekend weather and boating traffic usually suck. It rarely rains on Wednesdays or Thursdays, and the winds are usually better, west to northwest, or maybe east, all of which allow me to put the sails up as soon as I get south of the Amtrac Bridge at Havre de Grace. Then I just give the wheel to one of the ladies, go below and break out the chips and snacks, mix a couple cold drinks, and enjoy a beautiful, quiet day on the bay.

I guess because I play music for living nearly every day of the week, and lots of nights, the solitude of sailing and not hearing the music anyplace but in my head is kinda a respite from my day job. No different that anyone else that enjoys a day away from their regular routine.

Cheers,

Gary :cool:
 
#13 ·
Many marinas do not allow using a grill – even a small propane Magna type – on your boat when docked there. Are you sure that wasn't the culprit?

We have great Bose outdoor bookshelf speakers mounted on the davits and totally exposed – they still sound fantastic after 7 years. They're always on when we're there, but we keep it pretty quiet and never have had a complaint or an "eyeroll" at the dock, although we anchor mostly. (Maybe we just have excellent taste in music?)
 
#14 ·
You folks have obviously not met the owners of these kinds of boats... our WHOLE lake gets to listen, because they usually run about 200+ watts, because you know the wake boarder has to be able to hear it (over the 5000+ hp motor)...
 
#41 · (Edited)
AUUGGHHH@@!!!!!!! Don't get me started. There's a section of beach (and I'm not tellin' ANYONE where it is) that you can only get to on land by hiking a few miles. My wife and I love this spot, and it's worth the drive and the hike. Pretty much deserted... totally quiet, and everything else that goes along with totally deserted. 'Nuff said.. ;)

Once last year when we were there, a dead ringer for the boat SHNOOL posted drives up and anchors about 100' away from us, BLASTING the worst noise (like Gary, as a musician, I can't find much music in hip hop.. last I checked, music usually consists of melody, harmony, and rhythm..... not just one of those). Mr. Mid-Life-Crisis eventually waddled a-shore with his bimbo-du-jour in tow to hang on the beach about 30' feet from us.. even though there was a mile of beach available. Fortunately, he was able to crank up his sound system loud enough so it STILL sounded like we were all on the boat with our heads shoved in the woofers. Goody. Thankfully, that's only happened once, but WHAT IS IT WITH PEOPLE?!?!?? How can anyone be so self-centered?

(rant off)

Barry

Edited to add the following..

Now that I've read my post, I can see how it could sound like I was the self-centered person. It's not my beach, I don't own it, and who am I to tell THEM how they should enjoy the beach. Yeah... I can see the other side. I guess I should just say that I can't imagine foisting myself and my taste in music on anyone who's obviously tried to find a place to be alone with his wife. I still think it was rude... but maybe it's just me.
 
#16 ·
We were in Friday Harbor for a week (used that as "home port" while visiting other locations). Pretty sure grilling was not outlawed as everyone was doing it and the port had their people all over the place.

Not wanting to start any serious debate about music, or tastes. I turned it way down to the point of their voices and "cackeling" drowned out what I could hear in my own cockpit.

Understand and respect all points of view. Thanks.
 
#17 ·
At home I have a nice sound system and enjoy listening to it. On the boat, I just don't feel the same need. I do have cockpit speakers, they came with the boat - I suppose one day I might try them to see what they sound like :)
 
#19 ·
So all I need to do to get a young lady down to the boat is tell her "hey, come down the dock with me and tell me if you can hear this."

Cool. I now know a new, surefire pickup line.

Y'all want music? Go to "the river" (lake mojave, havasu, etc...) There you get multi-thousand watt amps to giant speakers on the wakeboard towers. All playing something different, all playing as loud as possible. Even beached feet from each other. Just don't understand that too much.
 
#20 ·
So all I need to do to get a young lady down to the boat is tell her "hey, come down the dock with me and tell me if you can hear this."

Cool. I now know a new, surefire pickup line.

Y'all want music? Go to "the river" (lake mojave, havasu, etc...) There you get multi-thousand watt amps to giant speakers on the wakeboard towers. All playing something different, all playing as loud as possible. Even beached feet from each other. Just don't understand that too much.
We get the wake boarders on our lakes also. They are maybe a small step above jet skiers. I think the speaker thing is an adolescent "Look at me" thing, like their big pickup trucks with huge tires sticking out of the wheel wells & jacked up 2 feet off the ground. The trucks have probably never even been on the dirt.

Playing music where other people have to listen to it is rude.

Paul T
 
#21 ·
where we sail you cannot BBQ on your boat in a marina. You have to use shoreside BBQ. Could be that was what they were looking at.
I like the rule because I cannot imagine liking the neighbors ribs or fish smell if my boat is open. Rarely in the marina are you far enough away from others to share your music or BBQ.
 
#22 ·
My "sound system" consists of one of those very compact, battery powered ipod speakers. It looks a lot like the picture I've attached here. I hang it from the hatchway lock hasp while underway.

I've gone from planning to install an elaborate stereo, to using a really nice boom box, to my current very compact and modest system. While I love and listen to music as much as ever (I'm a former semi-professional musician), I find that don't really want to hear music while I'm sailing. I really enjoy the peace and quiet, or the conversation of my companions. I will sometimes get the thing going while at anchor or at a mooring so we have some background music while we talk/eat/drink, but even that is somewhat rare. My kids sure don't want to hear my music; my wife is sometimes not too keen on my musical taste either. I find that I am now using it mostly at the dock while I putter away at some task or another. After reading this thread, I will be more circumspect about the volume.
 

Attachments

#28 ·
It all has to do with the atmosphere of the marina and who is around. Use a little judgment. At the dock over, there is this own power boat that always comes back from the playpen on Saturdays and Sundays jamming their club music as loud as you ever heard from a boat. It is not the standard marine stereo. It is obnoxious, but it doesn't really bother me.
 
#29 ·
The only way to get people to stop throwing trash out of their cars is to enforce the laws pertaining to that like they do in Washington and Oregon - they fine your @ss $1,500 for each offense and after three offenses, you get a couple weeks in jail.

In Washington, at least when I live there in the late 1960s, they had enforcement folks that went out, looked for highway litter, and figured out who dumped it. They actually went through trash bags on the side of the road, took out the contents and traced the trash back to the people that dumped it. They took them to court, and more often than not, after paying the fine, the judge would frequently sentence them to a couple weekends of picking up trash along the highways with the prisoners from the local detention center and jails. They were not real happy about that, and they had to wear a prison uniform.

Repeat offenders were very few and far between, and during the three years I loved in Spokane, Washington, I never once saw any litter on the side of the roadways.

Additionally, I fished many, many of the lakes and rivers there - they were clean, clear and never had any trash on the shorelines.

I cross Conowingo Dam on the way to my boat each week and if you look just above the dam the cove on the west shore is filled with debris of all descriptions, including several 55-gallon plastic drums, plastic buckets, and huge quantities of plastic water bottles. I would think it would be fairly easy to track those plastic drums, but no one times the time to do this here - they just pick them out of the water and take them to the landfill.

Gary :cool:
 
#30 ·
We don't use marinas at all these days, but when we did, I found most intelligently run marinas will scatter the liveaboards around the marina as an aid to security. But unlike the weekend sailor, our boat is our home, and though I would never intentionally bother others with my music or video noise, I'm going to be comfortable in my home.
At anchor, again, in my home, I will play my music loud enough to be heard where ever I'm working on deck in the daytime, or in the evenings in the cockpit. We almost ALWAYS anchor beyond the last boat, so it's not like we squeeze into the middle of the crowd and disturb everyone. The genset is absolutely indispensable to most of us who cruise, and I feel absolutely no guilt if someone anchors down wind of me. There are usually plenty of spots to windward of us and the second, smaller exhaust on the transom should indicate to any observant skipper that I have, and use a genset.
I've always said that one of the greatest perks of living on a boat is that if you don't like your neighbors, you can move, without packing a single box! It makes a heck of a lot more sense to pick up your anchor and move to another spot in the anchorage, than piss, moan and fume all night about something you can't do diddly about. We all must share the anchorages, but though I do not enjoy the clatter of portable generators around me, I respect the need of those who use them. Down here in the Caribbean, where you often share anchorages numerous times over the year with the same boats, we make note of those who do run noisy portable generators, and usually don't anchor near them again.
I find the cheap, noisy windgens much more intolerable to have around, because, unlike a portable generator, the noisy, cheap windgens make life miserable for everyone around them, 24 effing hours a darned day! There otta be a law!
 
#31 ·
We almost ALWAYS anchor beyond the last boat, so it's not like we squeeze into the middle of the crowd and disturb everyone. The genset is absolutely indispensable to most of us who cruise, and I feel absolutely no guilt if someone anchors down wind of me. There are usually plenty of spots to windward of us and the second, smaller exhaust on the transom should indicate to any observant skipper that I have, and use a genset.

I find the cheap, noisy windgens much more intolerable to have around, because, unlike a portable generator, the noisy, cheap windgens make life miserable for everyone around them, 24 effing hours a darned day! There otta be a law!
Yes, a genset is very useful on a cruising boat but I still think quiet hours should be observed. Run it during the day if you need to recharge batteries, run the AC during the hottest part of the day, etc. but at night please let those of us that wish to enjoy the quiet of the night have our time, as well.
 
#36 ·
... then it's on them, if the genset exhaust bothers them, but w/o the genset, I don't get a hot meal in the morning and evening, never mind refrigeration and battery charging.
Oh dear....

a. No hot meal. No propane or diesel?

b. The refrigeration is that power greedy?

My stove, microwave, and fridge work just fine without generator. Huh?

----------

I guess my standard for quite in an anchorage once the sun goes down is different. Dead quiet. And the notion that I have the right to change that for others is, well, greedy. The notion that someone else should have to move because of me is greedy. The more crowded the anchorage the more it falls to each of us to go above and beyond to be polite.

I'm sure your genset is quiet. I doubt it is dead quiet. As for what is down wind, that changes by the hour in many places and so is a frivolous defense.
 
#40 ·
Oh dear....

a. No hot meal. No propane or diesel?

b. The refrigeration is that power greedy?

My stove, microwave, and fridge work just fine without generator. Huh?

----------

I guess my standard for quite in an anchorage once the sun goes down is different. Dead quiet. And the notion that I have the right to change that for others is, well, greedy. The notion that someone else should have to move because of me is greedy. The more crowded the anchorage the more it falls to each of us to go above and beyond to be polite.

I'm sure your genset is quiet. I doubt it is dead quiet. As for what is down wind, that changes by the hour in many places and so is a frivolous defense.
I am so happy for you that you never have to run a generator, but some of of us just don't have all the modern systems available today. As a matter of fact, when my boat was built, it was against USCG regs to have propane aboard any boat for hire.
As for the wind shifting, you've obviously spent little or no time in the Caribbean, as you can probably count the days a year when the wind isn't easterly, on the fingers of one hand. Anyway, I certainly won't be bothering you in MD.
But I don't really understand why are you even bothering to respond to my post. You would be anchored in ten feet of water up by the beach, with all the other cats, probably half a mile to windward of me. So let's get real here, you certainly wouldn't be able to hear anybody's portable generator, let alone someone's genset, at that distance, up wind. You'll just have to come up with some other excuse for having another sh*tty evening in paradise.
 
#32 ·
I'm installing a genset this year, mainly because my lungs are shot to Hell and it makes breathing a lot easier when I can run the boat's AC system. The one I'm looking at is the Ryobi 2200, which sells for half the price of the Honda 2000, has better specs and is only slightly louder in DB. It also has an idle feature, which allows the generator to drop to idle speed when there is no load. Generally, it's quiet enough to hold a conversation at normal level within 10 feet of the generator running full power. I like that.

I'll have to build a special platform for it on the boat's stern, something similar to a swim platform. I know guys that hang them from the stern rail, but I'm not happy with that arrangement, and I think the platform would provide better protection from exhaust fumes coming into the cockpit. I do, however, highly recommend installing an explosive gas alarm in the cabin, just to be on the safe side. The alarm detects all gasses, including carbon monoxide, even in the tiniest amounts. The alarm is loud enough to wake you from a deep sleep.

Good Luck,

Gary :cool:
 
#35 ·
If you can find a water cooled generator or a genset to install you would probably be a lot happier in the end, if this is something you are going to use a lot.
A few extra dollars spent now could make a huge difference in livability aboard and just not having to deal with gas is worth a lot to many of us. A used RV Onan can be had pretty inexpensively and adding a heat exchanger (but at our age, even salt water cooled, it would probably out last our boating lifespan) and s/w pump, could be done simply and cheaply. Your neighbors would definitely appreciate it.
 
  • Like
Reactions: davidpm
#33 ·
The thing about music is that not everyone around has shares your taste.

So, the balls in your court whether to show neighbors respect or disrespect. I love my music at the dock, too, but if someone gives me just one look, I'll turn it down or off in a heartbeat. Fortunately my immediate neighbors and I all tolerate and enjoy whatever is turned up.

I wish this was the case for the drunk fisherman and his fat bellied buddies who flip on blue tuna-tower LEDs at night and blast pandora country radio - with commercials no less.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top