A lot of bridges, including the Swing Bridge I have to pass to get to Buzzards Bay don't let sailboats pass under sail. There's just too much risk if the wind fails or changes direction. Also, a sailboat with its sails up can take up a lot more space than it does motoring... think of how far the boom swings out...
Well, the motor can f... up too, you know...
I understand your point, it's just that that's what I've been doing and so many other sailboaters around that area...
That's why I like my outboard... Push out, push the button, and go...
__________________
" I refuse to engage in an intellectual battle with an unarmed man!"
Materialism: Buying the things we don't need, with money we don't have, to impress people who don't matter.
Sail will rule then, again, like it did once before.
Too bad none of us will live to see it....
__________________
'84 Merit 25 # 764
Please contact me if you're looking for a crew member for racing, cruising or daysailing. PM's prefered over email.
"One day, the fuel will all run out."
And one day the sun will consume itself and explode. Till then, there never will be any fuel shortage--there will only be a question of fuel COSTS. The US already has a 400-year supply of fuel in coal alone, and Hitler ran the German war machine on gas made from coal. We can do it too--it just is going to cost you $5/gallon, pre-tax. Once it hits $5/gallon, that price can stabilize for a hundred years or so, and we'll be in the position of selling it to OPEC, where the petroleum supplies will have run out.
Sail come back? Only if the economics allow for "damn slow shipping" instead of fuel. Right now fuel is "expensive" but SO CHEAP that we routinely air freight fruit out of season and ornamental flowers halfway around the globe.
Sail? More likely wind turbines would be used to produce and store power to fuel ships, than "sail" to become an economic competitor again.
Hi. I reactivate this post with an idea that my be usefull for you. I have used it on the road but should be ecqually valid sailing. (I don't have this kind of problems sailing because here things are highly regulated -like Giu said regarding Portugal-)
I have set my mobile phone (with built in videocamara) so that I can start filming very easily (with one of the direct shortcuts). When someone driving like a j...k gets close to my rear bumper or does something stupid, I take my mobile phone and make very obvious with my body language that I am filming him.
If what he is doing is not legal, the effect should be automatic: they usually refrain and get away. If they don't, you have a nice piece of evidence you can provide the USCG with!
My only thought on this thread is that a lot of times power boaters don't even know enough about sailboats to interact with them on the water. I once overheard a power boater telling a novice power boater that the best thing to do around sailboats was to "stay away" because "they do weird things" and I just chuckled at that. Because it's true, from a power boater's perspective, sailboats do act in very unusual ways, and if you don't know anything about sailboats you really can't predict what a sailboat is going to do next. We turn at weird times and in the most unlikely directions, we get mad about stuff that makes no sense to a power boater, our behavior changes depending on wind and water conditions, etc. If you don't know how to sail, and most power boaters don't, then you really have no basic understanding of what a sailboat captain is even trying to do when you see one on the water. I think most power boater's reactions when a sailboat captain gets angry is akin to wondering why someone gets mad that you stepped on a bug, that is to say ... they know you're mad, and they know they stepped on a bug, but they just don't understand that you are a bug collector and this was the first bug of this kind that you've ever found in 30 years of searching lol. They have no idea why you get mad when they are cruising along beside you to windward at the same speed making it impossible for you to tack, they have no idea that you need deeper water than they do, etc ... they just don't get it.
__________________
What are you pretending not to know ?
We were out on patrol this weekend (Coast Guard) when ti started really raining. The we got a call for a job...took them intow and were bringing them back in....there is a bridge over the creek entrance to our base and the public ramps where we were taking him...
We found that the underside of the incoming lane beneath the bridge wasompletely full of about six small fishing boats staying out of the rain and fishing under the bridge, totally blocking the channel. We are towing in a disabled boat with the waves washing up the creek up our butts and run across this scene.
Get on the loudhailer and "ask" them to move...Four of them move in under a minute, one fuddles about trying to get organised and one guy yells back "Yeah, hang on mate! We've got one on the hook, you can go through when we've finished" The expression and colour that our skippers face went was most amusing...as long as you did not let your amusement show.
(We were flying our "restricted in manuevering day shapes" running our tow lights and using our spinning emergency services lights which we normally flick on for a second as we pass under the bridge with a tow on. But having a flathead on the hook takes precedence in maritime law to all that, apparently.)
You really needed to video tape all of them and take names... staying dry is not a valid reason to block a navigation channel IMHO.
__________________
Sailingdog Telstar 28
New England
You know what the first rule of sailing is? ...Love. You can learn all the math in the 'verse, but you take
a boat to the sea you don't love, she'll shake you off just as sure as the turning of the worlds. Love keeps
her going when she oughta fall down, tells you she's hurting 'fore she keens. Makes her a home.
—Cpt. Mal Reynolds, Serenity (edited)
If you're new to the Sailnet Forums... please read this POST.
Linear Mode
