Unfriendly Sailors?

[snowleopard]

I have found that, if unfriendliness exists, it is often from those, who believe that their project is infinitely more important than yours. Las Palmas panders to this and turns their harbour over to the ARC. Prices go up through the roof and many people have been turned off the new pontoons to accomodate the ARCies. Once they have gone things return to normal and the local traders are again pleased to see you.

Where are the assumptions in these statements

You are turned off your pontoon by the marina management working with the ARC organizers. Local traders put up their prices to trade off the boom. How do you get from there to the ARC participants thinking they are superior? When I was in Las Palmas there was a 50+ knot squall and the 'evicted' boats in the anchorage started to drag onto the breakwater. Did the ARC crews say 'glad we're safe in here, not out there with the riff-raff'? No, they got out onto the wall fending off boats and helping them re-anchor. My own crew, at considerable personal risk, boarded a boat whose skipper had gone into a funk leaving his wife in hysterics. They successfully re-anchored the boat and saved it from certain destruction.

It seems to me that you are attributing feelings to the participants without evidence in just the same way as we often hear 'He's got a blue ensign, he thinks he's too good to mix with the likes of us'.

[Frankie-H]

You are turned off your pontoon by the marina management working with the ARC organizers. Local traders put up their prices to trade off the boom. How do you get from there to the ARC participants thinking they are superior? When I was in Las Palmas there was a 50+ knot squall and the 'evicted' boats in the anchorage started to drag onto the breakwater. Did the ARC crews say 'glad we're safe in here, not out there with the riff-raff'? No, they got out onto the wall fending off boats and helping them re-anchor. My own crew, at considerable personal risk, boarded a boat whose skipper had gone into a funk leaving his wife in hysterics. They successfully re-anchored the boat and saved it from certain destruction.

It seems to me that you are attributing feelings to the participants without evidence in just the same way as we often hear 'He's got a blue ensign, he thinks he's too good to mix with the likes of us'.

I can only assume that you get your fun from inventing posts from others. What exactly do you not understand:

They sometimes think they are superior

I speak from personal experience.

I would not dream of thinking a blue ensign or a large yacht was superior to me or to anybody else. I used to fly a blue ensign and know many large yachts. I am saddened that you would think in this way.

I am very glad that your strong wind story in Las Palmas had a happy ending and I would assume that, having done the passages from their homes most of the ARC participants were good and competent sailors. Sadly as in all walks of life not all are so blessed. I would assume that any responsible seaman would help those in trouble on the sea. Indeed it is a requirement.

[Downsman]

I was in Denia on the Spanish coast in 2010, a smart marina and some really nice boats in there at the time. They put me on a pontoon opposite an immaculate classic French registered Yawl. Gleaming bright work, polished brass deck vents and a cream coloured cockpit awning with fancy side curtains neatly rolled up.
A lady was laying the cockpit table for a meal, different size wine glasses, silver ware, table cloth, the whole shootin' match. There was a girl of about 12 and a little lad about 5 with her, both well scrubbed and neatly dressed.

As a single hander sometimes I forget to eat if I'm busy and having just come in from sea I realised I was starving but low on stores. Check the galley locker..2 eggs, bread and butter, small tin ring pull top baked beans and in the 12 volt cooler box a couple of pre-cooked sausages...That'll do..

Using all my culinary skills I bashed the eggs up in a frying pan, buttered some bread and made a big mug of tea. Deciding to save the washing up I thought I'd eat the eggs from the frying pan, so I climbed out into my cockpit with a frying pan in one hand, still sizzling..a mug in the other with the bread balanced on top. I had a fork in my mouth with 2 sausages speared on it and the tin of beans down inside my 'T' shirt.

I sat down and looked up..3 pairs of eyes watched me..silence..the girl clung to her mother, the little boy grinned at me. I started to eat the sausages from the fork and the 'omelette' from the frying pan..still they watched..eyes wide in horror..then the woman said something.

A small Frenchman complete with thin curly moustache appeared from the Yawl's galley and glared at me...
I reached into my 'T' shirt, took out the beans and pulling the lid off took a fork full. The girl gasped "Mama!" and clutched her mother, the little lad went into a fit of laughter as the man leapt into the cockpit and with a dramatic flourish loosed the cockpit side curtains which unrolled and the horror struck French folk disappeared from my view. A second later the little boys head re appeared smiling under the curtain but he was promptly dragged back to civilisation in the French cockpit..
I bet they tell tales of the ruffian who berthed opposite them..

[Baggy]

I was in Denia on the Spanish coast in 2010, a smart marina and some really nice boats in there at the time. They put me on a pontoon opposite an immaculate classic French registered Yawl. Gleaming bright work, polished brass deck vents and a cream coloured cockpit awning with fancy side curtains neatly rolled up.
A lady was laying the cockpit table for a meal, different size wine glasses, silver ware, table cloth, the whole shootin' match. There was a girl of about 12 and a little lad about 5 with her, both well scrubbed and neatly dressed.

As a single hander sometimes I forget to eat if I'm busy and having just come in from sea I realised I was starving but low on stores. Check the galley locker..2 eggs, bread and butter, small tin ring pull top baked beans and in the 12 volt cooler box a couple of pre-cooked sausages...That'll do..

Using all my culinary skills I bashed the eggs up in a frying pan, buttered some bread and made a big mug of tea. Deciding to save the washing up I thought I'd eat the eggs from the frying pan, so I climbed out into my cockpit with a frying pan in one hand, still sizzling..a mug in the other with the bread balanced on top. I had a fork in my mouth with 2 sausages speared on it and the tin of beans down inside my 'T' shirt.

I sat down and looked up..3 pairs of eyes watched me..silence..the girl clung to her mother, the little boy grinned at me. I started to eat the sausages from the fork and the 'omelette' from the frying pan..still they watched..eyes wide in horror..then the woman said something.

A small Frenchman complete with thin curly moustache appeared from the Yawl's galley and glared at me...
I reached into my 'T' shirt, took out the beans and pulling the lid off took a fork full. The girl gasped "Mama!" and clutched her mother, the little lad went into a fit of laughter as the man leapt into the cockpit and with a dramatic flourish loosed the cockpit side curtains which unrolled and the horror struck French folk disappeared from my view. A second later the little boys head re appeared smiling under the curtain but he was promptly dragged back to civilisation in the French cockpit..
I bet they tell tales of the ruffian who berthed opposite them..

Whilst at anchor, rummaging around for lunch, I found a stale slice of bread in the galley.
ahh the fish can have this, so I went into the cockpit and threw it over the side.frisbee style.
I underestimated the aerodynamics of the bread plus the wind blowing, and it glided about 40 yards into the cockpit and down the hatch of another boat...

Oh bugger...I dive back into the saloon and peered out to see a big fella head stick out..
not looking to happy....

[laika]

Anyone ever shared a pontoon with the clipper boats?

Go on then, I'll ask ....WHY'S THAT THEN?

A very interesting study in a group of people (both staff and customers) for whom nobody else in the marina seems to exists. In 18 months on the same pontoon as their boats there was not a single spontaneous "good morning" and the number of responses to my greetings (I didn't give up trying) could be counted on one hand: Always from customers incidentally, never from staff. Other manifestations of the lack of awareness of others went into the downright inconsiderate, but let's stick on the subject of basic friendliness...

Certainly initially it would be natural for people in a new and challenging environment to be shy. I also understand the staff's focus on inward-looking team-building but I do think it a shame that there's apparently nothing in the curriculum about being part of a wider community

[snowleopard]

They sometimes think they are superior

Ah, telepathy, I never got the hang of that.

[GrahamM376]

I would not dream of thinking a blue ensign or a large yacht was superior to me or to anybody else. I used to fly a blue ensign and know many large yachts. I am saddened that you would think in this way.

Unfortunately, some people who fly the blue think they are superior to those who don't. I've met people who admit to having joined but never frequenting clubs, just to obtain a warrant, because they see the defaced blue as a status symbol.

Some? of those who fly the white seem to hold themselves even higher in the pecking order. We were having a hell of a job getting alongside in Bourgenay one time, with the wind blowing us off. The crews (aged hooray Henries) of 3 boats flying whites just sat there watching and not one offered to take a line.

[Lakesailor]

rowed over to the one superyacht and invited them over, expecting a snobbish rebuff and was surprised to find the owner was delighted. He was lonely because all the people in little boats usually avoided him.

I was very pleased to accept the invitation.

It was much more pleasant than the time we moored near a scruffy sod who ate his evening meal from a frying pan and had a tin of cold beans.

[Downsman]

Mon Dieu!! Lakey..You flash Froggie .....

[ukmctc]

we fly the only true blue......NewZealand flag, that really confuses most folk.