Why I love newbe boat owners

[Leeward Rail]

One wonders why you felt the need to capitalize "service manager".
Delusions of grandeur?

Lol far from it. In fact i wouldn't wish it on anyone. In the automotive field it is rare that someone is happy they get a repair bill.

Titles dont impress me much. When I worked in broadcasting I avoided telling people what i did, because of the goofy reactions i would get.

My favourite job was being self employed with no employees. My goal is to go back to that eventually.

FWIW, I constantly undergo a fight between laziness and "correct" typing. Lazy usually wins but it depends on the device I am using. Heck, I just edited this post to fix/capitalize the I s

 

[Leeward Rail]

@Mike4116 has a good point. Lets take a close look at some of the words we use...

That applies to many fields of endeavour.
The problem i have is people who can't seem to make an effort to learn. Very common among powerboaters in my experience. Less so for sailors.

 

[Ralph Johnstone]

Peggie your post appears to poke fun or even ridicule people new to boating and it's unique problems.

If anyone were to use "whatchamacallit", "doohickey", and "whatever" in a sentence to query anything ............... cooking, camping, or car racing ................... I'd have to raise an eyebrow (or split a gut laughing).

Ask a question but don't make yourself out to be a fool .

 

[Ralph Johnstone]

Very common among powerboaters in my experience.

So you know the same fools in my marina ?

 

[Leeward Rail]

Ask a question but don't make yourself out to be a fool .

I prefer people to be up front about it.

That said, at the shop I had taken on the habit of jokingly calling any tool that is long and thin a "pokey stick". The young guys were never sure if I was serious.

I also occasionally say Gwa-Com-a-LAY. AND Ah-vack-a-doo. For fun, because some people actually say it that way.

 

[rgranger]

Well if you are ever in central Virginia and say A-pomm-A-Tox you might get shot.

 

[Kings Gambit]

Excerpt from Two Years Before the Mast sums it all up. Dana on the day of departure from New England on the brig, Pilgrim.

"I could take but little part in all these preparations. My little knowledge of a vessel was all at fault. Unintelligible orders were so rapidly given and so immediately executed; there was such hurrying about, and such an intermingling of strange cries and stranger actions, that I was completely bewildered. There is not so helpless and pitiable an object in the world as a landsman beginning a sailor’s life."

 

[Will Gilmore]

@Mike4116 has a good point. Lets take a close look at some of the words we use...

What is Port? Is it a window? Is it a glass of wine? Is it the left side of your boat but only when facing forward?

What is cordage? Well it is either a piece of rope (if it is not being used -- wait!--- what?) or a line. But if it is a line.... we won't call it a line... we will call it something like halyard, main sheet or rode....

Then there are stays... which are only stays if they are fore or aft.... otherwise, they are shrouds. I mean... it would be crazy to call them side-stays (or would that be athwart stays)

Even more basic:
boat, vessel, ship, yacht, barque, craft, sailboat, dinghy, tender, launch, floaty thing...
Ocean, the Pond, sea, gulf, sound, body of water, body of evidence, the big blue wet thing...

-Will (Dragonfly)

 

[Will Gilmore]

Peggie your post appears to poke fun or even ridicule people new to boating and it's unique problems.

Mike, I don't see where Peggy mentions anything about newbies. Perhaps there's a little preconception read into the initial post?

-Will (Dragonfly)

 

[justsomeguy]

I don't see where Peggy mentions anything about newbies.

Perhaps she misspelled it in the title of the thread?

 

[Will Gilmore]

Well... I sure missed that one.

-Will (Dragonfly)

 

[Stu Jackson]

Peggie your post appears to poke fun or even ridicule people new to boating and it's unique problems. When I first started boating in 1992 I didn't know >>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
To scoff at newbies who don't know the terms of boating repair seems inappropriate and mean spirited.>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Mike,

Perhaps you missed the point. The way I read it wasn't "scoffing." Why? Because in her business, literally, people are always asking her how to fix things, usually they are remote from her location, and rarely (based on my experience on this and many other boating forums) post useful photos, if any at all. Her point was that if somebody wants help at least they ought to spend the time to be able to identify what it is they are asking about.

While I understand the newbies' challenge of learning new names of a LOT of parts, a more humorous approach to a newbie's question like that, to Peggie specifically, would be: "OK, first, are you asking about your head (toilet) or a sink?"

I understand from a career in forensic building system investigations. One day someone asked an engineer, "How big an electrical and HVAC load is there for 100,000 square foot building?" The engineer answered firmly, with specific numbers. I happened to overhear, and before the questioner peeled away to use those answers in whatever calculation they were doing, I said, "Wait, wait! You forgot to ask the other critical part of the question." Both of them looked up and said, "Huh?" I said, "Are you asking about a hospital or an office building?" The answers will be quite different, sometimes by a factor of three or more!

Same thing: head or sink?

 

[chasfrank]

My favorites, that I still use... ( 'cause memory IS the 2nd thing to go with age) goezinta, and goezonta........ie: the thingamabob that goezinta the dohickey.............or the whatchamcallit that goezonta the flamastrat.................

 

[Leeward Rail]

You missed the Goesunta. When i was a kid we had trailer without a toilet, but a chamber pot for us kids. Why Goesunta ? It was stored under the bed at night.

 

[Will Gilmore]

When i was a kid we had trailer without a toilet, but a chamber pot for us kids.

I'd say "EUOO!", but I spent 3-1/2 years with two brothers in the aft cabin of our schooner; no connection to the main cabin, no head, only a community pee jug, we kept behind the ladder. If you need to, in the middle of the night, you hoped it wasn't raining and the folks weren't up.

That pee jug was... well..., hard to describe. Often full when you needed it.

-Will (Dragonfly)

 

[smokey73]

I said it was a factory job; up in Madera, CA. Vulgarity encountered there was only surpassed several years later spending a few nights aboard a working vessel manned by navy and ex-navy sailors. One adjective for everything there as well!

On our Submarine the last week of patrol we would put out a large silver bowl in the wardroom. Every time you cursed you had to put a quarter in the bowl. The bowl filled up pretty fast. The Engineer would come in, throw a fistful of quarters in the jar and start "adjusting" us division officers. He never seemed to run out of quarters! He was one of the few former enlisted Engineer Officers on a Nuclear Submarine I had served with of but was probably the best Engineer I ever served under. Hard habit to break among a group of sailors. Those were the days.

 

[Will Gilmore]

Years ago, I read a murder mystery in which the murderer sailed down the east coast to get far away from the scene of his crime. He was described as a competent sailor who knew boats. He had chosen a "classic racing sloop" for its great speed at sea. He knew all about trimming the main and the mizzen to get the most out of his speed.

A website about an old time sailing ship and her restoration used both schooner and sloop to describe the four masted vessel.

One would think that if you don't know the types of rigs of a sailboat, you know little enough not to think you know much. AND, if you're going to write about it for the general public, basic research should quickly give at least that much education.

-Will (Dragonfly)

 

[Leeward Rail]

only a community pee jug, we kept behind the ladder

I must say...One of the major benefits of being a male is the ability to pee over the side.

I assume the jug was emptied before any storms. The idea of it coming loose...

Good to see we are finally on topic for the headmistress.

 

[rgranger]

I'd say "EUOO!", but I spent 3-1/2 years with two brothers in the aft cabin of our schooner; no connection to the main cabin, no head, only a community pee jug, we kept behind the ladder. If you need to, in the middle of the night, you hoped it wasn't raining and the folks weren't up.

That pee jug was... well..., hard to describe. Often full when you needed it.

-Will (Dragonfly)

Uh yeah...
.. I gots one of dez on my boat

 

[Will Gilmore]

Ours looked like this

-Will (Dragonfly)