Cuious. When another sailboat comes near or is in sight do you....

[biorapper]

1) Get skippy on the sail/tiller controls for every milliknot you can muster.

2) Perk up a bit and try to increase your speed somewhat towards or away from said sailboat, but still conversing/checking out the scenery, etc.

3) Heave too, make a drink, and change heading to interdict check out his/her boat and toast a fellow sailor.

4) None of the above.

5) fill in your personal response.

 

[Bill Roosa]

Depends on.....

If the other boat is catching us --- (1)
If the crew is not fully clothed -- (2) away from
If it is after 1700 hours and not dong (2) -- (3)

I have not been doing much of (1) now that my crew knows how to make the boat sail fast. I have been doing more of the (2) and (3) however.

 

[caguy]

Break out the binoculars and see if there are anu naked girls on board.

then act accordingly.
Unless its Novelman, then I'll pull in front of him.

 

[biorapper]

Caguy, if affirmative on the binoc's, that would be some incentive for boat speed!!!

maybe striving for increases of nanoknots!

I tend to bouce back and forth b/t 1 & 3. They both kinda go with sailing comraderie. Course that brings up another ?/idea...full moon, full drink, full monty!!!?

 

[JohnnyMac]

I like Skipper's response

but actually I let the Admiral sit at the helm so it is a woman whuppin 'em

 

[TimCup]

There's an art to sailing, and # 2 is it...

we're ALWAYS racing the other boat, aren't we? If you can pick up an extra knot without putting down your drink, you're a sailor!

We often meet other sailors in Tampa Bay. My wife swears some of them sail while wearing smoking jackets, they are soo cool in the cockpit. We openly were racing friends of ours. Even though we overtook them on their course (our boat points better), the admiral was jealous- our friend simply sat back and sipped his ibation, while I was yelling for her to jettison the head, the icechest, and hinted she might need to take a short swim (wasn't gonna happen...).

I'm finally learning that winning isn't everything. But 2 weeks later, HIS wife let us know how annoyed he was to lose....


cup

 

[Tim R.]

My wife

Is actually the more competitive of us. Last year we did a little cruising with her dad. We sailed out '85 Ericosn 35-3 and he was in his new Etap 39. He was yelling orders at his crew the whole time. My wife did the driving and she calmly directed me to how she wanted to trim the sails. She smoked him every day. It was great because he is always telling us how his boat is sooo much better than ours and how much faster it is. He doesn't like cruising with us any more. Mission accomplished!

 

[Brian D]

Ignore the other boat...

other than to wave and smile. It's just another boat.

 

[sailortonyb Allied Mis]

I agree with BrianD

Relax and enjoy the day.

Tony B

 

[jrocheleau]

Start with 3

I generally start out at number 3, but there is some wierd impulse within me that sometimes makes me lean towards 1. I always stick with 3 if the other crew is at full Monty.

 

[Deadline]

None of the above

I teach a sailing class in which the "collision course" is at once fascinating and important. The Navy theory of "constant bearing, decreasing range" holds that if the treeline behind the distant boat is not moving, we're on collision course. This is all fun and games until the real deal, which is not another boat but rather a buoy. On the York River off the Chesapeake Bay, currents from the tide play havoc and can easily slam a boat unless one pays close attention to CBDR.