Messing About in Boats
Why We Do Things the Way We Do
“Believe me, my young friend, there is nothing — absolutely nothing — half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats.”
said the Water Rat to the Mole. — Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows
I’m 75-years old and I guess I’ve had a connection with boats and saltwater ever since my father first took me out onto Narragansett Bay — in an outboard-powered Quahog skiff — some 65-years ago. Since then, I have traveled and worked all over the world. Narragansett Bay always draws me home. Saltwater is probably in my blood — at least since my great-great-grandfather immigrated from Scotland to fish the Gulf of Maine and the Grand Banks.
Some of the transcendent spiritual experiences of my life have occurred out on the water — like the 30 minutes I spent surrounded by a pod of humpback whales while I was single-handing my 20-foot Pacific Seacraft Flicka, Chloe, from Portland, Maine to Point Judith, Rhode Island. I can still see that huge brown eye — less than 8-feet away — looking into mine and recognizing a fellow sentient being.
Not too long ago, with the help of a good friend, I was able to build a boat we named About Time — a boat very much like that Quahog skiff my father took me out on so long ago. My beautiful, talented daughter and her equally talented husband have been kind enough to provide a home for About Time in a cove just off Narragansett Bay. Last Sunday, near the end of October, we were out on the Bay enjoying what was probably some of the last good boating weather of the season. The photo, above, of another boat was taken as we were heading back into harbor at the end of our day.
About Time is a sound, seaworthy boat — with foam-filled buoyancy chambers that will keep her upright and floating even if she gets swamped — but she is less than 16-feet long. I noticed — as large powerboats passed too close to us while throwing huge wakes — that what used to be common boating courtesy seems no longer to be practiced. At best, these thoughtless boaters were subjecting us to needless discomfort — at worst, they were placing us in needless danger.
That led me to think about why the customs and courtesies of seamanship and boat handling exist (even if too many clueless boaters ignore them). To the uninitiated, many nautical customs, practices, and courtesies may seem a bit anal-retentive. Please let me assure you that they are not. They exist for one reason, and one reason only — safety. They exist to compensate for a fatal weakness in human physiology — we cannot breathe water. We lost that ability when our ancient ancestors made the move from water onto dry land.
Fundamental to boating courtesy and safety is the principle that you never deliberately put your passengers or other boats and boaters in danger. Throwing a 5-foot high wake near a small open boat is not only discourteous, it is dangerous. It is also illegal and makes the offender liable for any damages or injuries.
You may have noticed the lack of paved roads out on the water. The basic nautical rules of the road exist to help us avoid crashing into each other, breaking our boats or ourselves — and perhaps drowning — because there are no center lines or street signs.
Navigational aids such as the green bell buoy, above, are there to help us find our way and avoid running aground or colliding with submerged objects. Of course, they cannot help much if we don’t know how to read them and what they are telling us.
Some people think proper boating knots are an affectation — a meaningless display of boating snobbery, like a secret handshake. In reality, they are the result of centuries of practical experience and they are used because they work to keep us safe. Boating knots, must meet a couple of critical requirements: first, they must not come loose or slip under a load, and second, one must be able to untie them even while they are under a load.
A knot that will slip or accidentally come untied when in use can be very dangerous to both a boat and its passengers. It can let an anchored or moored boat come adrift and become a hazard to itself and others. A knot that gives way under a load can cause equipment to fail and endanger a boat and its occupants.
When things go wrong on the water, they can go from bad to worse frighteningly fast. The more quickly one can respond to a problem the easier it is to fix. For example, if your boat is attached to the cleats of a dock when the current is running fast and an out-of-control boat is bearing down on you, you’d better hope that you used the easy to untie (under a load) cleat hitch when you tied up — not the tangled bird’s nest knot I often see now days.
There are few things more enjoyable and satisfying than messing about in boats — but the water can be dangerous if you do not give it the proper respect. The more you know, the safer you are.
