Are boat people the best?

We're on a long glide path to live aboard boat living. Having been a sailor since my teens (50's now), I can say that I've not met a kinder, friendlier bunch. Sailing days always yielded new friends, happy hours on various boats of people we had only just met, and a helping hand as needed. Now that we're on the trawler search trying to figure out the next phase, we've been inundated with kindness from folks on this forum and at marinas. We recently were welcomed aboard Catalina Jack by their gracious owners after our blind invitation request so we could understand the pros and cons of a DeFever. They never met us before, yet gladly showed us their gorgeous trawler and the fantastic work they had done. I was walking the docks at a marina we were staying in and struck up a conversation with the owners of Tuscan Sun, a beautiful KK48. They welcomed me aboard to walk through and hear their adventures.

I'm a health care professional. Granted I see people often at their worst, but if everyone were as kind and generous as this community is, the world would be a much better place. And health care providers wouldn't be fleeing.

Hoping I can repay the kindness to this community. First step is to thank everyone who has responded to my posts, offered insights, shared their knowledge, or invited us aboard to see first hand trawler life. Happy holidays...

Happy Holidays back at cha!

Tell us the general size, type and configuration of power vessel you seek. Also, how often and to where do you plan to cruise. Age of vessel, price range, cruise speed, power source, material composition?? Fill us in...

Photos always appreciated!

Happy Boat-Search Daze! - Art

Why should “boat people” be best?
Good that it’s not political tho.

proudsailor said:

We're on a long glide path to live aboard boat living. Having been a sailor since my teens (50's now), I can say that I've not met a kinder, friendlier bunch. Sailing days always yielded new friends, happy hours on various boats of people we had only just met, and a helping hand as needed. Now that we're on the trawler search trying to figure out the next phase, we've been inundated with kindness from folks on this forum and at marinas. We recently were welcomed aboard Catalina Jack by their gracious owners after our blind invitation request so we could understand the pros and cons of a DeFever. They never met us before, yet gladly showed us their gorgeous trawler and the fantastic work they had done. I was walking the docks at a marina we were staying in and struck up a conversation with the owners of Tuscan Sun, a beautiful KK48. They welcomed me aboard to walk through and hear their adventures.

I'm a health care professional. Granted I see people often at their worst, but if everyone were as kind and generous as this community is, the world would be a much better place. And health care providers wouldn't be fleeing.

Hoping I can repay the kindness to this community. First step is to thank everyone who has responded to my posts, offered insights, shared their knowledge, or invited us aboard to see first hand trawler life. Happy holidays...

Click to expand...

Kind and friendly? You're obvious new to TF! LOL. Just kidding, glad to have you. There is a mix of all kinds of people here. Hard to say that we are the best people on earth. I guess we would need to be compared to some other groups to make that determination. I count myself among the "good guys". Not to get anyone riled up, but I tend to think sailboaters have an edge in the niceness category. Luckily, the majority of us started out as sailors.

Before First Mate and I took to sailing in 2002 we were serious motorcycle racers.


Sailing and motorcycling have proved to be a delightful source of friends and aquaintances over the years.


We have come across a few who were best avoided, but most contact with boating and motorcycle folk are very positive.

+1 for motorcycle folks

As generally cool folks to cohabitate social settings with: I add Classic Muscle Car owners. Actually, owners of classic vehicles in general!!

Generally I find the owners of brand new very small-fast luxury type cars and brand new very small-fast luxury type boats the least adaptable to pleasantries in public!

Greetings,
Re: Post #4. "...sailboaters have an edge in the niceness category." Probably because they're sharing the same misery (little to no shelter in all kinds of adverse weather, "racing" along @ 5 knots because there's no wind or it's from the wrong direction, having to make a bridge schedule, living in a cave....I could go on)


And...Re: Post # 5. "We have come across a few who were best avoided." Well, the idea!!!

Some people are just plain grumpy!!

It's a mixed bag as with most parts of life.

Many boaters seem to be nice considerate people, helping each other out, giving advice, offering tours, minimizing their impact on others in public shared spaces, et...

There's also a group of them that cut through the 5MPH zone with swimmers, kayakers and SUP's at 15 knots, waking the entire group and risking hitting someone they don't see soon enough, or the group of people that like to 'Sea Plow' every day with their 1400HP of engines, stern almost underwater, bow riding high sending a massive, breaking wake across the bay just because they can.

There's all kinds.

RT Firefly said:

Greetings,
Re: Post #4. "...sailboaters have an edge in the niceness category." Probably because they're sharing the same misery (little to no shelter in all kinds of adverse weather, "racing" along @ 5 knots because there's no wind or it's from the wrong direction, having to make a bridge schedule, living in a cave....I could go on)


And...Re: Post # 5. "We have come across a few who were best avoided." Well, the idea!!!

Click to expand...

Or sharing the same joy! It's a shame you never got to experience a good day of sailing. Agreed they are not all good, but when they are nothing compares to that on the water. You could probably be most comfortable sitting at home on your couch if that's your idea of a good time! lol

Trawlers wince at a good storm. Sailors rejoice when the wind picks up.

Differences, yes.

But when the trawler anchor sets next to sailor's anchor, a lot of rum and song can be shared.

Wifey B: Are boat people the best?

Or do they just think they are?

I vote for all people who are enjoying the recreational or hobby activities they enjoy.

I've observed over time that people boating or swimming or even gardening for pleasure, traveling, playing tennis are typically so pleasant and often if you find out how they are in their work lives, on their jobs or in business, you're shocked and thinking surely not the same person. Get us away from our stressors and seems most people turn pretty nice.

Our boat peeps here in NY

My wife and mysefl have a big boat family here in Fire Island NY ( DAVIS PARK)
Our summer weekend are always together on a fixed dock with all great ammenities. Our boat peeps are salt of the earth. We still gather during the winter talkin about great memories of past season , anticipatiting our spring launch and plans .......

I'd venture to say that people who are lucky enough to pursue their passions are content, and their dispositions reflect that.

Grateful = Glow of comfortably settled internal calm; often providing acceptance/patience and fun personality

Ungrateful = Unsettled, uncomfortable internal fire; too often empowering irritable personality

Benthic2 said:

I'd venture to say that people who are lucky enough to pursue their passions are content, and their dispositions reflect that.

Click to expand...

+1

It's not that boat people are the best, it's trawler people that are the best!

No, I'm not licking up here, but I have a different perspective wearing my broker's hat, maybe even my female broker's hat.

My first job, pretty much ever, was working as a broker on Fisher Island (the Florida exclusive residential island). I used to live on FI so I thought working for a brokerage that had just opened up there would be easy: sell megayachts to and for my old neighbors. Being one of them and working for them were two different stories. So then I went to work for Richard Bertram. My clients would typically be one guy with 2-3 of his fishing buddies tagging along. I thought shopping buddies for support, but I think it was mostly for an opportunity to use foul language and embarrass the broker. Occasionally a buyer would bring a wife whose only interest was to see how much storage the "kitchen" had.

Once I got a listing on my first trawler (1999), I was introduced not only to a new realm of yachts, but a new world of nice boaters. Typically my clients are couples, always not just polite and respectful, but appreciative. Clients who leave their egos and bad manners at home before they come boat shopping. Whether a buyer or a seller, my clients frequently become life-long friends and I am in touch with dozens decades after I have sold their boat.

While sailboaters are first cousins, the trawler crowd is a group into their own level of nice. Out of maybe 250 trawler sales (that's +/-500 people), I can count on one hand the number of unpleasant clients. And don't forget that includes boat showings, surveys, sea trials, and the business of buying a boat including large sums of money being spent regardless of how "small" the boat, not exactly all kumbaya moments.

I'm not just a trawler fan, but am a trawler owner fan!

backinblue said:

+1 for motorcycle folks

Click to expand...

Angels too?

sunchaser said:

Angels too?

Click to expand...

Angels are a very small percentage of bikers, though many riders in bike clubs are actually good people if you talk to them and not just stare at them as they ride by.

Judy at JWY

Nice story. Good on ya for posting anecdote that has truly personal back up.

Happy Holidays to Everyone!

Based on my experience of five years with a cruising vessel and 30 years with a fishing vessel, I'd say the cruisers are generally more friendly.

Many cruisers are away from home or have been away from their home docks and they know that troubles are inevitable. So they seem to go out of their way to be helpful to other cruisers. Fishing can be a competitive "mine is bigger" type of activity which is not as conducive to lending a helping hand.

I don't know about boaters in general. But, I will say, based on our two long cruises in our boat, that cruisers are some of the nicest and best people we have ever met.

Cruisers are a clear level of friendliness above boaters mostly because they are more relaxed.
Voyagers are a clear level of friendliness above cruisers mostly because you need each other more. A problem halved and all that.
With voyaging you come to help, and be helped by, other voyagers all the time.
The more remote the cruising region the more that happens. Lifelong friendships are easily made and the excitement to see a familiar voyager entering a harbour used to be very real.
I do wonder if that has dropped off a bit with AIS and satellite communications etc.

Yes.

We too were drawn to boating from all the nice people. In our 60’s and just got our first boat. And … a number of are health professionals too and completely get it. Really love the trawler community for sure.

Don't worry...boat people of all denominations are a cross section of society like every other.


The thing that stays constant is people of similar interests relate better...it's really not complicated or surprising.

Jarrow Lily said:

Before First Mate and I took to sailing in 2002 we were serious motorcycle racers.


Sailing and motorcycling have proved to be a delightful source of friends and aquaintances over the years.


We have come across a few who were best avoided, but most contact with boating and motorcycle folk are very positive.

Click to expand...

Same here! Here’s a photo of my pre-sailing day’s ride. It was the most awesome piece of machinery I’ve ever handled although my husband swears his GSXR1000 was better LOL. It was without a doubt the hardest to let go of the things we sold to move into the boat, but we’d had a good run without serious injuries and I was getting a little old to go rip snorting around on the world’s fastest production motorcycle. So we moved onto our Tartan 42 and now onto our Kha Shing 40 at slo-mo. But of an adjustment that was!!

I find the boating community to be like society in general: meet them in person and they are a great bunch. Even the jerk who wakes you as he goes by, would probably be a nice guy if you met him on the dock. In the past year, over 5,000 miles of boating, I've met many people who went out of their way to help with any sort of issue if they could. Truly a first class group of people.

I think part of the reason cruisers are more relaxed and easygoing than most people, is simply that they are off the gerbil wheel and no longer competing in the rat race.

One of the biggest surprises when we went on our first cruise, was finding my high blood pressure gone about four or five months into the cruise, and having to stop taking my medication because my blood pressure was getting too low.

It was like I had forgotten what stress actually felt like. And, I am sure it made me a lot more pleasant to be around.

And, then when the cruise was finally over, and I went back to work for a few years, and finding it had had crept back up, and the next thing you know, I was back on the HBP meds.