Too much scary stuff ?

[sailorboy1]

Does anyone other than me feel we spend too much time talking about scary stuff?

All the ships at sea that get lost get posted and debated. Even the magazines are using their limited article space on these? Sailing magazine always has a story of a trip that had problems and they then spin as a lessons learned.

Anyone who finds out about my sailing/cruising plans goes right into the "aren't you worried about the storms and pirates" line of questions.

On the other side we seem to rarely hear of the good things that are the majority!

So how about all your out there doing it, of been then done it, post some good glorious trip stories etc.

Sure "stuff" happens and we need to learn from it to plan for it. But it doesn't happen as much as one would believe from stories etc or we would stop doing it!

Or ................ is the whole thing some kind of plot to scare people away to have more room for those that are left?

[justwaiting]

Originally Posted by Don Lucas

Does anyone other than me feel we spend too much time talking about scary stuff?

All the ships at sea that get lost get posted and debated. Even the magazines are using their limited article space on these? Sailing magazine always has a story of a trip that had problems and they then spin as a lessons learned.

Anyone who finds out about my sailing/cruising plans goes right into the "aren't you worried about the storms and pirates" line of questions.

On the other side we seem to rarely hear of the good things that are the majority!

So how about all your out there doing it, of been then done it, post some good glorious trip stories etc.

Sure "stuff" happens and we need to learn from it to plan for it. But it doesn't happen as much as one would believe from stories etc or we would stop doing it!

Or ................ is the whole thing some kind of plot to scare people away to have more room for those that are left?

Don you are right, i secretly lust for a hunter to take off shore and am trying to scare every one out of the market so i can get the one of my dreams for next to nothing.


Seriously my interest in the boat sinking accident situations is that regardless of what gets posted in CF people see these stories. So lets discuss them so that we can see there are very few accidents, more often mistakes and omissions. What is disappointing is where this is done in such a way so as to critics as a way of attacking other from the safety of a key board.

[Zednotzee]

Originally Posted by Don Lucas

is the whole thing some kind of plot to scare people away to have more room for those that are left?

Maybe for the uninitiated it's scary. I think it's an indication of how safety-minded the sailing community is. You can't afford to learn from each possible mistake on a personal basis, so you have to learn from the mistakes of others.

It's similar in the aviation world. There is a lot of information, books, etc regarding accidents & crashes. I'm sure you know some people who are nervous about flying, but many people are not put off by this sort of stuff.

Once people understand the actual risk factors & the statistics behind these worst-case scenarios, most can put their phobias behind them.

I much prefer this horror tales being discussed among those it can help than to adopt a head-in-the-sand approach that would cause even more mayhem.

[rebel heart]

I bet there are more trysails and sea anchors out there than drifters.

[boatman61]

Originally Posted by rebel heart

I bet there are more trysails and sea anchors out there than drifters.

Clever.....

[mjwarner]

Originally Posted by Don Lucas

Or ................ is the whole thing some kind of plot to scare people away to have more room for those that are left?

Yes.
Seriously though, knowledge is power. In the same way that officers look at past battles to see what worked and didn't, we can learn from these incidents and with due diligence, remain safer out there.
Besides, you're from NH. What else is there for a sailor to do in winter?

[rebel heart]

As a friendly tip to my fellow male sailors, I'd remind you all to not scare the hell out of your spouses. I learned long ago that reading out of Heavy Weather Sailing to my wife and showing her pictures of Force 12 seas served no valid purpose. Sailing makes her a better sailor, and scaring the **** out of here doesn't make her want to go sailing.

[jackdale]

Prepare for the worst, hope for the best.

[SteveT]

If you are a pessimist you may be pleasantly surprised; if you are an optimist life can be sh*te, and possibly short.

[rebel heart]

Originally Posted by SteveT

If you are a pessimist you may be pleasantly surprised; if you are an optimist life can be sh*te, and possibly short.

No one wants to hang out with pessimists and they're generally a pretty unhappy and bitter lot. You can still take safety seriously without being a mega kill-joy.

[capttman]

I once was lost....... But now I am found..... WTH talking fun stuff is boring... hehe

[sailorboy1]

Originally Posted by rebel heart

As a friendly tip to my fellow male sailors, I'd remind you all to not scare the hell out of your spouses. I learned long ago that reading out of Heavy Weather Sailing to my wife and showing her pictures of Force 12 seas served no valid purpose. Sailing makes her a better sailor, and scaring the **** out of here doesn't make her want to go sailing.

Partly the reason I started this thread. My wife comes downstairs from the "reading room" talking about a scar story in Cruising World. It had taken years to get her over some of these fears and now ...

[SteveT]

Pessimists are so much fun though - they are endlessly inventive when it comes to new and horrible ways to screw up! My management is full of them; never a month goes past without some new, never heard of disaster which may remotely happen and needs to be 'managed', usually at the cost of another 100 hectares of rain forest worth of paper. (Anyone remember Y2K for example?)

[Kettlewell]

bet there are more trysails and sea anchors out there than drifters.

I've used all three, multiple times. If I hadn't been able to read a lot about them before hand I wouldn't have had as good a result. Don't worry, there are tons of people out there, probably the majority, that have no idea what trouble they can get in.

[rebel heart]

Originally Posted by Kettlewell

I've used all three, multiple times. If I hadn't been able to read a lot about them before hand I wouldn't have had as good a result. Don't worry, there are tons of people out there, probably the majority, that have no idea what trouble they can get in.

I've never had to deploy a sea anchor yet, nor been in anything I'd consider "survival" conditions. Would be more than happy to continue my sailing adventures with that record although I'm sure someday the odds will catch up with me.