Why learning to sail is important

[fxykty]

This guy wasn’t able to control his 34’ sailboat when a gust hit, unable to reef, couldn’t steer once the GPS stopped working (?), and had to be rescued from his boat. The boat was abandoned. Within sight of land in relatively calm conditions. Sheesh.

Boatie winched to safety after five hour ordeal
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/a...ectid=12383232

Maybe we shouldn’t counsel people to just do it and learn on the way?

[thomm225]

This idea could ruin many that are beginner cruisers who like to say...... sailing the boat is only a small part of cruising!

And yeah, we get that but you are on a sailboat and even if it has an engine that you depend on 90% of the time if you are going to cruise you should know how to sail the boat.

You should also have experience in winds above 30 knots or so, know how to anchor without having a calculator handy, and know a bit about what the water is telling you about the depth you are sailing, motoring in even though most depend totally on instruments for that.

[Knotical]

It’s too easy to buy a boat and go out, but not easy to operate a boat properly. There was a thread here not too long ago about the need for some kind of certification for boaters however I am not so sure as even experienced sailors can face a distressful situation and need help, every incident is different. I would just say thanks to all the emergency crew for saving boaters in distress .

[Bill O]

The article said the steering was broken, so would cut him some slack for no steering. Still wouldn't have abandoned ship.

Seen a few people go into panic/frozen mode, so maybe this event was this guy's limit and he couldn't mentally function to get the boat back to shore.

More training/experience is helpful in these situations and one only gains experience over time. Unfortunately he got a tougher test quicker than anticipated.

[grantmc]

There will always be idiots as there always have been.

Fantastic efforts from the boys and girls that risked their own lives to save him.

[JPA Cate]

Imho, fxykty has set us a difficult job. It is to explain how those fun hours of sailing with friends on the boats they were racing establish an inner reference to skills learned long ago, but there to draw on. How that actually works... Part of what one learns comes from hearsay, hearing other people talk about what happened on THEIR boat that was a problem, and how they solved it. Some of it comes from buckling down and just going on with the program when you're feeling seasick and miserable, rather than falling into self pity.

I was very fortunate to crew for a skipper who liked to bring along new crew, and insisted that everyone work all the positions. Someone like that is smart enough to praise you when you do well, thus developing your self-confidence. If you're someone who is motivated by praise, wow, it's really a powerful tool.

We cruisers who started out racing see things done by people we think should know better, like motoring downwind, or upwind for that matter, rather than sailing the boat. It is hard for the inexperienced newbie to know what to fear, and they seem to get to fear at really low wind strengths. Only an opinion, but I think older newbies are more vulnerable to this fear than younger ones.

Anyhow, fxykty, I hope you can help this thread along. I feel pretty sure that racing experience tends to make better sailors of us all, but exactly how, I'm only sure for my own experience. My Jim's the kind of guy who learned long ago to ask himself "what could possibly go wrong?", and then plan for it, so it is he who taught me that, and I think it is useful. One is far less likely to have a really bad surprise leave you wanting to call for help, if you have a plan, and a backup plan. And, of course, help is always going to take a while, for the crew to arrive at the helicopter, to do pre-flight checks, and then travel to where one is awaiting help. So, if you really need help, as in are sinking, call sooner rather than later, you can only tread water so long. But mostly, one's first efforts should be addressed at stopping sinking....at least for lead mines like ours. Maybe, for cats, it's something to do with planning to handle a microburst?

Ann

[ArmyDaveNY]

Originally Posted by fxykty

This guy wasn’t able to control his 34’ sailboat when a gust hit, unable to reef, couldn’t steer once the GPS stopped working (?), and had to be rescued from his boat. The boat was abandoned. Within sight of land in relatively calm conditions. Sheesh.

Boatie winched to safety after five hour ordeal
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/a...ectid=12383232

Maybe we shouldn’t counsel people to just do it and learn on the way?

You are absolutely correct that people need to learn to sail and boat properly. Having said that, there is nothing wrong with learning on the way. I have seen and know plenty of people who have taken all the courses who do the same thing that you described in your first paragraph.

This is true not only in boating, but also in flying, driving, shooting and hunting, mountain climbing, camping, etc. The issue isn't the method of learning, it is what one learns. Sadly, we can teach caution and knowing one's limits, but we can't teach common sense. Worse, too often society trains people to not think and to rely on technology, when it should teach that technology is only a tool that needs to be used with caution,

[SalingSue]

Freedom is very scary for some people.

Salvage rights on that boat??

People make choices, some choose poorly, not all the baby turtles make it to the ocean.

For me, learning how to sail before buying a big sailboat seems very obvious, but lots of rich folks will pile their family into a giant catamaran and set off into the wild blue yonder.

Just salute them as you would a chimp about to be launched into space.

But for the love of Pete, don’t go crying to your government overlords to “do something”

[Hudson Force]

In addition to those wise observations above, I would add that many of us never had the experience of learning to sail on a full size sailboat. Maybe even the majority among us began with the little eight foot prams or little sail "boards" before we were teens. We would press them to their limits, dipping their gunnels and surf them, flip them and experience all the possible wrong moves and corrections. I never sailed a boat big enough to have a cabin before I had a great amount of experience. For many of us it's hard to imagine setting out offshore with the skills we had when we were eight years old. 'sure sounds like the wrong choice.

[ArlyB]

I teach ASA courses and strongly agree with the advice to know your boat and what to do when the weather gets snotty or some emergency arises. Good preparation always starts with have strong knowledge of your boat and how to sail it in bad weather as well as good. Don't wait until you need to reef sails or set an anchor to practice these procedures. The motor on most boat under 50' is listed as "auxiliary power" and primarily meant for maneuvering in small harbors, marinas, mooring fields and other such tight high-traffic areas. A sailboat's primary source of motivation is its sails. On several occasions, I have had to sail a boat into its slip because the motor quite at an inopportune time. When something goes wrong on a boat, any boat, it often is the beginning of a cascade of events that must be dealt with to keep boat and crew safe. I always advise my students to have at least one other experienced sailor on board when going blue water. Reef sails early, before conditions get really ugly, if you see weather coming in. It is much easier/safer to shake out a reef than take one in with howling winds and heaving seas. I once left Martha's Vineyard in a 24' sloop with a steady 12kt breeze and arrived in Woods Hole with a double reefed main and winds 25+ with gusts to 40 and 6-8ft seas.

[TomThumb]

I've sailed for 49 years and been a maritime professional for 36 and counting, so obviously I'm biased.

But the argument to me is always the 'both' but with a formally trained baseline.'

Buy some skis and take a chairlift and work it out for yourself? Or worse, by a car and have a crack? But some think that starting at zero with a boat, even a dinghy off the beach, is OK. I've spent too much time rescuing the inept and the arrogant to agree.

But baseline training is only that and minimal. Even when I have been in command of tall ships and warships, I have undertaken new learning both formally and perhaps more importantly, informally through regular exposure and experience. I'm OK with people accepting high levels of personal risk, as explorers and ground-breakers but rarely do the people who do this successfully not have training as mountaineers, deep sea divers, pilots becoming astronauts and so on.

I see people who have sailed a very long time (often racing sailors) but never left the harbour, been out on a windy day, seen a rig come down or lost steering think they are all set for ocean passaging and are taking off on a circum-nav. My, enthusiastically supporting their desire and plan, is to comment that they have boat handling skills under sail and power, some navigation competence but could use some other training and experience before heading off.

Every time I have ever thought I was on top of my game, the sea has slapped some sense in.

[Jammer]

Originally Posted by JPA Cate

Some of it comes from buckling down and just going on with the program when you're feeling seasick and miserable, rather than falling into self pity. [....] I think older newbies are more vulnerable to this fear than younger ones.

The original motivation for Lawrence Durning Holt to start the Outward Bound program in 1941 was to teach people this kind of tenacity.


Studies of survival at sea conducted in the early 20th century had identified an unwillingness to give up in the face of physical discomfort, difficulty, and hazard as highly correlated with survival.

Originally Posted by ArmyDaveNY

Sadly, we can teach caution and knowing one's limits, but we can't teach common sense.

I don't agree with this, nor do I agree with similar statements that judgment can't be taught except through experience. People can learn through case studies, for example, and planning exercises, particularly with mentorship from others. It takes a good teacher.

[Pegu Club]

As stated by others here, one can not account for circumstances that arise, and are beyond a given persons ability to MacGyver their way out of, not all people possess that type of thinking ability, it is what it is, and, NO! more government oversight will not help, just look at the way people drive their cars... thousands dead annually in the US, and they were by and large licensed and insured drivers. The vast majority of the cruising sailors we know are self taught, or did a basic keel boat class, and learned by reading and doing. The key is to understand that you are never done learning...

Fair winds,

[guyrj33]

In the end we all learn by doing. For most tasks I can usually read a book and then apply that introduction to learning the actual skill.
But that's just me everyone is different.

I do think "It's OK to be scared, but it's not OK to act scared" is a good rule for survival. Recognize the perils of your situation and plan how to change that situation.
as an example if you don't like it when the boat heals over do you scream or do you ease the sheet?

[BugzyCan]

I would love to hear how to steer a boat with no steering. I know you could play with more Jib and less main to go one direction, and the reverse to go the other, but then when you get near land what do you do if you have no communication?

Could you even find Land with no electronics if you did not know where you were?
That kind of steering would be best accomplished (single handed) with roller furling jib and main, but perhaps just a reefed main and roller furling jib would be enough.
Has anyone attempted to steer a boat this way?