Bluewater sailing - how much knowledge & experience is enough?

[carstenb]

Originally Posted by ArtM

Then, someday, you will be on CF grousing about all the gizmo kids who can't sail a boat without an electronic Nanny beeping and buzzing in their ears, and that a man should be able to sail a boat by his wits and muscle and eyes and ears alone, and anyone who can't do that probably shouldn't be at sea.

Damn Art - I really happy you're not referring to any of the regular posters on this site.

I mean Those of us who really know how to sail just hate it when someone claims they know how

[ArtM]

Originally Posted by carstenb

Damn Art - I really happy you're not referring to any of the regular posters on this site.

I mean Those of us who really know how to sail just hate it when someone claims they know how

But that's how I recognize the "Truly Experienced Sailors" on this forum!

[Strikhedonia]

Too many people get scared away from blue water sailing by the blowhards who think it takes years of experience. If you have common sense, a bit of sailing experience, and are mechanically inclined - then you can go anywhere in the world.

Life is full of dangers - don't let fear lock you in your house - get out there an find adventure!

[tropicalescape]

Originally Posted by Andrew Troup

I fully agree with your other point, but I think this first one needs to be taken in a more limited context, because it seems to me there's a crucial difference between planes and boats:

How many planes do you find drifting around the sky weeks or months after being abandoned?

Sometimes people knock themselves out trying to look after the boat at times when the boat is perfectly capable of looking after itself.

You sometimes need to harbour your resources in bad conditions, so that you're fully available, should something happen such that you suddenly DO have to look after the boat.

We put two bags of dog food in a Pteroadactyl Ascender and one gallon of fuel once and it flew around for about 45 minutes before it crashed into the firing range! No pilot or remote control,when it ran out of gas it never did drop off on a wing tip or stall out.(it had a canard and when it was about to stall out it would porpose and recover,that last recovery did very little damage as it was about to level out when it hit the ground! ..

[foolishsailor]

Bluewater sailing is a lot like flying, in that really anyone can do it.

Flying a plane is something fairly easy to learn, like sailing.

Crossing oceans is actually very easy nowadays as well. Sail a good distance away from land, point the boat at another point across the ocean, turn on the autopilot and go. None of us like to admit that the above steps are really all there is to it....

As long as nothing breaks....

As long as the weather doesn't get bad...

As long as....???

Sailing is easy, cruising is easy. It is having the skills an knowledge to deal with problems that arise like; weather, damage, system failures etc.

If you spend more time learning about weather, you own boats systems, develop basic skills than you do trying to be a perfect sailor then you will do well as a cruiser.

Being a good bluewater cruiser is not difficult but it usually takes time so that one can be exposed to different unpredictable events and respond to them and then learn from this...

...however how does one get exposed to new and difficult situations if one doesn't start cruising?

That said, if you can cross an ocean with a good skipper, especially a delivery skipper who is usually forced to go the wrong way, at the wrong time, on the "wrong boat" - you will learn loads and quickly.

Like many have said earlier in the thread, when you feel you are ready you probably are.

[Wannabe-007]

I think that the more proficient we become at something, the more we forget that there are a myriad of technical skills that we possess... technical skills that are taught and deliberately learnt as opposed to just picked up.
for example, heaving to, deploying a drogue or sea anchor, setting a normal anchor, reading cardinal markers, charts, weather maps, interpreting symbols, lights and day shapes, sailing without a rudder, paper based nav... the list is quite long.
People like to say 'just do it' and 'its easy'... but I think we forget that actually, its only easy because you know how. Brain surgery is pretty easy too... if you're a brain surgeon. There are a whole bunch of skills that people should be encouraged to learn before they set off on their own. After all, we will turn on them with great savagery if they take our advice, 'just do it', and subsequently screw it up.

Originally Posted by foolishsailor

That said, if you can cross an ocean with a good skipper, especially a delivery skipper who is usually forced to go the wrong way, at the wrong time, on the "wrong boat" - you will learn loads and quickly.

I think this is a really good idea. Joining a delivery crew should cut down on the amount of 'skipper checking' you need to do.

[Strikhedonia]

Keep in mind things happen very slow... on a sailboat - unlike an airplane. I bet 95% of the sailboats abandoned for lifeboats turn up just fine floating around somewhere. Can't say that about an airplane. Cruising is easy - not to say that experienced sailors won't get there faster and do it with more style - but if the goal is going from A to B it doesn't take much experience. Get off your butt and get out there and explore. No better way to learn.

[gjordan]

The airplane to boat comparison is somewhat valid , in that being prepared and paying attention to what is really important (FLY THE AIRPLANE) matters, but that is where the similarities end. I do both, flying small airplanes and sailing small vessels. I have never had the option of heaving to for 24 hours in an airplane,to wait for the weather to get better ,or taking 4 or 5 hours to get an engine repaired in an airplane before landfall (landing). I must go back to my post of several pages ago, and say that if you can go out with your boat and live relatively comfortable with your battery switch turned off for a few days, then you are well on your way to being a cruiser. You dont have to be a mechanical/electrical genious to cruise, you just have to have simple backups for the high tech gadgetry that tends to breakdown._____Grant.

[tropicalescape]

Originally Posted by gjordan

The airplane to boat comparison is somewhat valid , in that being prepared and paying attention to what is really important (FLY THE AIRPLANE) matters, but that is where the similarities end. I do both, flying small airplanes and sailing small vessels. I have never had the option of heaving to for 24 hours in an airplane,to wait for the weather to get better ,or taking 4 or 5 hours to get an engine repaired in an airplane before landfall (landing). I must go back to my post of several pages ago, and say that if you can go out with your boat and live relatively comfortable with your battery switch turned off for a few days, then you are well on your way to being a cruiser. You dont have to be a mechanical/electrical genious to cruise, you just have to have simple backups for the high tech gadgetry that tends to breakdown._____Grant.

somewhat,but if you run out of gas on final in an airplane you dont get a second chance!Heard it said that the flying part is a little less forgiven of mistakes ..I would rather be on a sailboat with a person that has no experiace than in an airplane,just my opinon..

[sailorboy1]

Originally Posted by Wannabe-007

Bluewater sailing... how much experience & knowledge is enough?

You have to have read to the bottom of the first page on this thread!

[robert sailor]

The only thing I see in common with flying is understanding weather and navigation. Someone here said flying an aircraft is easy to learn. In that regard its like sailing in that learning to fly "well" is not easy and takes a long time and many pilots never learn to fly well, sort of like sailors.

[zeehag]

first, watch captain ron, the movie.

then the answer is truly where are your extreme limits. how do you react or respond when these limits are reached or surpassed....

you will learn that which you do not yet know while you are out here.

things will happen out here.

you will have a great time, and many stories to tell when you get to wherever you are going.


notice i didnt say ye were gonna die.....

[captain58sailin]

+1 on Capt. Ron, he is my hero. I have spoken to flight instructors about sailors making the cross over to being pilots of airplanes, and the response has been either they don't get it, or it is really easy for sailors to take to flying.

[sailorboy1]

[QUOTE=captain58sailin;1191923 I have spoken to flight instructors about sailors making the cross over to being pilots of airplanes, and the response has been either they don't get it, or it is really easy for sailors to take to flying.[/QUOTE]

Bet the same applies to cow milkers, worm hunters, and goat owners to name a few.

[tropicalescape]

Originally Posted by robert sailor

The only thing I see in common with flying is understanding weather and navigation. Someone here said flying an aircraft is easy to learn. In that regard its like sailing in that learning to fly "well" is not easy and takes a long time and many pilots never learn to fly well, sort of like sailors.

..I dont think we would be reading anything Black Oak has written had he been trying to learn to fly as opposed to sailing...Very very unforgiven to mistakes and ignorance,whereas you may make many many different mistakes learning to sail and live to tell the tell..You will not make but a few mistakes learning to fly before it kills you!..I have had people say things like" You have got to be crazy to fly" when in fact ,you had better have some good sense about you or learn to do something that is a lot easier ,like knitting socks...