From the accounts of
offshore abandonments that I've read, it's not necessarily a case of badly designed
boats as much as skippers and crews who haven't taken steps to prepare
themselves for the offshore experience. Time after time the boat that was abandoned remains afloat and weathers the storm.
People post threads here and on other boards asking what it takes to be ready for an offshore
passage. Mostly their focus is on the boat and
equipment. They forget the human part of the equation. Others post advise them to "Just do it!" I suspect that most of those posters have never sailed offshore in a storm.
I really have a problem with the "just do it" mentality as applied to offshore sailing. Even a skipper and crew who are very experienced and accomplished as coastal sailors can become unglued in a three day Force 9 or greater storm offshore. In coastal sailing it's usually possible to find safe haven after a few hours of battling
wind and waves, and the
wind and waves encountered are usually maybe 40 knots and 6-8' or less. Sleep deprivation, dehydration, lack of proper
food, debilitating
sea sickness, the ungodly din of the wind in the
rigging, and battering and bruising from the gyrations of the boat are almost never part of the equation in coastal sailing. So, once the crew gets offshore and into the "soup", it's a whole new world for them. They had no way to visualize it, and they're not up to it, physically nor psychologically.
The physical and psychological demands of offshore sailing in adverse conditions can be mastered through practice. Purposefully sailing in heavy
weather in a coastal
environment, practicing heaving to,
learning how the boat handles and how your body reacts in rough conditions are important first steps. But the best
learning experience is to get your first offshore adventure in someone else's boat, with a crew who are experienced offshore sailors. That was my first offshore experience, and I can tell you that nothing in my fairly extensive coastal sailing and island chartering experience prepared me for it. Having three experienced guys along allowed me to make the most out of the learning experience. We endured a three day Strong Gale,
lost the primary
steering, had the
engine quit, and the
batteries drained to almost nothing. During the worst of the gale we were standing double watches,
steering with a two foot long pipe attached to the
rudder post. Steer for a half hour, collapse on the
cockpit seat while your watchmate steered, repeat the cycle once. Then down below for some "rest" (sleep was impossible), then back to Hell at the
helm. This went on for 2-1/2 days. A boat within miles of our
route was abandoned. But we made it, and the
rum at landfall was all the tastier for our troubles.
Of course many coastal sailors do make a first-time offshore trip and are able to complete it successfully, in spite of storms and
gear failures. But I wonder how many of those who abandoned ship could have stuck it out and continued on to their
destination if they had only taken the time to
work their way up to the experience.
I really appreciated that opportunity to test myself offshore with guys who could easily continue on without me if I had ended up unable to perform. In subsequent
bluewater passages on my own boat, I always had two experienced crew, but made room for an offshore "newbie", someone with solid coastal experience but none offshore. Without exception the newbies experienced "shock and awe" at how much more demanding it was compared with his coastal experience. But they made it through, and were glad to have the experience.