Baggywrinkle
Well-Known Member
I have a confession to make and would like to apologise to the skipper and crew of a sailing yacht off the bottom end of Mali Losinj who, at approx 4pm on Wednesday 4th July were forced to take avoiding action due to my stupidity.
What happened?
It was a windless, hot day and we were a crew of 2 motoring on autopilot following a track to the entrance of a bay to anchor for the night. We were doing just over 6 knots. I decided to check the weather one last time before committing, had a quick look round and noticed a yacht on starboard tack some distance away and not moving very fast. I decided it wasn't a collision risk and ducked below decks to look at the forecasts, leaving my crew in the cockpit. Neither of us was actively helming at the time.
While I had my head buried in my tablet, my crew got a phone call from work, took the call, and decided she needed to go below to better concentrate.
I didn't register her slipping past and into the forward cabin. I completed my weather check and went back up top.
To my horror, the sailing yacht I had seen earlier was now a few boat lengths off my stern quarter, now on port tack with sails flapping .... having performed an avoidance manoeuvre.
I was mortified.
I didn't specifically ask my crew to keep a lookout, so it was my fault as skipper and we both failed horribly on the common sense front. I have never done anything like this before and hopefully never will again. The consequences could have been far worse but we definitely learned from the experience and now have a procedure for handing over command.
Sorry again whoever you are ... if you're a member of these forums then pm me with your description of the incident and I'll put a bottle of scotch and an apology in the post.
Anyone else want to confess to anything similar?
What happened?
It was a windless, hot day and we were a crew of 2 motoring on autopilot following a track to the entrance of a bay to anchor for the night. We were doing just over 6 knots. I decided to check the weather one last time before committing, had a quick look round and noticed a yacht on starboard tack some distance away and not moving very fast. I decided it wasn't a collision risk and ducked below decks to look at the forecasts, leaving my crew in the cockpit. Neither of us was actively helming at the time.
While I had my head buried in my tablet, my crew got a phone call from work, took the call, and decided she needed to go below to better concentrate.
I didn't register her slipping past and into the forward cabin. I completed my weather check and went back up top.
To my horror, the sailing yacht I had seen earlier was now a few boat lengths off my stern quarter, now on port tack with sails flapping .... having performed an avoidance manoeuvre.
I was mortified.
I didn't specifically ask my crew to keep a lookout, so it was my fault as skipper and we both failed horribly on the common sense front. I have never done anything like this before and hopefully never will again. The consequences could have been far worse but we definitely learned from the experience and now have a procedure for handing over command.
Sorry again whoever you are ... if you're a member of these forums then pm me with your description of the incident and I'll put a bottle of scotch and an apology in the post.
Anyone else want to confess to anything similar?
