Do Ex Dinghy Sailors Make The Best Big Boat Skippers?

Unless you can find two identical people with absolutely identical backgrounds, except for the fact that one sailed dinghies and one didn't, you'll never know. In practice I'd say that most dinghy sailors started sailing at a younger age so probably have more experience than a person of the same age who's only ever sailed larger keelboats. Experience almost always makes for a better sailor, though not necessarily a better skipper.

Don't agree with Snowleopard's comments about keelboats not biting though. They bloody do. Don't agree about the racing thing either - being able to win races might not even mean you're good sailor, never mind a good skipper

I agree with Searush about Nortada's font though....
 
grumpy_o_g said:
I agree with Searush about Nortada's font though....
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Me too. Whatever Nortada's question is, everyone else is pointing at the screen and wondering something else, something quite different..."WHY?"



Isn't a dinghy-sailor's acute anticipatory instinct regarding every gust & windshift, likely to make a rather restless yacht-skipper?

But, only until he realises that most cruising yachts don't respond very thrillingly or terrifyingly to small changes which require a response in littler boats.

No doubt the same alertness would help make a good racing yacht skipper, because a similar bunch of priorities dominate its use.

I'm reminded of a time decades ago when I'd lately begun driving, a fast but comfortless little hatch. In it I knew every yard of every lumpy road near my rural home. When a mate in a vast old luxury saloon visited, I spent a while warning him of bits of the route where I expected the car to jump or skid. It never did...

...it wasn't exciting, but it was very relaxing. I'm not certain he was a better driver than me, but he'd worked out that each journey didn't have to feel like a fight.

I get the same feeling whenever I'm in a boat with ballast.

Is it worth turning the question round and asking, "is the habitually-relaxed longterm cruising-yacht skipper a liability in a racing dinghy?" Probably not. :rolleyes:
 
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02p Dingy sailors much better wind sense therefore better understanding of sail handling.
If no people skills then on a bigger boat will want to do everything themselves, will possibly find difficulty in delegating tasks
 
I compensate for my lack of dinghy experience by simply aiming my 5 tons of MAB at any anchored boat I can find. After closing to within about 6" of them and just as they are beginning to stand up in the cockpit I noisily tack then sail away glowering at them.
 
chinita said:
I compensate for my lack of dinghy experience by simply aiming my 5 tons of MAB at any anchored boat I can find. After closing to within about 6" of them and just as they are beginning to stand up in the cockpit I noisily tack then sail away glowering at them.
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;)!

Dinghy sailors often make better helmsmen on bigger boats of light displacement; not necessarily on heavy displacement boats where keeping way and carrying it becomes as important as responding to gusts and puffs.

There may be people who remember the joke that went round concerning the appointment of Peter Scott as helmsman of SCEPTRE - it was alleged that, at the bar of the Royal Thames, he was asked if he knew anyone who was a good "12" helmsman and he said that he had a pretty good record in "12"s.... he meant National Twelves and his interlocutor thought he meant Twelve Metres.

But no, dinghy sailors certainly do not make the best big boat skippers - to skipper a big boat requires seamanship, and you do not learn that in a racing dinghy.

There are dinghy helmsmen who are good seamen, but that is coincidence. Seamanship has a lot to do with anticipating what will happen, a bit like what commercial pilots call "getting ahead of the aircraft", and dinghies do not teach you what the sea, the tide the wind and the visibility will do and how a big heavy boat will respond to them; still less how her crew should be led.
 
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chinita said:
I compensate for my lack of dinghy experience by simply aiming my 5 tons of MAB at any anchored boat I can find. After closing to within about 6" of them and just as they are beginning to stand up in the cockpit I noisily tack then sail away glowering at them.
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Oh, that's you is it? :rolleyes:
 
Minn said:
But no, dinghy sailors certainly do not make the best big boat skippers - to skipper a big boat requires seamanship, and you do not learn that in a racing dinghy.

There are dinghy helmsmen who are good seamen, but that is coincidence. Seamanship has a lot to do with anticipating what will happen, a bit like what commercial pilots call "getting ahead of the aircraft", and dinghies do not teach you what the sea, the tide the wind and the visibility will do and how a big heavy boat will respond to them; still less how her crew should be led.
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Sorry really going to disagree here, what a load of tosh...

Dinghy sailors are more than capable of becoming good skippers, yes they have some skills to learn and unlearn. Some may never really get the feel of heavy displacement boats, it certainly does not stop them becoming good skippers.

In my experience one of the things they have most trouble doing is learning to let go and trust there crew, not just there own sailing ability.

Certainly some dinghy sailing for big boat sailors and big boat sailing, for dinghy sailors are more likely to make both better skippers than worse.

Will either turn a bad skipper (what ever one of those is) better, probably not....
 
onesea said:
Sorry really going to disagree here, what a load of tosh...

Dinghy sailors are more than capable of becoming good skippers, yes they have some skills to learn and unlearn. Some may never really get the feel of heavy displacement boats, it certainly does not stop them becoming good skippers.

In my experience one of the things they have most trouble doing is learning to let go and trust there crew, not just there own sailing ability.

Certainly some dinghy sailing for big boat sailors and big boat sailing, for dinghy sailors are more likely to make both better skippers than worse.

Will either turn a bad skipper (what ever one of those is) better, probably not....
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I'm not quite sure what you are disagreeing with? - you actually seem to be agreeing!

I don't see how someone who "never really gets the hang of heavy displacement boats" could ever be called a good big boat skipper, nor someone who doesn't trust their crew.

I happily agree that everyone should, if possible, do both.
 
sailgoodthefaultless said:
dinghy sailors make good helms but a skipper can keep the crew confident, fed and safe at 3 am in a god awful sea offshore
nothing in dinghies can teach you that
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Exactly. Best skipper I ever sailed with, with 100,000+ miles under his keel, was totally useless in a dinghy, knew little of sail trim, and was the first to admit it.
 
i cant see that sailing dingies is a pre-requisite or a hindrance to being a good skipper unless you have a crew of one, in which case the more boat handling experience the better. the measure of a good skipper is revealed by his ability to get his crew safely ashore preferably before the chippy closes but definitely before last order.
 
There are many times over the years I have found the ability to push a boat to it's full potential has been a benefit to boat and crew: Escaping a weather system, making best use of a weather window to attain calmer waters, and a more secure berth, and of course, making a good safe offing from a lee shore.

Not to mention, the many times a broken engine has failed to scupper our plans.

Over the many hundreds of skippers I have had the pleasure of sailing with, I have come across many that have gained valuable skills from dinghies, but none where dinghy experience was a hinderance.

A good skipper will emerge as a good skipper, no matter the pathway, but a season of intensive dinghy experience has the ability to short circuit many years of learning in a big boat, at very little expense.

As a very very slow learner myself, I am very grateful for all the lessons dinghies keep imparting to me, usually only at the cost of a bumped head, or a bruised ego.

And, I would strongly argue, a F5 in a dinghy is exactly the same experience as a F9 in a yacht, dinghy experience just lets you feel comfortable when most are starting to get overwhelmed by events.

It certainly does no harm to get dragged backwards through the water on a dinghy now and again, to feel the power of nature first hand either.
 
Minn said:
I don't see how someone who "never really gets the hang of heavy displacement boats" could ever be called a good big boat skipper, nor someone who doesn't trust their crew.
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I love a good misquote:
Lets go back to my mail should we:
1) "Some may never really get the feel of heavy displacement boats".
2) "the things they have most trouble doing is learning to let go and trust there crew,"

I am not saying they never do just pointing out the 2 areas where IMHO dinghy sailors struggle when coming onto big boats. Particularly if they have little crewing on bigger boats...

I was disagreeing with the line "But no, dinghy sailors certainly do not make the best big boat skippers - to skipper a big boat requires seamanship, and you do not learn that in a racing dinghy."

" and dinghies do not teach you what the sea, the tide the wind and the visibility will do and how a big heavy boat will respond to them; still less how her crew should be led."

You really do not think you have spent enough time in dinghies to make such comments..
 
Once a dinghy sailor, always a dinghy sailor.." The dinghy just gets bigger and yes to answer yourquestion.
 
Jamesuk said:
Once a dinghy sailor, always a dinghy sailor.." The dinghy just gets bigger and yes to answer yourquestion.
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Our 35ft dinghy has the advantage of a tiller, so it's a matter of scale and bigger sheets..:D

Mind you it takes a big following sea & wind to approach planing :p

I think the answer is often YES, but maybe not always. I'm glad I did :)

Graeme


Sunrise 35ft & RS Vareo 4m20 !
 
I sailed dinghies for many years, cruising and raced them successfully too. I then took up offshore sailing and it took me a long time to master sailing close hauled. I tended to pinch too much and relied on the momentum of the yacht, which of course dropped off and then I had to readjust by bearing away. The end result was that my best course to windward was not that good compared to others who just got in the groove. I have now overcome this habit but it took some time. I have sailed extensively in offshore yachts as skipper and the best quality that has been mentioned before is the ability to manage the crew confidently assuming the ex dinghy can navigate and understands sound seamanship methods, of which there are many. In principle I would have to say no, ex dinghy sailors do not make the best big boat skippers per se.
 
I'm surprised by the number of people who seem to think that people cannot do both tasks. I regularly sail both dinks & a big heavy old wheel steered ketch, it is quite easy tp swop between them, just as it is easy to swop between my scooter & the motorhome. They are very different but many of the basic skills transfer either between bike & truck or dink & cruiser.

OK, so it doesn't necessarily make me good at any of the above, but the core skills (reading the road or setting the sails) are directly transferrable between vehicles/vessels
 
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