Hamble School of Yachting....

Dutch01527 said:
Once saw a American Navy ship leaving a South Pacific Harbour passing us(cargo ship at anchor) with no nav lights on. Our ships master called them on the vhf to inform them. Response from the American Officer was arrogant “ we are the US Navy, of course we have our lights on”. The lights were switched on about 30 seconds later but no further vhf contact. Someone probably was court marshalled that night.
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War games?
 
dom said:
Oh yeh, forgot, it’s lightening then that never strikes the same place twice :rolleyes:
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There was a sign in one of the crewrooms in RAF Coltishall yonks ago. Read something like "Lightning never strikes twice. Doesn't have the fuel." There was a joke about the the Lightning pilot that tried playing Bingo as well. The caller had only called out two numbers when the pilot called "Bingo" - then looked around embarrassed and said "sorry, force of habit".

Apologies, total fred drift.
 
scotty123 said:
War games?
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I don’t think so.

We had just anchored in the bay, maybe half a mile out and the warship was leaving port. The lights came on as soon as they were mentioned. I was a cadet on the bridge with the Captain as we anchored. Wish I could remember where it was, maybe Suva, Fiji.
 
pvb said:
Just watched one of their boats leave the pontoon in the marina at night, with no navigation lights. Saw them in the lock and commented on their rather different approach to night sailing. Got quizzical response. Suggested nav lights might be an idea. Frantic scrambling, lights switched on, but they didn't all work. The "instructor" said it didn't matter, he'd replace the bulb tomorrow. So off they went. And people pay good money for this standard of RYA tuition...
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Perhaps it was a Yachtmaster exam and the individual being examined was nervous knowing your critical eye was going to report their every move on the internet for the world to read.

I've been on an exam boat as crew and quietly jogged the skippers memory about nav lights, making sure the examiner heard the command to switch them on.
 
Sandy said:
Perhaps it was a Yachtmaster exam and the individual being examined was nervous knowing your critical eye was going to report their every move on the internet for the world to read.

I've been on an exam boat as crew and quietly jogged the skippers memory about nav lights, making sure the examiner heard the command to switch them on.
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+1

A lock is probably not the best place to start fumbling around with nav lights, more of a mid passage job, as long as they had a torch handy, and sailed defensively, all acceptable risks would have been covered.

Just for sake of interest, does anyone here use pre departure checklist, or pre arrival? By memory, or list? As I age, I like lists more.
 
The thread reminds me of the famous occasion in the 1983 Fastnet, when Harold Cudmore on Justine IV successfully protested the French AC team yacht Diva for not putting on her nav lights at lighting up time, for which a 5% penalty was applied.

At the protest meeting, it was put to Cudmore that a relaxed attitude to such a detail was "very French". Cudmore drily replied that the rules required COLREGs to be respected "which is very British".
 
ProMariner said:
+1

A lock is probably not the best place to start fumbling around with nav lights, more of a mid passage job, as long as they had a torch handy, and sailed defensively, all acceptable risks would have been covered.

Just for sake of interest, does anyone here use pre departure checklist, or pre arrival? By memory, or list? As I age, I like lists more.
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Checklists/aide-memoires, I have

Boarding boat
Pre sailing
Heavy weather
Finished with engines
Leaving boat
and a couple of other minor ones

Don't always use them but they are a good practice IMO.
 
ProMariner said:
+1

A lock is probably not the best place to start fumbling around with nav lights, more of a mid passage job, as long as they had a torch handy, and sailed defensively, all acceptable risks would have been covered.
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+2

Don’t know why that traffic cop blew a gasket with me on the M3 last night when I told him I wasn’t half way to London yet :confused:
 
Sandy said:
Perhaps it was a Yachtmaster exam and the individual being examined was nervous knowing your critical eye was going to report their every move on the internet for the world to read
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I was out with HSY last week doing my coastal skipper. We were in and out of locks a couple of times at night but I don't remember being nudged about any lights so it must have been another one of their six boats.

The candidates wouldn't have been under examination since the school run the class Sun through Fri when the RYA examiner then gets on to do the test from Fri night onwards. The level of training can be intense though so perhaps the student was maxed out and the instructor busy fielding another 4 candidates at the same time.

My instructor would have probably bitten back as I saw him in action against a powerboat instructor who tried to get his students to nick our space on the pontoon as we were undergoing berthing practise on the Hamble pontoons.

I'd also say the whole outfit seems very professional as I've done a few courses with them this year.

Elecglitch said:
Ditto, get on with the jobs and then run through the checklist rather than simply following the list.
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At work we use checklists regularly but in the manner suggested here. We do the procedure first, then run the checklist to check we didn't miss anything. It gets the muscle memory working better and then the checklist acts as a trap rather than a "read and do".

Better to abbreviate the items as well. Rather than "RADIO …. ON, TUNE TO CH16, CHECK VOL & SQ, TEST CALL", just put "RADIO … ON" since you should know how it should be set at the beginning of your day and whether you like bothering the cg with test calls ;-)
 
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Checklists.

Guess who forgot to bring the rubbish ashore yesterday and won't be down at the boat next weekend.
 
alant said:
Oh, rats.
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Bit harsh - I don't think Sandy's that bad.

Clearly we expect a good standard of seamanship from instructors who have to pass their YM before they can do their instructor conversion. We also expect a coded sailing school boat to have working safety equipment . But I concede that I don't routinely check my nav lights before going to sea to check they work and occasionally I forget to do other stuff (like putting the ensign out) However, I do carry some spare pulpit mounted navilights!
 
RobF said:
Bit harsh - I don't think Sandy's that bad.

Clearly we expect a good standard of seamanship from instructors who have to pass their YM before they can do their instructor conversion. We also expect a coded sailing school boat to have working safety equipment . But I concede that I don't routinely check my nav lights before going to sea to check they work and occasionally I forget to do other stuff (like putting the ensign out) However, I do carry some spare pulpit mounted navilights!
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I did some instructing for a 'prestigeous' sea school based in Poole, whose boats were worked 24/7/365 continuously, with maintenance including engine repairs, done when boat was stuck in 'harbour' for the pupil's sailing weekend, considered part of their CC/DS/YM training. The fact that a Hamble School boat was actually leaving a marina, is testamony indeed to the quality of their craft. ;)
 
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