Has the quality of those out sailing dropped to marine equivalent of camper van sailors

jlavery said:
Hearing of couples where the wife doesn't know how to sail reminds me of this recent heartbreaking article.

It saddens and annoys me that the skipper almost definitely contributed to his death by not insisting that his wife knew even the basics of how to operate the boat and systems.
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This reminds me of a story of the inverse - husband went over the side during a night watch, wife came to do her watch and found him gone. She knew how to do reverse track on the gps/ autopilot and found him after about 4 hours.

Can't remember who told me that story, it was in a bar in the Caribbean somewhere. Could be nonsense, but it's just about plausible, and a positive reminder of how much a little bit of knowledge can achieve.
 
geem said:
We consider the trip from Curacao back to the normal Caribbean cruising grounds as a delivery trip. Its just one of those trips you don't look forward to and just want to get out of the way. You invariably have head winds and current against you. If you are lucky with a weather window you might make it to PR on one tack all the way as we did a few seasons back. This year we made it to St Martin, but had some very unusual weather and some motoring.
We know of another very inexperienced sailor who has just left Curacao on a forecast I would definitely would have not left on. He will be getting headwinds all the way.
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A few years ago we were waiting for a weather window to sail back from the Azores to Spain. There were constant lows going across north of the islands but it didn't seem to stop boats taking the traditional route back to Plymouth/Falmouth. We met one of them in Camaret afterwards and they had new rails on one side where a storm had taken them away.
 
blush2 said:
A few years ago we were waiting for a weather window to sail back from the Azores to Spain. There were constant lows going across north of the islands but it didn't seem to stop boats taking the traditional route back to Plymouth/Falmouth. We met one of them in Camaret afterwards and they had new rails on one side where a storm had taken them away.
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We were stuck there in 2020 with strong N winds. One boat left having convinced himself that his Predictwind routing was going to get him there safely. Nobody else could see a weather window. 4 days later he was back in Horta having jammed his inmast reefing main half out. We watched as he cut the sail off with a bread knife.
 
So, are we now in a better position to be able to answer Geem's opening question :

"Has the quality of those out sailing dropped to marine equivalent of camper van sailors[?]"
 
So, sailors come in all kinds and skill levels, speed demons, Grandma and Granddad pottering along and all shades in between, from highly skilled to "how did you live this long?"

Just like the people I meet on the road. What a surprise.

One thing a lifeboatman told me years ago: the raggies he meets, on average, have better skills than stinkies because. without some basic knowhow, you aren't going to get far under sail, though there is always the option of the diesel.
 
Well put. And roads are (allegedly) safer than ever.

1. Are people taking on passages or sailing in a way well beyond their capability and that of their boat?

2. When things start to go wrong do they make sensible decisions and attempts to find a solution?

3. Are more people sailing than before?

You will never learn more unless you have a go and step beyond known and comfortable. In fact many of the really experienced yachtsmen seem to have stories of how they just missed disaster.

Jury's still out for me.
 
Luckily there are few equivalents of single-track roads at sea (crinan Canal comes to mind) where camper-van sailors can get in the way by not knowing what to do and wanting to gawp at the scenery. Luckily, they have not realised that secluded bays are like lay-bys (or passing places!) for overnight stops, preferring instead marinas - the maritime equivalent of camp sites.
 
Another boat on the reef at Green island yesterday. A 38ft cat. The reef is visible. Its on the chart. No excuse. The numpty just drove on to it. A few ribs with 15hp engines managed to get it off. Its scary the lack of ability
 
awol said:
Luckily there are few equivalents of single-track roads at sea (crinan Canal comes to mind) where camper-van sailors can get in the way by not knowing what to do and wanting to gawp at the scenery. Luckily, they have not realised that secluded bays are like lay-bys (or passing places!) for overnight stops, preferring instead marinas - the maritime equivalent of camp sites.
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I'm sure you're not really advocating overnighting in lay- bys or passing places ?
 
Skippers briefing, for an overnight sail on KATE, among other things included - 'Always wear your harness, if you come up on deck at any time always clip on. If you don't and you go overboard we will try and find you, but remember it is unlikely we will be successful.'

Some just over estimate their abilities.
In my case, the dinghy came free of Kate's stern, in calm weather and very light offshore wind, while we were at anchor.​
I thought with a running jump and a few swimming strokes I could get hold of the painter trailing in the water.​
Ha!​
After diving in and surfacing, the dinghy was still 20'0" away.​
Several strong swift strokes later the dinghy was still 20'0" away.​
Repeated several times with stronger and more strokes each time. Dinghy was still 20'0" away each time.​
Exhausted, I went into survival mode.​
Don't panic. Deep breaths slow exhale. Keep mouth above water. Get heart rate slowed. Keep afloat. Plan to swim slowly back to yacht.​
After a while another dinghy came and collected me.​
Lesson learnt.​
​
​
Edited : Spelling and punctuation marks.
 
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I have sometimes thought a small grappling hook on a ten metre line would be handy in the cockpit for events like that described above. It would be important, of course, not to mix it up with the throw line stored next to grappling hook during a man over board event.
 
jamie N said:
The BBC are reporting this 'near miss' today. As an aside, the elder of the pair has an accent that Hollywood would embrace!
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Presuming that's the same incident talked about upthread?
Glad it worked out ok for them (apart from losing the boat of course) but I can't help wondering why they appeared to have no flares, possibly no VHF, etc. It's possible that the story about being found visually by the tanker might not be entirely accurate of course.
 
Kelpie said:
Presuming that's the same incident talked about upthread?
Glad it worked out ok for them (apart from losing the boat of course) but I can't help wondering why they appeared to have no flares, possibly no VHF, etc. It's possible that the story about being found visually by the tanker might not be entirely accurate of course.
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It is the same yacht.

Cannot answer about flares, but how many boats have their VHF aerial at the top of the mast. Loose the mast and you loose the VHF. That is why I have a spare aerial that can be plugged into the VHF set and set upon a spinnaker pole set upright.
 
Concerto said:
It is the same yacht.

Cannot answer about flares, but how many boats have their VHF aerial at the top of the mast. Loose the mast and you loose the VHF. That is why I have a spare aerial that can be plugged into the VHF set and set upon a spinnaker pole set upright.
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Two masts and an antenna on each works for us with two fully independent vhf units from two seperate power supplies?
 
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