Is it legal for a single handed skipper to sleep?

[bbg]

Sleeping whilst going the the English Channel, Irish Sea etc. are obviously suicidal and no-one in their right mind would do so. Would they?

I didn't consider it suicide at the time ...

FWIW I know someone who was hit mid-ocean by an oil tanker, while he was asleep. Boat was dismasted and taking on water, and the ship (whose name he saw on the stern, at very close range) did not respond to hails on hand-held VHF. He was picked up a couple of hours later by another boat. He reported everything to the authorities when he arrived in Brazil, and they didn't arrest him or prosecute him.

So - is it negligent? Possibly, in some circumstances. Maybe not in others.

Is it "illegal"? That depends on what you mean by illegal. It means very different things to be
- negligent or partly responsible in a civil claim between two private parties; and
- in contravention of a statute for which one of the potential penalties is imprisonment.

 

[GHA]

I consider sleep to be anything over half an hour. If you were planning on a cat nap surely the first thing you would check is a 360 horizon and a radar check wouldn't you?

Coastal, I sleep standing up

 

[LadyInBed]

I consider sleep to be anything over half an hour. If you were planning on a cat nap surely the first thing you would check is a 360 horizon and a radar check wouldn't you?

Yep, but on shorter 24ish hr trips 20 mins with your eyes closed and relaxing, but not sleeping, can be very refreshing.

 

[Cheery]

Yep, but on shorter 24ish hr trips 20 mins with your eyes closed and relaxing, but not sleeping, can be very refreshing.

I agree completely, as an ex-soldier, lorry driver, sales rep, I have lived my life doing that. SWMBO thinks I am strange as she can't sleep for less than a couple of hours as she says it's a waste of time.

 

[Langrick1]

Is it a peculiarly English thing to look so hard to find sticks to beat ourselves with?

Let JGFDI be the watchword.

 

[jerrytug]

JGFDI,WTAF?