Not like the old days . . .

Searush

Searush

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Too many people seem new to sailing & don't understand the old ways - where you taught yourself to sail or died like a gent in the attempt. When even e/sounders were fancy electrickery & boats were expected to leak & drip.

Now they all want everything perfect & no chance of getting into trouble. Knee deep in H&S at work they want it for security on the boat! :eek:


Please discuss; :D
 
HSE only exists because folks are inefficient at what they do. Very efficient teams, or processes do not discuss HSE because the controls are in place to do the job or execute the process without loss.

Sailing today can be a very efficient process as much of the guess work, which required certain skills to manage the uncertainty, has been removed by machines and materials e.g. hull design, materials, plotters, internet, weather, reefing systems, bow thrusters, VHF and mobile phones.

Security and certainty on yachts has always been a worthy goal, today though it is much easier to achieve that, as is obtaining skills.

I learned under the tutelage of skilled sailors and the RYA scheme in the days before Decca became popular, but only just.
 
Thankfully, time has moved on since Captain Edward Smith R.D. R.N.R. went down with his ship and 1514 passengers and crew of the RMS Titanic on the night of 15 April 1912.


ESMITH.PNG

Edward Smith [Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Search/Edward_Smith_sea_captain

The resemblance to the OP avatar is striking. ;)
 
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Most Health and safety is "We do not want to be sued" not health and safety. Sensible precortions what wrong with that?

I sail a gaffer working boat because it has character.

My desks don't leek I glassed them, I use a depth gauge it makes live easer than swinging the lead (but does not tell the bottom conditions). I have a chart plotter for convenience. Also a very nice sexton to play with. "Any fool can be uncomfortable" I sail for fun and mix tradition and modern to suite my mood.

If the old timers had the toys we have, do you think that they would not use them. No lets stick with Viking wooden compasses not this modern magnetic stuff. Wooden boats are for whimps cant beat a goat skinned chorical. Gaff sails what wrong with a good British square rig, none of this up wind nonsense.
 
Searush said:
Too many people seem new to sailing & don't understand the old ways - where you taught yourself to sail or died like a gent in the attempt. When even e/sounders were fancy electrickery & boats were expected to leak & drip.

Now they all want everything perfect & no chance of getting into trouble. Knee deep in H&S at work they want it for security on the boat! :eek:


Please discuss; :D
Click to expand...

My dear old chap, i am totally with you ( sink or swim ) so to speak
my Silhouette Mk 2 had compass,sea toilet,sink + pumped water + gas hob, camping gaz lamp.
alas we had to forego the bow thruster & vhf
 
sailorman said:
My dear old chap, i am totally with you ( sink or swim ) so to speak
my Silhouette Mk 2 had compass,sea toilet,sink + pumped water + gas hob, camping gaz lamp.
alas we had to forego the bow thruster & vhf
Click to expand...

And our Wayfarer had a Ortlieb folding coffee filter, filter papers and pot:eek:
No excuse for not having real coffee- didn't have a bow thruster, unless you count the time I smeared SWMBO across the wire fence in Falkenberg Boat Club. She pushed pretty hard that time**:D

**For the avoidance of doubt and purient thoughts, SWMBO was kneeling on the foredeck at the time ready to put a line ashore- it was blowing a bit too much really for our 2.3hp o/b and the gap twixt fence and outer pontoon just about our hull width!!!
 
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Searush said:
Too many people seem new to sailing & don't understand the old ways - where you taught yourself to sail or died like a gent in the attempt. When even e/sounders were fancy electrickery & boats were expected to leak & drip.

Now they all want everything perfect & no chance of getting into trouble. Knee deep in H&S at work they want it for security on the boat! :eek:


Please discuss; :D
Click to expand...

Who have you been talking to? Sounds like some wierd polorized stereotype.

Most I come across, new or otherwise, know what they're doing.
 
I started an old man's ramble in support of Searush's hypotheses but binned it 'cos it was too close to RTH's "35 years ...". (You have to be of a certain age to even understand that!).

I came to the simple conclusion that I am happily at peace with my own relationships with my boat and my environment. Others' experiences will differ - and that is good.
 
Searush said:
Too many people seem new to sailing & don't understand the old ways - where you taught yourself to sail or died like a gent in the attempt. When even e/sounders were fancy electrickery & boats were expected to leak & drip.

Now they all want everything perfect & no chance of getting into trouble. Knee deep in H&S at work they want it for security on the boat! :eek:


Please discuss; :D
Click to expand...

Nothing to discuss. Just the same reaction as the old salts complaining about all those office wallahs coming into a bit of cash and buying themselves a little plywood sloop - don't know what real sailing is about - stockholm tar, 50 strokes a minute on the pump, tanning the sails, seizing the rigging, putting on the odd tingle - and they would not know where to start with relieving lines on the tiller nor creeping along the bowsprit to douse the jib.

Where will it all end?
 
Blame the Yanks. Claim and Gain culture. Everyones looking for someone to sue. Commonsense isn't that common anymore. No one actually taught me to sail. Got shown how to make the boat move, the rest was up to me as it were.
Plus the waters seem pretty crowded nowdays.........
 
Searush said:
Too many people seem new to sailing & don't understand the old ways - where you taught yourself to sail or died like a gent in the attempt. When even e/sounders were fancy electrickery & boats were expected to leak & drip.

Now they all want everything perfect & no chance of getting into trouble. Knee deep in H&S at work they want it for security on the boat! :eek:
:D
Click to expand...

Taught myself to sail 40 years ago. Still doing it:D
 
Plenty of us Oldies taught ourselves, any newbies started out with a Ladybird book of sailing (or equivalent "Dummies Guide to") recently?

I didn't "need" insurance until I berthed in a harbour, rather than a self-laid mooring, but I still had it in case I hurt someone or something else. I don't think that there are many places left where a self-laid mooring is possible even if you rent a plot off the Duck of Cornwall.
 
Turn the key, roll out the rags, and off yer go. Park it plug it in, wash it, ignore it till the next time.
Chop it in after 5 or 10 years for something sparkly n new and more gadgety - just like safe reliable modern motoring. And whatever you do, don't even think about drilling a hole in a bulkhead or moving anything cos then it won't be standard, won't resell as easily.
Where's the soul eh? In the machine. Ah:)
Seems to be a winning formula too
 
Blueboatman said:
Turn the key, roll out the rags, and off yer go. Park it plug it in, wash it, ignore it till the next time.
Chop it in after 5 or 10 years for something sparkly n new and more gadgety - just like safe reliable modern motoring. And whatever you do, don't even think about drilling a hole in a bulkhead or moving anything cos then it won't be standard, won't resell as easily.
Where's the soul eh? In the machine. Ah:)
Seems to be a winning formula too
Click to expand...

I understand that holes & tapping s for a flat screen TV is perfectly acceptable
in an AWB :)
 
Well you will be glad to hear, that when we took up sailing 2 years ago, we bought a boat, bought some books about sailing, launched the boat and started learning. We haven't sunk the boat or fallen out of it yet.

So I think I qualify as "old school" even though just about everybody advises you NOT to start sailing the way we did.
 
Camelia said:
Thankfully, time has moved on since Captain Edward Smith R.D. R.N.R. went down with his ship and 1514 passengers and crew of the RMS Titanic on the night of 15 April 1912.


ESMITH.PNG

Edward Smith [Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Search/Edward_Smith_sea_captain

The resemblance to the OP avatar is striking. ;)
Click to expand...

I have always suspected that the OP's avatar was taken when he was rescued from the Titanic. Being an old sea dog he naturally found the freezing water pleasantly stimulating for a few hours.

PS Now trying to calculate his real current age.......run out of fingers and toes!
 
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