Safety Equipment & nouse

[jimi]

When I was a lad I spent my summers as crew on a Scottish fishing trawler .. never saw a life jacket (we had some but they were hidden away in case the boat sank and they prolonged the agony) and very quickly skipper and crew could judge "nouse" .. is "nouse" going to be exterminated as other laws of survival are enforced?

 

[StugeronSteve]

Re: Safety Equipment & noose

If you keep people too far away from the edge they don't recognize it when they accidently find their own way there.

BTW how did you escape the noose?

 

[DJE]

Safety is a state of mind. Most safety equipment is a last resort. Providing the latter will not create the former but it is a lot easier to legislate for.

 

[Peppermint]

Re: Build a better

nous trap and people will beat a path to your door.

Well modern society, with it's risk assessments, stop that, no don't, sort of mentality is a better nous trap.

Why would you need to develop nous anyway. Somebody else has thought of all the pitfalls and if an accident happens, well it's not your fault. You might even have a claim.

Bring back Darwin.

 

[jimi]

Re: Safety Equipment & nouse

.. and someone with a stack of safety equipment thinks they are safer. In fact it can make matters more dangerous by increasing the chance and frquency of accidents although reducing the consequences.

two examples
1) Cars .. if Cars had a spear shaped boss in the centre of the steering wheel rather than the car being furnished with seatbelts and airbags, I bet there would be a few less bumps.
2)Climbing. Peeps never used to fall off cos it was terminal. Now with modern gear falling off is accepted as part of the game.

 

[Peppermint]

Re: No1

I done that.

When I was a young highway injuneer we spent a few weeks at the TRRL working on this very thing.

We had a Morris Marina to work with and we designed an interior that held the driver in very firmly and was full of soft bit's. Then we built one that had a raised steering boss, a slightly convex and slippery seat squab, a slightly flexible seat back.

We had a panel of drivers drive both cars on a test track that represented high speed and urban driving, against the clock. Each drive was judged for accuracy and forces were measured.

Drivers in the "danger" car were more accurate, more balanced and slower.

I was told that later another trial check on their pulse rates and alertness. They were wide awake and excited.

So there you go. I'd always found Morris Marinas exciting enough. They handled like a hovercraft.

 

[jamesjermain]

Don\'t knock Marinas

I had a 1.8 Estate and it was one of the best cars I have ever owned. Worst was the Triumph Torpedo

 

[Peppermint]

Re: Don\'t knock Marinas

I had a 1.8TC. I learnt more about car control from that car than I learned racing.

 

[Mirelle]

The nearest I have come to killing myself in a boat

was in early September 1972, sailing up the Wallet at night in a clapped out old Dragon, about a four southwesterly, overcast, no sidelights cos the battery was flat, Prout folding dinghy shoved out of the way under the foredeck, two flares (one slightly wet) no lifejackets, cheap oilies, girlfriend asleep in the cuddy (this was one of the very early Dragons with an attempt at a cabin). I was steering on the Wallet no 4 buoy light when the (then unlit) adjacent wreck buoy, a big rivetted steel job, towered out of the night and washed past the boom end.

We would have sunk in seconds.

God looks after beginners in boats.

Very, very sobering.

I was not more careful when I had less kit. I was just d... lucky.

 

[FullCircle]

As long as nouse costs less than orange equipment, it will :-
a) never die out
b) be in abundance on my boat/car/ [insert your dangerous hobby here]

However Jimi, you fail to make the dear viewers aware of how nouse is come by. It is by doing a long apprenticeship with the hobby/activity of your choice, which to most folk will give a rich appreciation of their surroundings and how to best interact with them. The simple purchase of a the 'best' boat/bike etc, stack of orange kit, add in a fastrack course, will perhaps prolong the agony for a bit, but in the end will not prevent the inevitable. A lucky rabbits foot ( as carried by T_S /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif) will like as not do a similar job for lots less financial input.

In 1982, I went to the annual Sikorsky Helicopter conference, and a subject speaker was telling the future for aviation instrumentation---
" In the cockpit of the future, a plane will be flown by a man, and a dog. The man is there to feed the dog, and the dog is there to bite the man if he touches anything."

Are we nearly at that stage with our boat whizzy gadgets? Is Ships Woofy ahead of the game?

 

[iangrant]

Re: Safety Equipment & nouse

Jim,
Agreed, I think it is right that we have the choice.
At the time when it goes tits up it is probably better to be looking at it than looking for it.

Ian

 

[Colin_S]

Re: No1

That Morris Minor study reminds me of a TV prog some years back that highlighted Volvo drivers as driving faster and less carefully due to their view that it was a safer car.

Not sure I fancy the idea of a spike in the centre of the steering wheel though.

 

[misterg]

Re: Safety Equipment & noose

[ QUOTE ]
If you keep people too far away from the edge they don't recognize it when they accidently find their own way there.

[/ QUOTE ]

That is the most staggeringly true statement on modern attitudes that I have ever heard.

(from an overly cynical motorcycling, climbing, pyromaniac, substance-curious sailor, who happens to be involved with industrial Health 'n' Safety)

A finite mortality rate is essential to human evolution.

Andy

 

[bilbobaggins]

Re: No1

'Nouse' is an interesting concept. You only get survivors encouraging it.
All t'others don't get to have a say. Just like those who set off across our oceans each year - some you never get to hear of again.

After 35 years of sailing, and 40 years of navigating, I've now got religion. One of the old ones that has served this organism very well for tens of thousands of years...

I'm a Darwinist.

I also firmly believe in the right of each one of us to take personal risks or choose vigorously to avoid them, and of the corresponding right to face the consequences. Where that changes is when responsibility for others crops up. Then, the application of generous amounts of accumulated 'nouse' together with good safety gear - in that order - is the way to go.

Was it 'outed spy' Arthur Ransome who remarked somewhere "If duffers, will drown. If not duffers, won't drown." That about sums it up.

 

[Ships_Cat]

I learnt how to swim and then painted myself orange /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif.

John

 

[ShipsWoofy]

On one of our fishing boats that we fitted out, I asked my Dad if we were going to fit a pulpit. Nah, said he, is a bit poofy.

I worked on one trawler were the gunwale was about 10" tall around the cockpit, when it got lumpy you really did learn the one hand for the boat rule. That boat used to scare be bejesus out of me, but it made hauling the net really easy. She had no transom as such either, so if you dropped something you could watch if roll off over the back.

She did carry a couple of life rings on the wheelhouse roof though, but so well lashed down to be prolly useless when needed! /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif