Sailors are getting braver?

[Sea Devil]

I get all sorts of statistics about my web site and one that really surprises me is that since Brexit started being headline news, my two best sellers have swooped position

French Canal Routes to the Med used to get just over 100 visits a day.
Gentle sailing to the Med used to get around 20 visits a day.

This has now almost exactly reversed - Gentle Sailing to the Med currently getting just over 100 per day...

I wonder why? Is it that average boats are getting bigger and harder to do the canals in? Is it that because boats are bigger the outside route seems more attractive_ Are boat owners more knowledgeable about their navigational abilities due to inexpensive chart plotters or is it in some strange way connected to Brexit_ Why should the French Canal Route seem less attractive_

 

[Daverw]

Reports of lack of water and boats seem to be getting bigger are possibilities

 

[Yngmar]

You can sail around the outside without having to clear into France ;-)

 

[Ohlin Karcher]

Canal maps now being easier to get free on internet, but that doesn't apply to pilot books, TSA's and paper charts of Biscay?

 

[sailaboutvic]

Anything over 1.6 and you can almost forget about going through the the canal , although I have heard of the odd boat making it with a 1.8 draft .
Boats are getting much bigger so more are taken the out side route and a lots each years go with the rally more safety they think , I think I rather be on my own then haven 100 plus boats around me .

Now to put the cat amount the pigeons .
If any thing I think there less knowledge people around these days then .
We have GPS ,plotters the blame , when I read the sailing forum be it here on YBW or med sailing or any other everyday question on , what the best time to go from A to B ,how much Chain to I drop, what do this colour buoy mean , my AIS has stop working is it still safe to cross a shipping land , one question I read the other day one one wanted to leave Sicily to go to Malta and was asking how he could do it without crossing any shipping lanes as he head it was dangerous on and on , these are very basic stuff , and then along come some of the answer which can be worst then the question , I just have to wonder what are these people doing off shore in the first place .

 

[Kukri]

For even more fun, there is a “discussion” about sailaboutvic’s point on the OCC FB pages.

I think we have to conclude that sailing has got much safer with modern boats and modern gadgets.

 

[Sea Devil]

I think we have to conclude that sailing has got much safer with modern boats and modern gadgets.

But a lot less fun than when we did DR and had RDF and only a paper chart and sometimes a sextant...

 

[Biggles Wader]

Anything over 1.6 and you can almost forget about going through the the canal , although I have heard of the odd boat making it with a 1.8 draft .
Boats are getting much bigger so more are taken the out side route and a lots each years go with the rally more safety they think , I think I rather be on my own then haven 100 plus boats around me .

Now to put the cat amount the pigeons .
If any thing I think there less knowledge people around these days then .
We have GPS ,plotters the blame , when I read the sailing forum be it here on YBW or med sailing or any other everyday question on , what the best time to go from A to B ,how much Chain to I drop, what do this colour buoy mean , my AIS has stop working is it still safe to cross a shipping land , one question I read the other day one one wanted to leave Sicily to go to Malta and was asking how he could do it without crossing any shipping lanes as he head it was dangerous on and on , these are very basic stuff , and then along come some of the answer which can be worst then the question , I just have to wonder what are these people doing off shore in the first place .

On the other hand perhaps we just hear about it more these days. There have always been incompetent people but they didn't used to have the internet to advertise themselves to the rest of the world.

 

[sailaboutvic]

But a lot less fun than when we did DR and had RDF and only a paper chart and sometimes a sextant...

I bet a lot of people couldn't tell you what a DR or DRF without goggle it , and as far as sextant goes some thing it a position in bed

 

[sailaboutvic]

On the other hand perhaps we just hear about it more these days. There have always been incompetent people but they didn't used to have the internet to advertise themselves to the rest of the world.

Take maybe the case . But you only got to watch people moor up or anchor which tell you a lot about them .

 

[Kukri]

In the days of RDF and towed logs, I used to enjoy putting my head through the companion hatch after a long battle with the Seafix and looking slowly and methodically round the horizon, smiling my best Mona Lisa smile, then quoting from ‘The Pirates of Penzance’ - ‘What a lovely spot! I wonder where we are?’

It doesn’t work when the helmsperson is looking at a chart plotter.

 

[johnalison]

In the days of RDF and towed logs, I used to enjoy putting my head through the companion hatch after a long battle with the Seafix and looking slowly and methodically round the horizon, smiling my best Mona Lisa smile, then quoting from ‘The Pirates of Penzance’ - ‘What a lovely spot! I wonder where we are?’

It doesn’t work when the helmsperson is looking at a chart plotter.

I don't remember that. In my case it was more a matter of failing to get even a bearing and popping my head up and saying 'I wonder where we are?'.

 

[Sea Devil]

In the days of RDF and towed logs, I used to enjoy putting my head through the companion hatch after a long battle with the Seafix and looking slowly and methodically round the horizon, smiling my best Mona Lisa smile, then quoting from ‘The Pirates of Penzance’ - ‘What a lovely spot! I wonder where we are?’

It doesn’t work when the helmsperson is looking at a chart plotter.

They really were better days as I remember them... Felt proud of my pilotage and navigation skills.. Now I just switch on the chart plotter and the only thing I keep up in the old way is the log book just in case I get hit by lightning again ... although it never strikes twice I´m told

 

[Greenheart]

I'm reading Hiscock's Wandering Under Sail and am in awe of his very cool yet entirely credible accounts of UK coastal and cross-Channel passages. It's not easy to imagine today's yachtsman striking out for distant unfamiliar places with only Hiscock's drawer of charts, tables and compass.

I'm strongly persuaded to learn (and use every time out) the old-fashioned ways of navigating, while maintaining the modern kit on board for those hairy moments when charted info on paper, plus compass, mind and eyeball, don't resolve the question of location satisfactorily.

Equipping myself with the knowhow to calculate approximately where I must be, rather than merely consulting electronics to find out, is appealing for the same reason I want to sail rather than buy a ticket to my destination.

I only wonder whether, when the accuracy and immediacy of high-tech navigation is constantly available to every yachtsman, the practice of mentally calculating location for the satisfaction of doing so, may be considered a liability - like a driver judging his road speed by counting seconds between telegraph posts a known distance apart (not that I do that).