Shouting is a sign of incompetence

I find shouting is the only way to communicate with distracted crew standon 30 foot away the other side of a sprayhood. I suppose I could invest in walkie talkies but seems needless when nature has equipped us with the ability to raise the volume naturally.
 
claymore said:
Dont you just love a silent boat.
Nae fekker talkin an deaf an dumb breakfasses
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I once crewed on a square rigger where the Bosun had a serious stutter...

It took the poor sod about 2 minutes to get out " ........Put .........gaskets .......on........ the ........topsails "

Then someone on the foredeck replied " What ?! "
 
One other possibility- you may be a competent singlehander but have an incompetent crew with whom you should not have set sail owing to your lack of skippering skills.
 
Umm not always!

True story follows.

We were in Bermuda this summer, tied up, med style on a small dock, total six boats. In comes an American flagged 45 footer, 4 gents of an older age group aboard. They proceeded to shout and scream their way in to tie up. Hollering instructions back and forth for the next three days until my beloved could take it no longer. He quietly sidled up to one of the crew members to ask if it were possible to keep the shouting down a tad. he did ask ever so politely...

'Er no responded the crew member, The skippper has to yell cos two of us are profoundly deaf and my hearing aid gave up when a wave drowned the battery pack.

Awkward!
 
Gerry said:
Umm not always!

True story follows.

We were in Bermuda this summer, tied up, med style on a small dock, total six boats. In comes an American flagged 45 footer, 4 gents of an older age group aboard. They proceeded to shout and scream their way in to tie up. Hollering instructions back and forth for the next three days until my beloved could take it no longer. He quietly sidled up to one of the crew members to ask if it were possible to keep the shouting down a tad. he did ask ever so politely...

'Er no responded the crew member, The skippper has to yell cos two of us are profoundly deaf and my hearing aid gave up when a wave drowned the battery pack.



Awkward!
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If they were profoundly deaf no amount of shouting would help.

Tell them to use sign language; I'm not quite deaf yet but my ' international code ' seems to work on most people ! :)
 
ChrisE said:
Well, to put a different spin on this, the only times I shout are when I'm under stress and that is usually because something completely unexpected happens.

But then I must be alone in encountering something new and potentially dangerous ....
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Hear, hear!

Shouting is usually a sign of stress and panic. Sometimes that's as a result of incompetence, sometimes just happenstance.
 
dylanwinter said:
I never shout at crew... I never will

even when I was helming racing keel boats

people are aboard for pleasure not to be on the receiving end of your temper tantrums

Losing your temper is a sign that you are losing control

- certainly of yourself and probably of your boat

I obviously mumble the odd profanity - but not so that anyone else can hear

Dylan - the mild mannered mariner
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Well I don't know if its all ways incompetance. Some times its a resposne to stress and frustration.
I ususaly regard it as a signe its not someone I would enjoy sailing with and they probabaly would not enjoy sailing with me.

Unfortunatly I have a rather bad habit of shouting back.:D
 
I once shouted.
















It was in the middle of Lyme Bay, I was on my own with bwgger all about, and I shouted at the very top of my voice - then fell back laughing!
 
I've a confession to make ...
last time I was on the boat I shouted as loud as I could.. to see if I could make all the seagulls and pigeons perched on the warehouse roofs take to the skies... sorry!
 
I would Much rather give/receive a short succinct loud instruction/acknowledgement than have to cope with a mumbled overlong 'er please could we think about doing xyz in a little while if you don't mind thankyou very much.... oops'

I have tried to organise visual signals for things like anchoring. But my crew doesn't like being told what to do in any form, and doesn't bother looking. Doesn't help that he thinks he's the skipper, whereas I know I'm the skipper......
 
The times I have found myself needing to shout are when stuff is happening quickly and unexpectedly. Which implies that I have failed to anticipate.

As a kid, I shouted once at my sister when we were racing a dinghy. My dad make me quite sure I was fully aware that it wasn't something that was going to happen again if I wanted to carry on sailing with her, or anybody else for that matter.

If crew are sorting a SNAFU, and know what they're doing, then shouting doesn't help. If they don't know what they're doing, then that's a failure of teaching, practice and briefing on my part. Shouting at them this once will probably do very little to speed up the current SNAFU, but will do much to dissuade them from ever coming again.

If people are putting themselves into dangerous situations onboard, then again, that's a failure of briefing. If they won't be told, then perhaps they're not suitable for doing anything but sitting in the cockpit.

If you watch the world match race tour online, the conversation onboard is typically quiet. A bit of shouting between boats, but that's largely for the benefit of the umpires. Who generally ignore it.
 
Must admit I can recall at least one occasion where I've had to shout to get the crew to do what was needed before it was too late.
When the crew thinks the boat is like a dinghy and will bear away without easing the (big) genoa significantly. Not being on the helm, they don't realise the rudder is at the limit of its grip.
At this point, it's a choice between the sound of me bellowing 'DUMP the F***ING JIB' or the sound of two very expensive bits of plastic trying to occupy the the same space-time co-ordinates.

Before a race I tell people that if I shout and/or swear at them it's just that it's important and urgent and not up for discussion any more, and not doing it is likely to be damage or injury. It doesn't mean anything personal.

Racing with random crews, as I occasionally do, you tend to get people with their own ideas about how things should be done, which is great, there are many ways of skinning a cat, but sometimes you only get one try per cat.

As skipper, you have responsibility. You have to do what you have to do, to get the authority to go with it.
 
I went racing once they were short crewed, the skipper is a mate of mine, on dry land he is meek and mild kind of hippy guy, but that day on his boat he turned into mister shouty/sweary.
you learn something new every day, i was very slow though.but never again.
 
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