The most critical safety feature....

[BrendanS]

that works fine unless someone has replied to that post, in which case it still shows as a 'deleted' post

<hr width=100% size=1>Catapultam habeo. Nisi pecuniam omnem mihi dabris, ad caput tuum saxum immane mittam.

 

[Mirelle]

Ok, an answer: True in the Narrow Seas.

but not true in all places, and wholly irrelevant in mid-Atlantic!


Where weather is unpredictable and the sailing water consists of narrow channels bounded by either rock bound coasts or sandbanks, windward ability is at a premium.

Elsewhere, it can be compensated for by prudence.

<hr width=100% size=1>Que scais-je?

 

[tome]

Except...

...if you want to get through a weather system as quickly as possible, when windward progress will often be required.

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[Mirelle]

At risk of sounding like Conrad\'s McWhirr...

I've never thought of sailing out of a weather system. I suppose if one has a very fast boat and a very strong crew one can do so, these days.

Not for me, though. I'm too old, fat and idle to deliberately sail to windward in heavy weather if I can conceivably avoid it. If I cannot avoid it altogether by staying in shelter I am much more likely to heave-to and retire to my bunk with a paperback!

<hr width=100% size=1>Que scais-je?

 

[AndrewB]

Re: At risk of sounding like Conrad\'s McWhirr...

"Having just enough imagination to carry him through each successive day and no more, he was tranquilly sure of himself, and from the same cause he was not in the least conceited. It is your imaginative skipper who is touchy, overbearing and difficult to please; but every ship Captain MacWhirr commanded was the floating abode of harmony and peace."

That's you, Mirelle? Sounds good to me!

 

[MainlySteam]

Re: You are quite right

Well I am glad I started out saying that if you were meaning what I thought you meant to say then I agreed but as you usually say what you mean but not often is it that you say what you don't mean - oh hell now I am totally confused /forums/images/icons/smile.gif.

Much respect and regards from here

John

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[MainlySteam]

Re: The most critical safety feature of any..

<<<After that it seems that "in extemis" those that survive never give up and actively work towards their survival.>>>

Having seen the transcripts of ssb communications with a vessel in a storm and which was subsequently lost with all its crew I agree with that. While the crew were never in a panic during the time communication existed they had obviously given up at a very early stage and when I spoke with people afterwards who knew the skipper they were not at all surprised at that.

In the book of one of the 2 Capes solo circumnavigating yachtsmen (Knox-Johnston perhaps?) I recall him saying that if he lost the boat in the Southern Ocean he was determined to sail his liferaft to South America. As liferafts have no capability of going to windward at all, when the chips are really down, perhaps it is the attitude of the skipper and crew that is the difference between survival or not.

John

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