Drinking coffee on an aft deck while watching a young woman getting in and out of tight slips sounds far better than clearing 30 cm of snow out of my cockpit so that the ice blocked drains can be thawed out.
She - and the fates - obviously didn't know you were watching, or it would have gone horribly wrong
I waved
Technique beats strength, in my view. I found it very satisfying to coach a couple together and get them both to be competent on lines and helming. Each then becomes far more aware of what's going on.
Which reminds me of an occasion in a small Greek port when I was standing behind the town drunk who was lining himself up for some gratuity for being no help at all. I couldn't think of an unambiguous warning hand signal to the incoming yacht...I found it much easier just to shout to some casual bystander, Ahoy there, you my man would you mind lending the memsahib a hand with ropes, she would be awfully grateful don't cha know. On completion a bit of acknowledgement usually went down well. Something like splendid old chap sterling work now be off with you.
Rather than stand there with the line slipping through his hand….
Nearly as bad as taking another owner out for a sail. Entering the lock he forgot to take the bow line to stop it drifting away from the floating pontoon. I ended up having to do it! My appreciation of his knowledge dropped to incompetent crew.I know the good Pere is merely being ironic, but seriously, does anyone find bystanders of any description any use at all? Even marina staff can be risky. I’d far rather cock it up myself than have someone else cock it up for me. The last time it was a fellow club member, at a rally. We had to raft, so little option. He failed to take up any slack, or make the line off, having insisted on taking it from the 100% competent Mrs C. I had to knock it into neutral and do the stern line, boat drifted back, his ensign staff caught in our backstay and snapped off instantly. Turns out it was rotten, but I bought him a new one. It’s hard to tell someone it’s their fault. He had one job
One hand pointing at the subject and the other with a finger to one’s temple with rotatory movements.
E.g. bystander's dog?Getting bystanders on quays to understand the concept of passing back the rope after it has gone round something…anything
A friend of ours has a German Shepherd who can be utterly relied on to pull hard on any rope she’s given. That’s useful.
There was a dog in our local port (sadly deceased) and if a boater threw him a rope, he would loop it over a cleat....this is a true story and I have seen it myself
Pretty sure you could train this GS to do that, she’s pretty smart. And has the finest ears of any dog, for stroking.
Skipper or the dog?
