Type A or B skipper - stress & heart attacks

duncan

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Re: absolutely

I'm a solid B when down in Poole and out on the boat except (1) when trying to get into Yarmouth overnight and (2) returning to my berth to find someone in it and the tide ebbing across it at 5 knots ............ /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif
 

wishbone

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At work I as stressed eric!! Drive my boys mad....on a boat I am the complete opposite....When on my last floatilla I was last to leave....last to arrive...didn't use the donk to make time just laid back and let the breeze do it's stuff.......! ain't that what sailing is about?
 

Peppermint

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Re:Stress free Type A

Why would I be stressed? It's only a game.

Competitive? What me? Only if I can see another boat. Still no stress in it though.

The Beeb did a programme a while ago about sleep. Part of it was to find out if you were stressed. It measured stress on a scale of 1-40 with 40 being very stressed. I scored 3.

Type B's never achieved anything.
 

StugeronSteve

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Re:Stress free Type A

[ QUOTE ]
Type B's never achieved anything.

[/ QUOTE ] Once read of a theory, which suggested that all great breakthroughs and discoveries have been made by relaxed people ie. Archimedes, in the bath; Newton, resting under the apple tree; Einstein, letting the sun's rays filter through his eyelids etc.
 

claymore

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Re: Type A or B skipper - stress & heart attacks

If I may be permitted to comment, I consider myself to be a type B person and the test results would appear to verify this.
I found though that when Jimi and Para were aboard and we were heading down the Sound of Kerrera and they didn't react to a rather large gust of wind which emptied one of the cupboards down below - I seemed to switch to type A.
 

Peppermint

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Re:Nice thought

but it disregards the fact that Archimedes was just bathing. When he made his discovery, and outside the dress conventions of the time, he ran about like a mad thing telling everybody. He'd pretty soon made a load of useful stuff happen based on the one idea.

Newton's apple only really confirmed a theory he already held. From his body of work it would be hard to see lazing under trees as being his natural state.

Einstein worked, flat out, until the minute of his death.

It's nice to think that chilling achieves but in truth, even if inspiration comes while your chilled, it's the type a's that take inspiration and make it work
 

StugeronSteve

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Re:Nice thought

But, but, but, was the original question not, "are you a type a, or b skipper"?

Most peeps would consider me a "type a" when away from the boat, however, the boat is there for chilling. Having spent most of my (spare time) life competing, albeit at a humble level, on four wheels, two wheels, two legs and even sitting on my arse, I do relax on the boat and hope that I can communicate an air of relaxation to those around me. If I did race, which I have intentionally avoided, I would be a certain "type a" skipper, but, thankfully, I dont. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
 

Peppermint

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Re:I think my crew relax

because I project a bit of energy. I did my competing a long time ago but if I start tweaking and fiddling then it's cos I'm after some other yacht.

I just don't get the AB thing. You can be high energy without being shouty and stressed. You can be relaxed but on top of everything. In fact it depends how I feel. If I'm in the mood to relax thats what I do. I don't see many people who are the same every day.
 

jimi

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Re:I think my crew relax

Remember quite a long time ago doing a study on this. It appears that certain people are predisposed to type A or B behaviour. However this behaviour can be changed relatively easily and it may well be that a different environment may be a good catalyst. StugeronSteve's reply that he's an A at work but a B in his leisure makes a lot of sense. Likewise A when racing but B when cruising. Quite a complex area. The importance of it relates to physical and mental health where stress, beleive it or not, is good (in fact better than no stress), overstress is not .. particularly when that overstress is caused by dissonance between ambition and the realistic expectation of its achievement. ie I need to be handsome .. but in actual fact I've hit 35 branches when I fell through the ugly tree.
 

Peppermint

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Re:The thing with sailing is

that you can usually see and end result to the task. Even if it's clearing a blocked heads you get a reward at the end. You can wash your hands, burn your cloths, and enjoy a working toilet. To much of what we call work and quite a lot of home life seems not to give the same reward.

From my observations afloat, I'd say that many sailors would be happier if they stopped looking for perfection and accepted that "sh*t does indeed happen".
 
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