KenMcCulloch
Well-Known Member
What do we mean by \'experienced\' or \'very experienced\'?
I've been wondering about this for a while in relation to the tragic loss of 'Ouzo'. The MAIB report indicated that the skipper had passed YMO several years previously so 'experienced' or even 'very experienced' might be appropriate. Both the crew had passed Day Skipper the previous year and are represented as 'experienced'. I wonder about this; it seems to me quite possible that neither of these two guys had a great deal of experience of the kind of passage they were making and may not have had much night experience (my reasoning is that if they had many hours of night sailing logged they might have been less likely to seek Day Skipper rather than going straight for a higher level qualification).
It is very possible that whatever actually happened to Ouzo, that the only person on watch that night could have been one of these two relatively less experienced sailors. If it was the Ouzo that PoB had a close encounter with, I wonder whether the yacht's watchkeeper had really appreciated the nature and degree of risk as the close quarters situation developed?
Before I get flamed for speaking ill of the dead, that's not my intention at all. The issue I am interested in is what we believe our experience and qualifications mean. I am partly inspired by a recent post on PBOR2R, where an admitted novice was talking about buying a boat and expecting to progress very quickly from novice to crossings of the Dover Strait (the busiest sea in the world). I also know people who have many miles and years behind them but have only ever sailed their own boat and never in more challenging conditions; the point there is that experience has a qualitative dimension as well as simple measures like miles/days/night hours logged.
My own case is that I passed YMO in the mid 1990s having sailed off and on from the mid 1960s onward. I would describe myself as 'fairly experienced' but a mere novice and amateur compared to my friend who is a Senior Yachtmaster Examiner and has sailed yachts professionally for 16 years. What does 'experienced' mean to others?
I've been wondering about this for a while in relation to the tragic loss of 'Ouzo'. The MAIB report indicated that the skipper had passed YMO several years previously so 'experienced' or even 'very experienced' might be appropriate. Both the crew had passed Day Skipper the previous year and are represented as 'experienced'. I wonder about this; it seems to me quite possible that neither of these two guys had a great deal of experience of the kind of passage they were making and may not have had much night experience (my reasoning is that if they had many hours of night sailing logged they might have been less likely to seek Day Skipper rather than going straight for a higher level qualification).
It is very possible that whatever actually happened to Ouzo, that the only person on watch that night could have been one of these two relatively less experienced sailors. If it was the Ouzo that PoB had a close encounter with, I wonder whether the yacht's watchkeeper had really appreciated the nature and degree of risk as the close quarters situation developed?
Before I get flamed for speaking ill of the dead, that's not my intention at all. The issue I am interested in is what we believe our experience and qualifications mean. I am partly inspired by a recent post on PBOR2R, where an admitted novice was talking about buying a boat and expecting to progress very quickly from novice to crossings of the Dover Strait (the busiest sea in the world). I also know people who have many miles and years behind them but have only ever sailed their own boat and never in more challenging conditions; the point there is that experience has a qualitative dimension as well as simple measures like miles/days/night hours logged.
My own case is that I passed YMO in the mid 1990s having sailed off and on from the mid 1960s onward. I would describe myself as 'fairly experienced' but a mere novice and amateur compared to my friend who is a Senior Yachtmaster Examiner and has sailed yachts professionally for 16 years. What does 'experienced' mean to others?
