What scares you most when sailing?

What scares me most?

Reading this thread!

I was fine before but now I'm going to need therapy before I leave the river again.
 
Falling off the edge of the world. That's why I never managed further than N. Brittany. I heard that the earth is still flat there.
 
Opening my wallet when anywhere near the boat gives me the biggest scare.:eek:
Shipping a few greenies while out for a blast last Sunday was very soothing by comparison.:encouragement:
 
Meeting MOBOS with twin 300HP outboards and with no ideas about Colregs.......

Hold your line to find out which side they will blast past 5metres away?
 
That something crucial might break in heavy weather. Mast, rudder, stays, gooseneck etc - even a plank spring. Guess if you are in a modern plastic boat some geek will have calculated the loads and you trust them. In my old wooden boat it's all down to the hours of examining everything and convincing yourself it's sound or mending it if not. Most things on my boat seem to be twice as heavy as everyone else's as a consequence.
 
I recall motor sailing into a F6 in a 22 footer with my newly rebuilt (by me) 1GM10 running at full chat, a tug bearing down on me in a channel and a novice friend on board being a little stressful.
 
Memories scare me ... the things I did when I was young and immortal. Did I really sail a 21' boat round the Mull of Kintyre in September and end up motoring the inshore route in heavy swell with a Seagull 40 pushing me along? Oh yes I did.
 
JumbleDuck said:
Memories scare me ... the things I did when I was young and immortal. Did I really sail a 21' boat round the Mull of Kintyre in September and end up motoring the inshore route in heavy swell with a Seagull 40 pushing me along? Oh yes I did.
Click to expand...

Gosh yes.... I did rather a lot of the "when I was young and immortal" stuff. Escaped unscathed by virtue of what I am not sure. I think those crazy things when you are " young and immortal" serve a useful purpose to propel you through life. With the current "cottonwool" approach to life experiences , I think a lot of people will have surprises later than we did!
 
Racing with incompetent skippers - two occasions had them - one used to steer into broaches with the kite up!! The other knew the sender gauge was reading incorrectly but we still ran out of diesel mid-channel with no wind on the return from a race across to Deauville.

Berthing a boat you don't know that well into an unknown tight spot with an audience looking on - once took a Vancouver 34 into the Boat Show at Southampton the evening before the start of the show. Nailed it fine but god I was sweating!

I was genuinely scared by a stalking Orca 4 days out of Gran Canaria to St Lucia which was getting closer and closer to the bolt on keel and spade rudder!
 
Fear is a funny thing though, and oits definitely not rational. On board, the howling of the wind gets to me and I feel nervous. Yet I ride a motorbike without the slightest worry and statistically that is way more likely to kill me than sailing. Indeed I have already been airlifted into A&E after an RTA on the bike.
 
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