What scares you most when sailing?

thecommander said:
Seajet tows a line behind his boat for that very situation!
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I know. I doubt very much I could 'climb' back up the rope with boat doing 5 - 6kts. Seajet has also given a lot of thought to some means for disconnecting the AH if he goes OB, as have I... I never tried it but I am told that even at 3-4kts speed through the water makes self recovery pretty well impossible.

Would love to hear from someone who has managed to do it!
 
Major_Clanger said:
The idea of a serious medical emergency when offshore frightens me.

Also, and perhaps bizarrely, I was frightened on sighting land at the end of my first Atlantic crossing. Having had fairly straight-forward nav for weeks, I suddenly had to think about a whole load of other things!
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I can understand that. I have only done one crossing and as we neared St Lucia I had an overwhelming feeling of wanting to sail on and not stop. Not an option as I was not the skipper!
 
KellysEye said:
use kitchen roll to stop bleeding it is sterile out of the pack as is cling film
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Having worked for the biggest worldwide producer of both of those items, I can assure you it certainly isn't sterile. Rats chewing into the uncut bulk rolls of kitchen roll was one of the biggest issues the paper mill had to deal with.

Not that any of that would be a real concern if you're plugging a bleeding hole in your arm mind.
 
JumbleDuck said:
Oh yes. I'm with you there. Twenty seven years ago I was so seasick - my first time ever - on a trip from Plymouth to Falmouth that I got seriously hypothermic. Ever since then I have been terrified of getting it again, and for some years I gave up sailing because I could not get Scopaderm patches.

Recently it occurred to me that, having been seasick precisely once in my life and not for a quarter of a century, I may not be as prone to it as I think ... but that's logic, and it hasn't convinced my gut instinct yet. I am scared of being seasick.
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I was seasick once going to Canada when I was 4. Belfast - Clyde - Montreal took 23 days through a North Atlantic winter storm. The captain, later commodore, said it was his worst ever crossing and told my father on arrival that the ship's back had been broken.
 
parsifal said:
I can understand that. I have only done one crossing and as we neared St Lucia I had an overwhelming feeling of wanting to sail on and not stop. Not an option as I was not the skipper!
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That's not an uncommon feeling. I've no idea how to describe that emotion but it's very familiar to anyone who has experienced long passages at sea with nothing but your crew mates.
 
oldharry said:
I know. I doubt very much I could 'climb' back up the rope with boat doing 5 - 6kts. Seajet has also given a lot of thought to some means for disconnecting the AH if he goes OB, as have I... I never tried it but I am told that even at 3-4kts speed through the water makes self recovery pretty well impossible.

Would love to hear from someone who has managed to do it!
Click to expand...

There was an article in YM a few years ago about just this. It was by a reader who sails an Elizabethan 23 long distance single handed. He landed up going over the side in Spain and had great trouble getting back aboard.
He had designed two boarding ladders which formed part of the guard rails which could be hinged down into the water by pulling on a trailing line. They were designed so that they hinged through 90 degrees
 
Rhoda Rose said:
This sounds very whimpish, but deep water upsets me. East coast is my usual cruising ground, depth usually measured in 10's of meters. Once went a bit further afield and noticed 100+ meters under the boat and came over all vertigoish. Really, like standing on top of a high building. I had to consciously push the image of all that water under the boat to the back of my mind. Had I allowed myself to dwell on it I am not sure how I would have coped. Silly, but I don't like deep water, sure I would get used to it, but...
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I had that feeling sailing off Corfu when the depth sounder stop registering after 90 Mts. Didn't last long though.
 
Sandgrounder said:
There was an article in YM a few years ago about just this. It was by a reader who sails an Elizabethan 23 long distance single handed. He landed up going over the side in Spain and had great trouble getting back aboard.
He had designed two boarding ladders which formed part of the guard rails which could be hinged down into the water by pulling on a trailing line. They were designed so that they hinged through 90 degrees
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Wouldn't it be better if the trailing line acted on the steering to bring the boat into the wind and stop it, rather than giving you the chance to waterski by hanging on until your strength gave out?
 
Sandgrounder said:
There was an article in YM a few years ago about just this. It was by a reader who sails an Elizabethan 23 long distance single handed. He landed up going over the side in Spain and had great trouble getting back aboard.
He had designed two boarding ladders which formed part of the guard rails which could be hinged down into the water by pulling on a trailing line. They were designed so that they hinged through 90 degrees
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Jim Mottram perchance?

You could rig a line from a strongpoint, to the autohelm, with slack in it, then upwards to a turning block on the guardwires or backstay, then over the side. A strong pull lifts the autohelm off the pin, and the line pulls tight to the strongpoint. Then it's a question of hauling yourself back to the boat as she flaps around in circles.
On second thought, I'll just carry on clipping in when singlehanded...
 
Kelpie said:
Jim Mottram perchance?

You could rig a line from a strongpoint, to the autohelm, with slack in it, then upwards to a turning block on the guardwires or backstay, then over the side. A strong pull lifts the autohelm off the pin, and the line pulls tight to the strongpoint. Then it's a question of hauling yourself back to the boat as she flaps around in circles.
On second thought, I'll just carry on clipping in when singlehanded...
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I have a Monitor windvane, I wonder where would be a good place to attach the trip line without it affecting the normal operation.

But, as you say, best to clip on; and with a short lifeline :encouragement:
 
My abiding fear is of all Italian boaters and UK charterers, secure in their RYA Day Skipper certificate.

I've never been overboard when single-handed in this boat, over 39K miles and 27 years - every time it's when the crew at the helm does something ill-considered.
 
jimi said:
Better off with the autopilot remote control in yer pocket��
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Does it act as a "dead man's handle" then? I would have thought that its range, from sea level or below, will be limited for use even very quickly when the yacht is sailing off... Interesting experiment!

Mike.
 
Seriously, one thing I am afraid of is the cold.
I have had hypothermia and really don't want to go there again.
 
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