Who are the nutters?

[pugwash]

There's a lot of moralising among S'butters about snotties and stinkpots and jetskis and sundry nutters, but think on this.

Last week I picked up a mooring off Cargreen, soon to be the abode of our friend JJ (see "I've done it" thread below). It was a lovely evening, very high tide. Three other visiting yachts took adjacent buoys and we puttered ashore for dinner at the Spaniard. I didn't know them.

Around 9pm we happened to meet up at our dinghies. I had a lifejacket, a torch and my dinghy was on a long painter. None of the other crews had torches, lifejackets or painters long enough to keep their boats afloat and two were hanging on the wall while the third was attached to mine. None had paddles or oars, either (as far as I recall).

What especially horrified me was that the spring tide, now half out, was really racing. It was very dark. The other crews were about my own age (ie, early 60s), none of us the most nimble of individuals, especially the women. One small dinghy had four people in it, leaving no leeway at all for accidents.

All were pleasant, decent, keen and seemingly sensible people with well-kept boats and (I sensed) adequate qualifications. We chatted on the quayside while the women inched down the slimy ladder and stepped uneasily into the dinghies. Couldn't wish to meet a nicer crowd. Nobody was drunk but we'd all dined well.

Point is, these nice people were taking alarming risks. No threat to others, of course, but if an accident had happened that would have changed in an instant.

I think all of us have done silly things, I know I have, and the current shine of my halo is unusual. But it makes you think. Really, who are the nutters?

 

[ccscott49]

I've seen the same thing dozens of times, people just don't think of what the conditions might be AFTER they leave the pub/restaurant and make no allowances for it, to have your dinghy hanging on it's painter on the wall is not just an embarassment, it's dangerous, no torch and no paddles is just stupidity! I've also seen dinghys well overloaded many times, for goodness sake if you sail with a crew of four, at least get a dinghy that will hold four comfortably, or make two trips!

 

[tcm]

You're right. Lots of people seem to have a little compartment for safety, possibly triggered by turning on the engine, possibly not. The rest of the time they carry on as before.

On an airplane, they gave us the whole saftey briefing. Then, the crew poured out hot drinks "towards" each individual passenger, instead of turning so that a spillage would go down the aisle. I mentioned it but they said that "they'd never had any such accident".

 

[Dave_Snelson]

Unfortunately, there are loads!

Daft actions abound in both sail and power. I frequently see people setting out from Porthmadog with kids on board and no life jackets for anyone - well at least they aren't wearing them. I was motoring into the harbour one day when I witnessed some chap lowering (what I assumed to be) his two grandchildren of about 3/4 years old, from his yacht into a small unstable tender, and they had no life jackets on, and no adult in the tender to receive them.

And the chap with a small speed boat who hadn't tested or serviced his outboard since the previous season. Launched on an out-racing spring tide and was franticly trying to pull start the motor (flat battery!) whilst being swept down the channel. His friend was fending the little boat off from bumping in to everyone elses boats and we eventually saw them again half an hour later being towed back in. It was a curiuous mix of hilarious and dangerous!

I could go on....and so could many others I guess!

Madoc Yacht Club
www.madocyachtclub.co.uk

 

[graham]

Re: Unfortunately, there are loads!

Most of us have a seaworthy boat loaded with lifejackets flares etc etc .Yet we get to it in a leaky overloaded little dinghy .The only yachting fatality in my neck of the woods in recent years was a man drowned when his tender capsized.

My kids are at the "why"stage .Recent question was" why do we(the kids)have to wear lifejackets and you dont Dad?"

Couldnt think of a sensible answer.

 

[webcraft]

I've definitely been in more danger dinghying back from the pub than I've ever been in at sea.

But . . . what the hell, we can't be sensible all the time . . . if I wanted to stay safe I'd stay at home and watch the world on TV.

For public consumption, let's be sensible and self-regulating - but let's also be honest amongst ourselves, this whole sailing thing is just a teensy bit irresponsible, is it not?

- Nick

BlueMoment.Com
http://www.bluemoment.com

 

[steveh]

Having always had a swinging mooring I believe that the transfer in the dingy is the most dangerous part of sailing. I always wear a lifejacket as does everyone getting in the dingy. It then gets taken off once we are transferred onto the boat. Crossing Itchenor reach on an ebb tide, Sunday afternoon soon puts it into perspective.

 

[pkb]

I think there is a perfectly natural reaction of relaxation at the end of a passage when the anchor is well dug in or we're tied up securely to a mooring bouy and the sail is neatly stowed, the foul weather gear hanging up to dry etc etc. Which often means - most of us have been guilty at one time or another - not giving enough thought to the short but potentially fraught dinghy passage from boat to shore which is arguably the most dangerous leg of the entire passage. The tendency to relax in such circumstances may be natural but is nonetheless irresponsible. If there is one thread which YM should highlight from Scuttlebut in an upcoming issue of the mag then this is it.

 

[sailbadthesinner]

Speaking personally i think the danger radar does get switched off at completion of passage.

I also find it is worst when youn are in your home territory. The familiar often feels safer than it actually is, i even think that some part of your brain kicks in to thinking that beacuase you are a 'local' the environment will somehow recognise this and treat you more kindly.

it is of course total codswallop and thanks for highlighting this potentially fatal beahviour which i have been guilt of on more than the odd occasion.

Beer! Now there's a temporary solution.

 

[Grehan]

Mea Culpa

A Very Good posting, this.

A danger Grehan falls into is the 'load up the dinghy with all the stuff to take home (or get onto the boat), and the crew, so as to do the transfer(s) in the fewest number of trips' syndrome.
In our part of Poole the water can be quiet as quiet can be, or the tide can be ripping through. The first can blind one to the possibility of the second.

'Shamed to say we did drive slightly sideways into a noticeable swell the other day and lost all our freeboard in one fell swoop.
A moment's scare and we had sorted ourselves out. But we probably had a bit too much on board - and we weren't wearing our bouyancy aids (of which we have 4 on the yacht, plus 6 self-inflatable lifejackets). Very silly us. Won't do it again.

Even though it is reasonably shallow, water's much too cold and wet, and underlying mud too deep, to want to be tangled with.

Always, always, always have oars though.
Very suspicious of outboard reliability and my own ability to forget about fuel.