Why learning to sail is important

[conchaway]

Natural selection.

[NorthCoastJoe]

I carry a large guide paddle on my Pearson 30. I used it a few weeks ago to paddle into my slip. We sucked some weed into the raw water intake and rather than deal with it we sailed back to the marina about 3 miles away. The hard part was no real wind, we were making 1 to 2 knots at best and for the final 100 yards I pulled out the paddle. We could do 2 knots in a burst paddling, me with one paddle at the bow. I guide white water rafts with the same type of paddle.

[Connemara]

Originally Posted by Connemara

This site -- https://www.timeanddate.com/weather/...garei/historic -- gives the wind at about 15 to 20 knots easterly or a bit southeasterly, so he would have been pushed off shore over time.

Connemara

Oops, typo, followed by general brain cramp. And east wind would have been pushing him toward shore,

Connemara

[NedX]

Humility.

Learning to sail is important because seven tons of plastic, lead and dacron is no match for the full gamut of things an ocean can throw at you.

I've known people who passed every ASA test and can't tell you where the wind is coming from. I've known people who know everything about how to set a sail but will run you aground while you're reefing the main because they don't know red-right-retuning.

My approach is that I never know more than the next guy. I can always learn from those who have been there before me. Every screwup is something to learn from and never do again. And any chance to go out there with someone who knows more than you is gold. I've been on lots of boats in every kind of weather, but tomorrow the ocean will teach me a lesson that you already knew and could've taught me, if only I'd been humble enough to learn.

[When I end up being rescued by brave people like the ones who saved that guy in the original post, please do not link to this post. ]

[Yihang]

Originally Posted by fxykty

Numerous experiments (easy Google search) have found that a board fastened to spinnaker pole is pretty much impossible to rig in such a way that it will actually work - the loads are too high and without actual fittings on the stern there isn’t anything for the pole to pivot against.

Maybe a steering oar?

Drogue, bucket, anchor, etc on a bridle to both stern corners is the best bet.

Practice your emergency steering method!

I saw someone with a seawind rig these up to the winches via a bridle setup. Just wind in and out to steer. Seem like a pretty solid setup.

https://www.oceanchandlery.com/seabrake.html

https://www.facebook.com/71838173516...89639805012634

[SalingSue]

Originally Posted by Jammer

I don't agree with this, nor do I agree with similar statements that judgment can't be taught except through experience. People can learn through case studies, for example, and planning exercises, particularly with mentorship from others. It takes a good teacher.

My experience has been the same as NYs, some things are just who the person is, SOME can be changed by very dramatic experience, but classroom time not so much. Nature / nurture and all that

[double u]

fancy that...! In the land where we (foreign yacht) got hassled with a "safety-check" when clearing out in 95 after staying the cyclone seson...

[LittleWing77]

Originally Posted by BugzyCan

I would love to hear how to steer a boat with no steering. I know you could play with more Jib and less main to go one direction, and the reverse to go the other, but then when you get near land what do you do if you have no communication?

Could you even find Land with no electronics if you did not know where you were?
That kind of steering would be best accomplished (single handed) with roller furling jib and main, but perhaps just a reefed main and roller furling jib would be enough.
Has anyone attempted to steer a boat this way?

Hello from Toronto, Bugzy!

Your response was thoughtful.

I can tell you a couple of things from my training (RYA Yachtmaster Offshore) - part of one of the levels is an exercise where you're required to sail the boat using sails alone (rudder lashed in the middle), so you know how to direct her using the sails in the event you've lost steering (they also teach you how to attach the emergency tiller). It is also a potential emergency scenario the Examiners can use as a fake-"emergency" during the three-day exam.

As far as finding land with no electrics, there's a nav technique called sun-run-sun or just a running fix based on your compass course and how many miles covered in a day where you can plot your estimated position.

Finally, there are a number of ways of signalling distress with flags and the like - as for me I always keep a handheld VHF separate and with fresh batteries in my ditch bag in the event of untoward scenarios like that. Once when I was teaching a Coastal Skipper course, we ran aground at Lymington and a passing boat called out did we need a tow? So never underestimate the good samaritans among us sailors!

But, as regards that guy and his situation, I suppose he just didn't know what he didn't know.

Anyway, there are a lot of options out there.


LittleWing77

[Connemara]

Originally Posted by NedX

... because they don't know red-right-retuning...

Of course, in New Zealand that would be exactly backwards. But I take your point.

Connemara

[NedX]

Originally Posted by Connemara

Of course, in New Zealand that would be exactly backwards. But I take your point.

Connemara

Aha! Connemara, good point, and there's a perfect example of the point of the thread!

Actually, I once went out with an experienced sailor from a country where the colors are reversed; in our planning for that passage he did not divulge that he had not studied U.S. navigation aids, and it never occurred to me to ask him. Wrong!

While he was at the wheel and I was doing something, he went inside a can and put us on a shoal. Tide was coming in so we got right off, no damage. There are three or four mistakes in all this that I'll never make it again on a boat. I was lucky I made it in a sheltered area in fair weather and a rising tide!

[brendanwalls]

As long as you have some kind of celestial Light, sun, moon, stars that you know roughly where they should be that time of year, you don't need that compass either, as long as you have a standard working wristwatch. Lots of if onlys, as long as,

[JPA Cate]

Originally Posted by Connemara

Of course, in New Zealand that would be exactly backwards. But I take your point.

Connemara

Yes, from the US originally, Jim and I now say, "red, right, reaving."

[David B]

Originally Posted by fxykty

This guy wasn’t able to control his 34’ sailboat when a gust hit, unable to reef, couldn’t steer once the GPS stopped working (?), and had to be rescued from his boat. The boat was abandoned. Within sight of land in relatively calm conditions. Sheesh.

Boatie winched to safety after five hour ordeal
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/a...ectid=12383232

Maybe we shouldn’t counsel people to just do it and learn on the way?

Hmm. Some just have it in their DNA, and intuitively work it out for themselves as they go - the same sort of people who see an object and can work out how it works, how it was put together - and how to fix it.

At the other end, there are those who have absolutely no affinity with the subject, but just want to give it a go, because it appeals to them - or worse, they think it might 'be cool'. For that sort of person, they need to be shown and taught everything, and if there is something they have not been taught - or they have forgotten, then they will be in trouble one day.

Then there are the many that sit somewhere in between those boundaries, and for many of them, lessons and training are still beneficial.

None of us know everything, and (hopefully) all of us can learn something new every day, but experience can build affinity, and experience can build knowledge and good reflexes.

[requiem]

Originally Posted by Jammer

I don't agree with this, nor do I agree with similar statements that judgment can't be taught except through experience. People can learn through case studies, for example, and planning exercises, particularly with mentorship from others. It takes a good teacher.

I've always been a fan of Otto von B's take: "Fools learn from experience. I prefer to learn from the experience of others."

[David B]

Originally Posted by requiem

I've always been a fan of Otto von B's take: "Fools learn from experience. I prefer to learn from the experience of others."

I like that!