Cruiser forums loves a good disaster story

[atoll]

Originally Posted by nic26

Agree with you 100%. Just a little detail: in German the word is "Schadenfreude" and its quite some fun sometimes (if it hits others)

thats ok......noelex can't spell either,and he is edumacated

[Sailshabby]

A lot of “been there, done that, glad I’m not alone!”

[Olddave]

Originally Posted by mikedefieslife

I'm curious, why is it sailors (on this forum and perhaps others) love a good story about boats hitting reefs, collisions, failures, crews stranded etc..

Most of the threads seem to be cynical in their nature and try to apportion blame somewhere too. It' something that I've not seen on other types of forum. No-one ever posts, there was a car crash at the junction of such and such a street, I bet the owner was playing with his stereo or whatever, with other posts then chiming in 'no I have that same car, the steering can get out of whack....'

Mike
CF is a bit like Noah’s Ark, there is two of everything on board. We get to see every aspect of human nature. Some of it is amazingly good and some of it is just amazing.
Dave

[Nani Kai]

Originally Posted by mikedefieslife

I'm curious, why is it sailors (on this forum and perhaps others) love a good story about boats hitting reefs, collisions, failures, crews stranded etc..

Most of the threads seem to be cynical in their nature and try to apportion blame somewhere too. It' something that I've not seen on other types of forum. No-one ever posts, there was a car crash at the junction of such and such a street, I bet the owner was playing with his stereo or whatever, with other posts then chiming in 'no I have that same car, the steering can get out of whack....'

I think everyone's responses are pretty much right on the money. We are problem solvers as a rule, we want to know how it happened, how it can be avoided and/or ask our selves what would we do in the same circumstances. We do learn from other's mistakes (including our own.......most especially our own) and we are harsh on errors that could have been avoided. I believe the harshness is warranted because of what's at stake. Every time a captain hollered at me it was usually because I was doing something boneheaded. I judged the severity of my bone-headedness based on how loud and how long he yelled. If I felt humiliated it was probably because I had put the vessel, the gear or another crewman at risk. Accordingly those were the mistakes I seldom made again. I'm not talking about captains who abuse their crew....and goodness knows there's a few of 'em out there.......but rather captains who want to make darn sure you understand the serious aspects of being a mariner. Harsh responses voiced on this forum come from the same root intent IMO.

[Pelagic]

Originally Posted by mikedefieslife

I'm curious, why is it sailors (on this forum and perhaps others) love a good story about boats hitting reefs, collisions, failures, crews stranded etc..

My unedited thought process when I first hear of a yacht casualty is this:

1....****! ..What a nightmare!
2...How would I cope with this?
3...Could this have happened to me?
4...What is there to learn from this sad event?

Those that lambaste the victim loose my respect (especially if it's me! ), but sometimes you just get angry at stupidity and vent!

We're human, we care!

[ALAIN97133]

Originally Posted by mikedefieslife

I'm curious, why is it sailors (on this forum and perhaps others) love a good story about boats hitting reefs, collisions, failures, crews stranded etc..Most of the threads seem to be cynical in their nature and try to apportion blame somewhere too. It' something that I've not seen on other types of forum. No-one ever posts, there was a car crash at the junction of such and such a street, I bet the owner was playing with his stereo or whatever, with other posts then chiming in 'no I have that same car, the steering can get out of whack....'

Hi! I'm also a paraglider & from day 1, I read all the accidents fatal or less to learn what not to do... That didn't prevent me from crashing from about 7 meters (According to an eyewitness) with a wing that was then way above my skill...
"A day without learning something is a wasted day"

[LakeSuperior]

Back in the eighty's and early nineties when recreational divers were going deeper on air and starting to mix gas in the garages the incident reports were few. But any that we could get our hands on were analyzed in detail.

Why? Because learning from the mistakes of other unfortunates could and probably did save our butts. Thoughts of paralysis and death were always there on a big dive.

Our acute interest had no other motive.