One of the things about offshore voyaging that keeps me endlessly fascinated, despite having been…well, fixated on the subject for some 50 years, is that there is always more to learn.
And not only that, with that learning I have come to the realization that many true things about offshore voyaging are counter-intuitive, which, in turn, results in a lot of myths becoming widely believed just because they seem to make sense and have been repeated a lot.
This post is a list of some of those myths.
By the way, before we get started, I will be honest and admit that at some time in my life I have believed that at least 15 of these myths were facts. However, I’m going to preserve the last shreds of my pride by not telling you which ones.
All of the statements below are wrong, despite being many being accepted as fact in the voyaging community:
- Double-ended boats are intrinsically safer in following seas.
- Good weather forecasting and a good weather router can keep you out of storms. (Members*)
- Wave strikes are what damage boats in storms.
- Lying a-hull is safe.
- Being pooped is a risk in storms.
- Twin rudders are a desirable feature. (Members*)
- A good jackline system can keep you from being dragged in the water. (Centreline jacklines excepted.) (Members*)
- Very low-stretch wire or high modulus rope jacklines are a good idea. (Members*)
- You will die in just minutes in cold water.
- The more anchors you set the safer you will be. (Members*)
- You are safer with shorefasts than anchored.
- Small snug anchorages are safer than larger ones. (Members*)
- Chain provides spring through catenary.
- A kellet increases holding power.
- Learning CPR will have a significant effect on outcomes.
- A boom brake replaces a preventer. (Members*)
- Full-keeled boats always steer better than fin-keeled boats.
- Installing a series hybrid diesel electric system in a voyaging boat will save fuel and is the environmentally responsible thing to do. (Members*)
- To be a good mariner you need to know how to tie a whole bunch of fancy difficult knots.
- Modern hull designs can’t heave-to. (Members*)
I have linked to the source that debunks each myth, where available. For the myths without links, if there is enough interest expressed in the comments, I will write a post explaining my thinking.
*Non-members can read the Online Book Introductions and Tables of Contents, to assess their value before joining, at the above links.
Comments
So, what other myths can you think of that you once believed but now know to be wrong? Please leave a comment.
Don’t you have an article on a small number of useful knots to link point 19 to?
Hi Adam,
No we don’t, but it’s on my to-do list. Spoiler alert: we only use five easy to learn knots and they cover all our needs.
That offshore sailing is more dangerous than coastal.
Hi Nick,
Great one! Let’s make that #21, or maybe we should make it #1.
Good one Nick. Now someone needs to tell the boat insurance people that!!
CPR offshore? It would be a fluke to actually revive someone, an absolute fluke. Around 5% in a hospital setting survive to walk out of the hospital.
Hi Dave,
You got it! But it’s amazing how much time is wasted on CPR in maritime safety training that could be, I think put to better use. I think your 5% in hospital is about right. At sea far offshore, I’m guess less than one tenth of 1%.
And those probably would have come around on their own.
Oh my…the misinformation about CPR. I have the referenced book and have read it. I show it in the Medical Emergencies for Cruisers lectures we give. The point of the book is about the misconceptions we have about CPR, not that it shouldn’t be learned. CPR is an incredible and easy-to-learn skill that all boaters should know. Thinking it is a waste of time is really bad and could easily create a situation where you watch someone you love expire.
CPR by itself has a 1.6% out-of-hospital survival rate. Giving someone CPR by itself has a terrible outcome. Sadly, CPR given on TV has a fantastic survival rate so people are confused about it (“ER” had an 80% survival rate on CPR alone).
But CPR does something very useful – it stops the clock on brain damage to allows time for defibrillation to be administered. Patients in cardiac arrest who are given CPR quickly and defibrillated within 4 minutes have a fantastic survival record – it’s why there are so many AED’s in shopping malls, airports, etc.
I think that AED survival far offshore would be lower unless you also had some cardiac drugs onboard. But if you’re at risk for a cardiac event, you should be carrying some of those drugs along with the training about how to use them. That training would most surely include CPR and AED use.
I’ve been a licensed EMT for 21 years and served as advanced life support for our little coastal town in Maine. I’ve unfortunately had to administer CPR multiple times, use AED’s, and manually defibrillated patients. The information within this blog posting should really be researched and corrected. Cruising boaters are confused enough already and this is only adding to that confusing. It was terribly irresponsible.
Hi Jeffrey,
All good information I’m sure, thank you. Having said that, I never said don’t learn CPR, all I said was that CPR in and of itself is unlikely to save lives offshore. I got this information from a certified red cross wilderness first aid instructor and had it backed up by a senior anesthesiologist with a huge amount of cardiac care experience. I myself am CPR certified but I’m not delusional about it’s benefits as many are.
For example the only medical training required to get a RYA Yacht Master (non-commercial) is, or at least was, CPR. To me there is plenty of other first aid training that should come before CPR. For example, hypothermia and bleeding care, which can save lives in, as I understand it, many more cases.
As you say a defibrillator will help, but probably only in a situation where professional full on cardiac care is close, not the case offshore.
As to irresponsible. I can’t see anything irresponsible about debunking the often held myth that CPR has a high rate of success. That information might even make someone with a cardiac condition think twice about going offshore, when they realize that if they do arrest the chances of resuscitation are, (using you figure) less than 1 in 50 and that’s with medical care close by!
Rather I think it is irresponsible to provide CPR training without explaining the actual efficacy since it gives people a false sense of security. I have done CPR training four times in my life, and in the first three courses I was left with the impression that CPR worked in the majority of cases. That’s irresponsible.
Agreed, but even though CPR alone may not save lives offshore, CPR can constitute a vital part of a system that indeed could (thinking of AED in particular).
The same can be said for other really great things we carry as well. They won’t work without supporting systems and knowledge. I still agree that people must learn the limitations of CPR and the proper supporting steps and sometimes equipment needed to make it worthwhile though.
Hi Peter,
Well put. But we should also not lose sight of the fact that even with all the supporting stuff (de-fib, drugs, etc) offshore far from help, as I understand it from medical professionals, the chances of lasting resuscitation are very, very small.
This is in keeping with my fundamental belief that deluding ourselves about efficacy of any safety training or gear is, in and of itself, dangerous. For example, someone with cardiac problems who believed that CPR was more effective than it is might easily make the decision to spend large amounts of time offshore far from help because the other crew have CPR training and there is a de-fib machine aboard.
It’s just sad. You’re wrong. Dangerously wrong. This isn’t the same as a jackline, EPIRB, or other safety gear. The reality is that you’re offshore for less than 5% of your time onboard. The rest of the time, you’re nearshore, at anchor, or at a marina. Even when offshore, you’re often hours from real medial help. And in all of those times, CPR is a valuable tool. Dis’ing it is just, again, irresponsible. Twisting the words to make it seem reasonable is just, well, stupid.
I offer this one example. You used the cover of that “myth of CPR” book as your example in your posting for #15. Will you admit that you didn’t actually read that book? Had you read that book, you wouldn’t have ever used it to “prove” your point.
I’m done with this. You need to spend a little time actually researching your position instead of defending a dangerous one just because you wrote it. I hope that no one follows the impressions about emergency care that you’re trying to promote here for some ridiculous reason.
No need to respond. I had hoped you would do the most basic of investigation. Instead, this is just a total waste of time – I’ll never be back.
Hi Jeffrey,
I’m sorry you are so upset, but once again you seem to have got yourself all worked up about something I never said.
One more time: I never said don’t learn CPR. I am CPR certified myself. What I said was that when offshore CPR was a lot less effective than may people think it is. That’s all I said. That’s a fact, and a useful one to know. This post was about offshore sailing myths. It says that clearly in the title. It is not about on-shore or near-shore, which is where you operate.
I think it is just as well that you are leaving, for everyones sake.
Sorry it worked out that way.
Hi Jeff,
One other thing I need to clarify. Phyllis and I are huge believers in and promotors of the Red Cross Wilderness First Aid courses, which includes CPR.
In fact I will be teaching a high latitude course this weekend and I will be strongly, maybe aggressively, suggesting that the participants do said course.
Of course part of my enthusiasm may be rooted in the fact that Wilderness first aid training may have saved my life.
Regarding the suggestion that “even though CPR alone may not save lives offshore, CPR can constitute a vital part of a system that indeed could (thinking of AED in particular)”, you may wish to consider the following comments by Jeffrey Isaac in the 2016 Ocean Voyager:
“Early access to a defibrillator, ideally within five minutes, is the key to successful defibrillation. Early access to hospital care is the key to survival. Some of the people selling AEDs claim success rates of more than 90 percent. They are drawing their line of success at restoration of a pulse in specific cases of ventricular fibrillation. Most of us would prefer to draw the line at actually walking out of the hospital alive. That success-to-discharge rate in the U.S. is 10.4 percent. The overwhelming majority of these saves occur in urban areas. The number is far lower for rural areas and almost zero in remote locations with no access to medical care. There is a big difference between being defibrillated and being saved.”
Hi Roger,
Great quote, thanks. That’s exactly what my wilderness first aid instructor said. Yes, you may bring them back temporarily with a defibrillator but without hospital care to deal with the underlying problem, the patient will almost certainly arrest again.
I have since heard one exception to that, and that is if the arrest was caused by electric shock. Apparently in this case a defibrillator may make the difference even offshore far from help. Having said that, that information is anecdotal and I have nothing solid to back it up.
A candidate being examined for the RYA/MCA Yachtmaster Certificates must present first aid qualifications. Not all are acceptable.
CPR is only one element of the courses.
Hi Dave,
Thanks for that clarification. Good to hear that the training required has been expanded.
Having said that, I would suggest that a course like the Red Cross Wilderness First Aid that focuses on care in remote places where professional care may be hours or even days away, would be more appropriate for the YM offshore than many of the courses listed that may only prepare one to render aid for a short period before the professionals arrive.
John,
The RYA list is dynamic and things can be added to it once RYA has had a chance to examine the syllabus. As an example, you will notice that the Canadian Ski Patrol Advanced Medical Responder course is on the list. I had it put there as that is my first aid training. It’s a lot like Red Cross Wilderness first aid, which could also be added to the list if someone requested it.
Hi Dave,
Thant sounds good, but my concern was that in my opinion, many of the courses that are accepted are inadequate for a skipper of an boat going offshore far from help and that course like the Red Cross Wilderness First Aid should be the minimum standard.
John,
Agreed. A one day first aid course is indequate, and Wilderness First aid is much more suitable for sailing offshore.
How about “the safest place for a good ship is far offshore”?
HI Simon,
I don’t think that’s a myth in most cases.
Hei John
I know what you mean. I was thinking about Bounty in this case, because THE safest place is a safe harbor, even if most Harbors don’t fall into that category.
Hi Simon,
There’s a good point!
My motto is “I don’t leave port if there is an active hurricane, or even a tropical storm, in the same ocean”!