When I look back over better than five decades of offshore sailing (most of it as skipper) and many voyages to hazardous places, I often cringe at all the mistakes I made.
On pretty much every voyage (perhaps save one) I made at least one mistake that could have resulted in losing the boat or even killing me and the crew.
And then there are all those seemingly trivial mistakes, too many to count. Each was trivial in and of itself, but I can see any number of ways that a sequence of these small mistakes could have added up to disaster.
So am I some dangerous yahoo? Nope. You just have to read this site for a while to know that.
And my actual track record (so far) is pretty good. No boat losses, never been towed1, never been rescued, never hurt a crew member or myself…OK, there was the time I stood up fast under the boom, but that was clumsiness2, not poor seamanship.
So how can a guy who has made so many mistakes end up with a good safety record…touch wood? Five reasons:
I have:
- Been relatively lucky. I can think of at least a couple of occasions where it was pure blind luck that saved me from a horrible situation.
- Been diligent about maintaining my boats.
- Always kept one of John Vigor’s black boxes aboard and tried hard to always keep it full of points.
- Tried hard to recognize my mistakes and learn from them.
- Learned over the years (often the hard way) to balance desired features against forgiveness when buying boats and gear, and to be ultra-aware when I have put the former before the latter.
It’s the last one I’m going to explore in this article.
We Will Make Mistakes
But first, are mistakes inevitable? To me at least, it’s an undeniable truth that voyaging under sail is a mistake-prone activity. There are just too many variables of weather and situations for any of us to manage for long without making at least some mistakes.
And this is particularly true when sailing shorthanded because of the number and diversity of the tasks each crew will have to execute in the run of a voyage, and further because from time to time we will get tired.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not advocating for just resigning ourselves to mistake-cursed cruises. There’s a lot we can do to reduce the number of mistakes we make: practice, checklists, systematically and gradually learning our trade, and not taking on cruises that are beyond our experience level, to name just a few. However, for this article let’s assume we did all that stuff.
Forgiveness Reduction Examples
So now we know that mistakes are going to happen, let’s have a look at some examples of boat and gear buying decisions that will increase or decrease the chances our boat will forgive us when we make a mistake:
I was pleased to see, at the last Annapolis sailboat show, that at least a few manufacturers have clued in to this “forgiving & maintainable” philosophy. A number of boats marketed as long-range cruisers did indeed have slab reefing with a slippery track, keel bolts accessible for inspection, good ways to rig preventers, anything that could jam or break being designed so you have an alternate way of getting it under control, and engine hatches shaped so you could easily swing a large tool on all sides of the engine when opened up.
It’s far from universal, though. There are a *lot* of boats that are built to look good at the dock, and be fun to sail for an afternoon, with little or no thought given to taking care of them or to how you’ll handle them in a severe weather situation.
And, even though I’m (at least nominally) qualified to design these things from scratch, I’d have had a difficult time noticing the difference were it not for everything I’ve learned here at AAC. It sure isn’t discussed in the standard engineering textbooks.
My own boat scores fairly well on most of John’s points. Even so, we’re constantly reminding people to stay clear of the traveller & mainsheet, and roller reefing the genoa in a good breeze is far from ideal.
Things to keep in mind for future designs….