Not for me. If your boat requires 4 crew to sail at the time and 3 are cowering in the cockpit, and you can't turn down because of that and other reasons, you are out of control. Crap happens. Its not anyone's fault."Out of control" in my book is some hapless skipper broaching to windward with the chute up, followed by an uncontrolled jibe resulting in dismasting. Or, some other fool with his spinnaker flying from the mast head like a flag, sheet(s) to the wind, dragging the boat down the course is out of control. Or a skipper whose boat pirouettes in a strong gust going to weather, then jibes (uncontrolled) and comes shooting back at me is out of control. But a skipper finishing a race by "chicken jibing" down the course after being surprised by a 40-kt squall that snapped the halyard shackle and put the chute in the water from which it was retrieved is NOT out of control, IMHO. If a boat can tack under main sail alone it should also be able to make progress to windward, if necessary, to avoid collision, or whatever.
Maybe we just have different expectations on ability and control of our boats. We race our boats HARD. There have been times when I considered us out of control. That means I could not do whatever I wanted or needed to do at that time, but was locked into a smaller set of choices. It happens. But I would never claim that I did at that time was some some sort of 'poster child' choice of maneuver at the time. Most the time I just smile and be thankful we didn't break anything.
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