I have recently made a new friend. He is a 25 year old sailor from Poland. He has been sailing for most of his life and sounds to be very experienced for his age. He and I have talked a fair amount about the differences in sailing in our areas.
One of the differences we have discussed is the requirement for training and certification in sailing. In his area, and I believe much of Europe, you need to be certified for both inshore sailing and offshore sailing. I probably don’t have the exact details correct but the inshore sailing certification would let you sail in the lakes, canals and within 5 miles of land. He has been working teaching sailing and is trying to become certified as an inshore instructor. He also is becoming certified for offshore and has been doing some crewing on offshore passages to gain experience.
Another key difference we have been discussing is the quality of boats where he sails. Poland is one of the larger centers for boat building and many large boat builders like Jeanneau and Sea Ray build boats in Poland. However, the vast majority of these boats are shipped elsewhere. Most boats in use in this area are 30 or more years old. It is very common to still have wooden boats. Several of his offshore passages have been on wooden boats where they are repairing leaks and constantly bailing water throughout the passage.
I met him about three weeks ago when he showed up at the marina and started working on a 36 foot Derbeck center cockpit, cutter/ketch. It’s a really stout looking boat that I have had my eye on for some time and was considering asking the marina about the status of the boat just before I saw him working on it. The boat has been sitting on the hard for at least 4 – 6 years. None of us at the marina can remember the last time it was in the water. The boat looked like it had good bones but needed a lot of TLC to get it back to passage making shape.
After getting to take a closer look, there is a brand new Yanmar diesel (less than 50 hours), an electrical system that was entirely rewired probably 10 years ago with all red wires (you can’t tell what is the positive or negative wires without tracing it back), original brass seacocks throughout the boat (almost all of which are frozen open), practically brand new sails (all 4 of them from Doyle and still crisp) and 10 or more years old electronics (2 loran systems, SSB & VHF radios with dials not digital displays, an old Garmin GPS and a Raytheon radar). The plumbing system seems to have been redone at some point but I saw a lot of “dead ends” which are breeding grounds for bacteria. The water pressure pump is broken (not winterized properly); there is a hand pump at the galley sink but none onboard knew what it was for until I showed them. The cabin top was designed to be slightly concaved and there are drain plugs that would allow collected rain water to go directly into both of the 50 gallon water tanks (one on each side). All of the running rigging is at least 15 years old and it has been sitting out uncovered for the 4-6 years the boat was on the hard. All of the halyards are rope to wire splices (most of them don’t look good to me). Based on soundings of the hull there does not appear to be any delamination (solid glass hull, no core) but there is delamination on the rudder. There used to be solar panels but they were stolen last summer. Now mind you, this is my list after only spending about 2 hours on the boat.
So the 25 year old Polish sailor, Mike, met the owner, Chris, in Poland; the owner is a certified offshore sailor. Chris bought the boat for $12,000 last year based on photos and had never seen the boat or had it surveyed. I don’t know the details of the agreement but I suspect that Mike is working for free but Chris is covering the cost of any supplies and Mike’s living expenses while working on the boat. Mike flew in from Poland 3 weeks ago to begin getting this boat ready to go in the water. He has cleaned the boat, inspected some of the system (I don’t believe he is very experienced on the maintenance side of boats), replaced batteries, installed a Humming Bird Fish Finder/GPS Unit, epoxied a 5” whole from an old transducer that was installed in a wooden block that was rotten, painted the bottom and put epoxy on the outside of the rudder but didn’t pull it apart and deal with the delamination. Chris flew out on Thursday of last week to begin helping. Chris also somehow found an American from Florida who is also helping and along for the ride but he has never been on a boat before so he offers nothing but another set of hands.
Here are the things I know that were never addressed before the boat went in the water: the engine was never run, the electrical system was never fully inspected or tested (they installed the Humming Bird unit, tried it and saw that it was not working correctly and they had cabin lights), none of the existing electronics were working, the water tanks were never flushed or inspected, the blackwater system was never tested or inspected, and all of the running and standing rigging was never inspected or changed.
The boat launched yesterday at 9AM. Their original plan was to sail out at 9PM last night on the outgoing tide to head for Nova Scotia (New Scotland as they call it). From there on to either Galloway or Portugal depending on the wind. They estimate it would take 2 weeks to complete this trip.
I went down to the boat last night to see them off at 7 PM. At that time, they still hadn’t started the engine, checked out the electrical system or any of the plumbing. They had purchased about $300 of provisions from the Stop N Shop across the street and Chris and the guy from Florida were at the dollar store getting can openers, forks, plates, etc. Oh, and they had refilled the propane tanks for the stove but had not tested the stove yet. They had a camping propane stove for a backup.
I went on the boat because Mike could not find the shore power connection and wanted to charge the batteries. I found that the AC side of the electrical had been disconnected from any connection for shore power (the bare wires were in one of the cabinets). They also had water pouring in through the strainer that was not connected to the engine. The bilge pump was off and the bilge was almost filled with water. I tried to close the seacock and it was frozen. We connected the hose to the water pump and found out that the top of the strainer could not be all the way secured due to a broken bolt. We were able to get it to hold but the bolt needed to be replaced to really fix it.
Since we had the water connected, they wanted to start the engine. I guess they tried to bet a mechanic to come and look at the engine. However, they didn’t look for someone until Sunday and were surprised they didn’t get anyone to call them back. We looked at the electrical set up and it seemed strange because it had one battery switch that was the typical “1-2-All-Off” switch. The other was “1-Accessory(from a label maker)-Off”. The “1” was connected to the starter and the “Accessory” was connected to the windless. The typical switch was connected to the house bank of 3 batteries in parallel (“2”) and a new group 27 deep cycle starter battery (“1”) they installed new that morning. We changed both switches to 1 and we heard popping and sizzling then smelled smoke. The terminals on the starter battery had literally melted off. (See Photos) My guess is someone crossed a positive line with a negative, which would be easy to do since they were all red with no way to tell them apart easily.
After all this, Chris was still considering leaving port on the morning outgoing tide. He thought he could sail out to open ocean (did I mention that the only charts they had were 15+ year old paper charts of the Boston area and nothing for either of their Europe landing points) and just set course for Europe. (At this point Mike did start looking at his exit strategy.) They did final decide to try and get someone to look at the electrical system and engine and delay leaving for a little bit to get that worked out. But I wouldn’t be surprised if I go down there tonight and they are gone.
So to my original premise in the title, are American sailors more over cautious then European sailors? It took all of these events for these two, experienced European sailors to finally delay their departure. I would have backed out at so many different points in the last 2-3 weeks. To be honest, if I showed up and saw the condition of the boat and knew the time frame I would have just left.
The items/defects I listed above that I noticed on their boat are items on my prelaunch check list to be done every year. So to launch a boat without checking these seems a bit crazy to me as well.
Also, to contemplate the journey with no “shake down” seems insane to me. We do 3-4 “shake down” sails at the beginning of each season before we would even consider doing even a 40 kn cruise that only takes us 5-10 km offshore.
This still doesn’t even address the list of spare parts and emergency equipment I keep. They had one set (4) current flares, a used and untested emergency raft, no harnesses or jack lines and had returned their sat phone for an In Reach because they couldn’t figure out the sat phone. They had some spares but no inventory to know what they had and no plans to get other spares.
While I think this maybe way over the top unsafe, it does make me think that maybe I am too cautious. Maybe there is a better balance to be reach and not being so paranoid that everything could go wrong.
So what do you guys think?
One of the differences we have discussed is the requirement for training and certification in sailing. In his area, and I believe much of Europe, you need to be certified for both inshore sailing and offshore sailing. I probably don’t have the exact details correct but the inshore sailing certification would let you sail in the lakes, canals and within 5 miles of land. He has been working teaching sailing and is trying to become certified as an inshore instructor. He also is becoming certified for offshore and has been doing some crewing on offshore passages to gain experience.
Another key difference we have been discussing is the quality of boats where he sails. Poland is one of the larger centers for boat building and many large boat builders like Jeanneau and Sea Ray build boats in Poland. However, the vast majority of these boats are shipped elsewhere. Most boats in use in this area are 30 or more years old. It is very common to still have wooden boats. Several of his offshore passages have been on wooden boats where they are repairing leaks and constantly bailing water throughout the passage.
I met him about three weeks ago when he showed up at the marina and started working on a 36 foot Derbeck center cockpit, cutter/ketch. It’s a really stout looking boat that I have had my eye on for some time and was considering asking the marina about the status of the boat just before I saw him working on it. The boat has been sitting on the hard for at least 4 – 6 years. None of us at the marina can remember the last time it was in the water. The boat looked like it had good bones but needed a lot of TLC to get it back to passage making shape.
After getting to take a closer look, there is a brand new Yanmar diesel (less than 50 hours), an electrical system that was entirely rewired probably 10 years ago with all red wires (you can’t tell what is the positive or negative wires without tracing it back), original brass seacocks throughout the boat (almost all of which are frozen open), practically brand new sails (all 4 of them from Doyle and still crisp) and 10 or more years old electronics (2 loran systems, SSB & VHF radios with dials not digital displays, an old Garmin GPS and a Raytheon radar). The plumbing system seems to have been redone at some point but I saw a lot of “dead ends” which are breeding grounds for bacteria. The water pressure pump is broken (not winterized properly); there is a hand pump at the galley sink but none onboard knew what it was for until I showed them. The cabin top was designed to be slightly concaved and there are drain plugs that would allow collected rain water to go directly into both of the 50 gallon water tanks (one on each side). All of the running rigging is at least 15 years old and it has been sitting out uncovered for the 4-6 years the boat was on the hard. All of the halyards are rope to wire splices (most of them don’t look good to me). Based on soundings of the hull there does not appear to be any delamination (solid glass hull, no core) but there is delamination on the rudder. There used to be solar panels but they were stolen last summer. Now mind you, this is my list after only spending about 2 hours on the boat.
So the 25 year old Polish sailor, Mike, met the owner, Chris, in Poland; the owner is a certified offshore sailor. Chris bought the boat for $12,000 last year based on photos and had never seen the boat or had it surveyed. I don’t know the details of the agreement but I suspect that Mike is working for free but Chris is covering the cost of any supplies and Mike’s living expenses while working on the boat. Mike flew in from Poland 3 weeks ago to begin getting this boat ready to go in the water. He has cleaned the boat, inspected some of the system (I don’t believe he is very experienced on the maintenance side of boats), replaced batteries, installed a Humming Bird Fish Finder/GPS Unit, epoxied a 5” whole from an old transducer that was installed in a wooden block that was rotten, painted the bottom and put epoxy on the outside of the rudder but didn’t pull it apart and deal with the delamination. Chris flew out on Thursday of last week to begin helping. Chris also somehow found an American from Florida who is also helping and along for the ride but he has never been on a boat before so he offers nothing but another set of hands.
Here are the things I know that were never addressed before the boat went in the water: the engine was never run, the electrical system was never fully inspected or tested (they installed the Humming Bird unit, tried it and saw that it was not working correctly and they had cabin lights), none of the existing electronics were working, the water tanks were never flushed or inspected, the blackwater system was never tested or inspected, and all of the running and standing rigging was never inspected or changed.
The boat launched yesterday at 9AM. Their original plan was to sail out at 9PM last night on the outgoing tide to head for Nova Scotia (New Scotland as they call it). From there on to either Galloway or Portugal depending on the wind. They estimate it would take 2 weeks to complete this trip.
I went down to the boat last night to see them off at 7 PM. At that time, they still hadn’t started the engine, checked out the electrical system or any of the plumbing. They had purchased about $300 of provisions from the Stop N Shop across the street and Chris and the guy from Florida were at the dollar store getting can openers, forks, plates, etc. Oh, and they had refilled the propane tanks for the stove but had not tested the stove yet. They had a camping propane stove for a backup.
I went on the boat because Mike could not find the shore power connection and wanted to charge the batteries. I found that the AC side of the electrical had been disconnected from any connection for shore power (the bare wires were in one of the cabinets). They also had water pouring in through the strainer that was not connected to the engine. The bilge pump was off and the bilge was almost filled with water. I tried to close the seacock and it was frozen. We connected the hose to the water pump and found out that the top of the strainer could not be all the way secured due to a broken bolt. We were able to get it to hold but the bolt needed to be replaced to really fix it.
Since we had the water connected, they wanted to start the engine. I guess they tried to bet a mechanic to come and look at the engine. However, they didn’t look for someone until Sunday and were surprised they didn’t get anyone to call them back. We looked at the electrical set up and it seemed strange because it had one battery switch that was the typical “1-2-All-Off” switch. The other was “1-Accessory(from a label maker)-Off”. The “1” was connected to the starter and the “Accessory” was connected to the windless. The typical switch was connected to the house bank of 3 batteries in parallel (“2”) and a new group 27 deep cycle starter battery (“1”) they installed new that morning. We changed both switches to 1 and we heard popping and sizzling then smelled smoke. The terminals on the starter battery had literally melted off. (See Photos) My guess is someone crossed a positive line with a negative, which would be easy to do since they were all red with no way to tell them apart easily.
After all this, Chris was still considering leaving port on the morning outgoing tide. He thought he could sail out to open ocean (did I mention that the only charts they had were 15+ year old paper charts of the Boston area and nothing for either of their Europe landing points) and just set course for Europe. (At this point Mike did start looking at his exit strategy.) They did final decide to try and get someone to look at the electrical system and engine and delay leaving for a little bit to get that worked out. But I wouldn’t be surprised if I go down there tonight and they are gone.
So to my original premise in the title, are American sailors more over cautious then European sailors? It took all of these events for these two, experienced European sailors to finally delay their departure. I would have backed out at so many different points in the last 2-3 weeks. To be honest, if I showed up and saw the condition of the boat and knew the time frame I would have just left.
The items/defects I listed above that I noticed on their boat are items on my prelaunch check list to be done every year. So to launch a boat without checking these seems a bit crazy to me as well.
Also, to contemplate the journey with no “shake down” seems insane to me. We do 3-4 “shake down” sails at the beginning of each season before we would even consider doing even a 40 kn cruise that only takes us 5-10 km offshore.
This still doesn’t even address the list of spare parts and emergency equipment I keep. They had one set (4) current flares, a used and untested emergency raft, no harnesses or jack lines and had returned their sat phone for an In Reach because they couldn’t figure out the sat phone. They had some spares but no inventory to know what they had and no plans to get other spares.
While I think this maybe way over the top unsafe, it does make me think that maybe I am too cautious. Maybe there is a better balance to be reach and not being so paranoid that everything could go wrong.
So what do you guys think?
