Are American Sailor More Over Cautious Then European Sailors

[Doc_holiday]

Back to the original discussion, and I am not going to pull out a thesaurus so I can be as eloquent as some of you.

I'm married to a Pol and she is scared of her own shadow. I tried, in my 17 years of skydiving to have her along for a single jump. She holds the dashboard when I step on the gas to pass someone. She enjoys sailing until the winds exceed 10 knots, then it's time to go home. Black diamond hills on the slopes are a no go.

Often times, it's a matter of what one wants out of life and to some degree what one has been through that gives us an adventurous spirit.

Been married to her for going on 28 years and unless something happens, I'll never have her along for an overnight sailing adventure. I'll keep her non-the-less.

I, on the other hand, enjoy a little adventure and what's the point ( in my mind) to living in a bubble? I envy the guy but I probably wouldn't jump out of a plane with a known problem with my main or an out of date reserve parachute.

 

[fox islander]

Re: Are American Sailor More Over Cautious Then European Sai

...I've heard that at any given anchorage in the south pacific you will find older rich Americans on expensive boats with e-v-e-r-y possible "safety" accessory...alongside young euros on simple boats...funny thing is both seem to make it there and back fine. exceptions to the rule of course.

 

[JK_Boston_Catalina310]

So I woke up Saturday morning and went up on deck to begin my weather check routine. I looked over at the working dock and saw a ketch but because of the tide, I could only see the mast. The wind wasn't going to fill in for another couple of hours and I am a little obsessed with ketches lately so I took the dog for a walk to go check it out.


We get over there and I was surprised to find "U-One II", the boat the Polish guys left in about a week ago. (Small side note, the boat was named "Happy" but was renamed "U-One II" by the new owner Chris. He named the boat after himself and didn't do a proper renaming ceremony.) I looked around and couldn't find my friend Mike. Chris, the owner, was there and I asked him what happened. He told me they "scratched" a rock on the way out of the harbor last week and Mike became paranoid. Mike wanted to call in a mayday because he thought they hit hard and might have been taking on water. The bilge was far from dry so it was difficult to tell. Chris refused to call in a mayday but Mike eventually convinced him to stop at a marina for a quick check before proceeding.


Before they left, I had given Mike two pieces of advice. The first was related to the local sailing area. I advised him to stay inside the channels until they cleared Boston Light. Boston Harbor is riddled with shoals, rocks, wrecks and anything else you can find in the sea that can damage your boat. If you don't know the area it would be very easy to run aground; as evident by a fast ferry running aground Saturday morning. The other advice was that he should only proceed if he trusts the Captain. If he does not feel the Captain is competent and will make good decisions, the condition of the boat doesn’t matter and he will not be safe.


They stopped somewhere in Boston, and Mike checked out the damage. According to Chris, Mike then became "scared of the sea" and jumped ship leaving him all alone on U-One II.


Chris then tried to proceed solo on the trip but after hitting a couple of storms on the way to Nova Scotia decided to return to Hingham and rethink his plan. Chris' newest plan was to dry dock the boat until February when he would return and sail it to Florida, where his ferro concrete boat is located. He could then work to sail them both to Europe from there.
While I was disappointed to hear the Mike bailed on the trip, I suspected there was more to the story. Mike did not seem to be someone who was “scared of the sea” or who would bail on a commitment without good cause.


Later on Saturday, we returned from a great sail (14 knots of steady on shore breeze) and U-One II was on stands near the entrance to the marina. I walked over to take a look and found they had done a lot more than “scratch” a rock. There were two large areas (about 12-16 inches long and 6-10 inches wide) of crushed fiberglass and several other areas of damaged fiberglass. Also, it was clear that they were taking on water as evident by all of the oil leaking from the lower damaged spot that was coming from the engine bilge. A couple of photos I took are below.


I hope Mike emails me with the details when he gets back home and settled. After seeing the damage, I think Mike made the correct call in leaving. Also, I now severally question the judgment of Chris the owner. With so many things stacked against him, he just kept pushing to make Europe by a given date. It reminds me of the saying that “the most dangerous piece of equipment on a sailboat is a calendar.”


It is really quite a shame. For $12K, Chris had a boat that was actually in great shape. New engine, new sails (all 4 of them), no delamination on the solid glass hull, all the interior wood could be restored with some light sanding and varnish, the exterior teak was still serviceable, etc. With a couple of months of work and probably another $20K, this boat could have been a word cruiser again. The same week I saw Mike working on the boat, I had decided to ask the marina about the status of the boat. I was convinced that the overall condition of the boat was good and that she just needed some TLC. When I finally got on the boat with Mike, I was further convinced of her overall condition. The previous owner had even left the storage spaces filled with spare parts. While the previous owner had made some mistakes, the bones of the boat were still good and it wouldn’t have taken a Herculean effort to make the boat seaworthy.


Now, thanks to bad planning and bad seamanship by Chris, this boat will likely end up as scrap. Who is going to take on a $10-15K repair job on a boat that was worth $12K?


As my Bride said, the boat now has bad “mojo” and owes a depth to Poseidon thanks to the renaming. Anyone who takes on this project better have some really good karma on their side.