Self Reliance

[Jim Haynie]

Some Conclusions

First, all responders need to realize that we likely do not have all of the detials. I have written high school textbooks, numerous journal articles, two articles for SAIL magazine, and one for the Hunter Marine Knotline (latest issue). You must all realize that this guy's story was surely much longer and more descriptive than what the editors gave us in print--there very well may have been otehr important issues that precluded sailing home unassisted. That said, however, I do agree that sailing in should be our first reaction to every situation involving the engine. In my article in the Knotline, I descuss an event in which I had two choices: Try to sail back up a narrow channel or sail out into the ocean and go south for 100 miles to get to a good opening into the bay with lots of marinas. Funny, calling a towboat never even entered my mind!! I chose the ocean, had a beautiful sail, and gained increased self confidence for me and my crew by doing so. But, that decision was not made on the spur of a moment in a panick. Long before that I had practiced such techniques as reefing in a squall, sailing to a dock in various conditions, and sailing in poor trim due to (induced) loss of various sails. It might not sail well, but you can sail a good boat in almost any condition with either sail if you really know how to reef and use momentum combined with a sensitive touch on the tiller. So, my conclusions:1) Let's not condemn the guy without the full story2) Prepare by practicing the tough things before you need them--reading how to heave-to does no good at all until you see how YOUR boat behaves in different conditions. And, if you never intentioanally sail through a storm you will be terrified when you get caught (and you definitely will get caught). I frequently am going out to sail when everyone else is returning for this very reason. I live 4 hours away from my boat and must plan months ahead when I can go--if I get there I'm sailing in whatever conditions there are short of a hurricane. The confidence that this has built certainly pays off when the unimaginable strikes.3) Being prepared with equipment, spares, tools, references, radios is often the first line of defense.4) Solving your own problems (when there is not real serious danger) will reward you greatly and deepen your thrill for the sport. I can't afford the type of boat or time that allow for long ocean passages, but I frequently take trips that are intentionally established to be like the real thing (with long overnight passages and days between docks) so that these techniques can be practiced in a nearly real situation. I recommend this highly.Check out my article about the DelMarVa Circumnavigation in Knotline. A spooiled engine should never ruin a sailing trip!

 

[Dan McGuire]

Total Self Reliance is not Realistic

The first answer in the quiz is totally unrealistic and I am surprised how many picked that choice. If you picked that answer, you should be prepared for all of your sails to be destroyed, your motor failing to start and any other back up means of propulsion getting lost overboard, etc, etc, etc. A much more realistic answer is the second. You are be prepared for most emergencies, but there are some failures out there somewhere that you cannot handle without outside help. I guess that many of you did not read the first answer literally, as I did.

 

[Brad]

Agree with Dan

While it's certainly a laudible goal to be as self-reliant as possible, and to arm oneself with knowledge and preparation, it's entirely possible a time may come when asking for and receiving assistance may be the only way out. Many good points were spoken here... one of my favorites is just to think a few steps ahead and try not place yourself in a potential trouble spot to begin with.However, despite our best plans, knowledge, preparation and self-reliance, events can conspire in ways no one can totally foresee. It's an old truism - it's generally not just one thing that goes wrong, but one followed by another, and then another, sometimes at an alarming rate. Surrounding this is the reality that we ply our passion in an environment over which we really have no control. I've just finished re-reading Fatal Storm and The Proving Ground, two excellent books on the tragedy of the '98 Sydney-Hobart Race. These were some of the best sailors in the world, in some of the best built, best equipt boats money could buy, and events were such that the fleet was simply trashed, without so much as a second thought from Mother Nature. I'm not comparing what went on in that race in Bass Strait with getting your prop snagged on a dragging line from a barge, or most of what we experience in our local sailing venues, but on a scale relative to my experience and venue, if that moment comes when I decide I'm in serious trouble, especially with crew on board sharing the risk, I'll make that VHF call promptly.

 

[Peggie Hall/HeadMistress]

Weeelll...

If you never get out of sight of land, I guess it's ok to be only partly prepared for anything. But once you're out of sight of land, it's ALL up to you. If you aren't prepared to handle ANYthing that could happen, you not only put the lives of everyone onboard at risk, you also put CG personnel's lives at unnecessary risk to save you from your own incompetence.Rules of the sea #12: always step UP into a life raft, never down into one.

 

[Mark Wieber]

Best maintenance and training

...you can afford.Check the oil, coolant, battery's, weather and tides EVERYTIME you go out. Take the maitenance of your boat seriously. Your life and the lives of people you love may come to depend on it!!Don't be ashamed to take lessons. Try to learn from somebody elses mistakes. Of course the best laid plans of mice and men(and all that). When you do get caught out there remmember, there is no shortage of solutions...only imagination

 

[Dan McGuire]

I'm Surprised by Head Mistress

You can't be prepared for everything. Your boat, no matter how big, is not big enough. The point is you prepare for what may reasonably happen. That applies whether you get out of sight of land or not. I suppose the disagreement is the definition of being prepared for everything or everthing that you can reasonably be prepared for. To worry about everthing will send you to the nut house. For example. How are you going to be prepared for a shark jumping out of the water and biting off both arms at the shoulders. If you can't wrap a tournequet around your arms you are going to bleed to death. Whoops-you don't have any arms to wrap the tourniquet and you don't even have a stump to wrap the tourniquet around.Lets assume that you now have all of the skills required for your next voyage. You can disassemble and reassemble a diesel engine blindfolded with one arm tied behind your back. You can fabricate a new sail while submerged in salt water up to your neck and on and on. Now you have to decide what you must take with you. You decide that you have room for 500 pounds of spares which must fit into ten cubic feet. Don't quarrel with my numbers, come up with your own. What are you going to pick to fit within that allotted space?I regret that I will not have access to this forum for a few days. I believe that a discussion of the decisions required to be prepared for reasonable emergencies are more important than the choices we made when we were answering the quiz.

 

[tom]

sailing is the safest sport!!!!

I don't mean to be glib but sailing is a very safe sport!!! Driving a car is dangerous!!!! Do you inspect your tires every 20 miles?? You might have picked up a nail. Can you repair the automatic transmission roadside with pliers and a screwdriver??? Do you have a automatic weapon to defend yourself in case of a car jacking???? When dropping little johnnie off at daycare do you full weather information and a police briefing to make sure it's safe... Do you pull off to the side of the road when approaching every car that might have a drunk driver??? At about 55,000 deaths a year on the road we must be safe. How do you avoid the possibility that someone might run a redlight??? This is probably much more likely that your rudder falling off at sea!!!! Reason is our only hope!!! Take reasonable precautions and then accept the fact that s**t happens. If you daily die a thousand deaths trying to avoid every possible threat life ain't worth living. What's the old quote "the Brave only die once while cowards die a thousand times"??? Instead of being paranoid hiding from life I'd rather die in blissful ignorance!!! Before "JAWS" I swam in the ocean night and day even when there were small sharks around. Since "Jaws" I've never been completely relaxed swimming in the ocean. Is this reasonable caution or paranoia???

 

[Peggie Hall/HeadMistress]

Yep, anything...

If a shark bites off both your arms, why can't your crew apply the tournequets? A couple whose boat was dismasted--in fact, all but sunk--by a whale that tried to jump across it was able to make it back into port. And that's just about worst-case scenario.Yet another boat sank off Bermuda--taking more than 8 hours to do it--because the skipper wasn't prepared to find and seal off a parted hose connection on a below-waterline thru-hull. You should be prepared--knowledge, skills, tools, and enough parts to be able to navigate without electronics and diagnose and repair anything that breaks--or at least jury rig enough of a repair to get you safely to the nearest port. No, you can't carry every part you could possibly need...which means that a blue water sailor also has to be something of a McGuyver (the tv hero who could build a boat out of a bread box and duct tape and make a generator using two flashlight batteries and some wire). You can't carry extra sails, but you can carry a sail needle and thread. You can't carry every part your engine may need, but you can carry duct tape, rubber bands, wire, and enough imagination to figure out how to use your underwear as a filter or strainer if necessary. Cruising is often defined as "sailing your boat to exotic ports to work on it." More often than not, that means making enough of a repair at sea to be able to get to a port. So I'm sticking with my statement: if you're gonna sail out of sight of land, you DO need to be prepared for ANYthing...including shark bite (every major boat show usually has a seminar on dealing with medical emergencies at sea...how many of you have ever attended one?)....'cuz there are neither doctors nor mechanics at sea. It's ALL up to you.

 

[dan]

agree with Tomm

just watch the movie Capt'n Ron a couple times while having a few beers and you will be ready for anything including gorillas or was that guerillas?

 

[Jim]

DelMarVa Circumnavigation

Jim, Great article in Knotline, thanks! Would love to read your journal of the trip if its available ;DRegards, Jim

 

[Mike I.]

Reply to Dan

The first choice on the quiz states "You should be prepared to handle all your problems without assistance." The idea is to be prepared. The chances of losing my sails and my engine quitting at the same time are slim to none, but I am prepared to handle that situation if it happens (I have an anchor to stop the boat from moving into trouble and spare filters, etc. for the motor). If I am dismasted, I have tools onboard to handle that emergency (Cable cutting tools to cut stays and a good sharp knife to cut lines). If someone gets sick or injured on my boat I have first aid equipment and training (first aid and CPR from the Los Angeles Fire Dept., and the Red Cross). I have only been sailing for about 10 years (and around/in the ocean most of my life) and I have learned to be prepared as much as possible for anything you can imagine (once while skin diving I inhaled a small jellyfish!) But above all I am PREPARED to call for help if I cannot handle a situation (I have TWO radios on board!).

 

[Jeff M.]

Count on yourself

While I'm still a bit of a beginner at sailing, I've spent a lot of time on boats and around the water. I've also been a member of the El Dorado Search and Rescue team for 9 years, so I've seen a lot of the things people do (right and wrong) when they find themselves in trouble a long way from outside assistance. One of the first things to do is stop and examine the problem. Consider your available resources and how they can be pressed into service. (We have rescued people who where in the end stages of hypothermia only to find that the matches they thought were in one pocket of their pack were actually in another. If they had fully assessed their available gear, they could have started a fire and saved themselves a lot of misery.) Next, be well-trained before you head-out. Basic first-aid and CPR are a great starting point, but if you plan to sail on anything bigger than a small lake, consider getting rated at least to First Responder, or better yet, EMT level. The EMT program is basically one long semester at the local junior college with a few weekends down at the fire station and then a rather lenghty test. (at least here in Calif.) It's not easy, but the confidence and skills you gain can be life saving. Carry a complete F-A kit and know how to use everything in it. From my experience, a lot of Captains really welcome the idea of having a well equipped EMT onboard, so you'll be likely to get invited along a lot more often. Have you ever actually used a fire extinguisher? Ask the folks at your local firehouse if they offer training. Most do, and you'll get to try a number of different types and sizes in a controlled environment, so if the day ever comes (heaven forbid) that you NEED to use one at least you'll know what to expect. In many ways, sailors are just like any other outdoor enthusiast. Be well trained, well equipped, ready to improvise, and don't freak-out when the unexpected occurs. Mother nature seems to have a real affinity for knocking-off stupid people, so don't act like one and maybe she'll leave you alone! And, when you find yourself truly up against the wall, don't hesitate to call for help!Well, that's my 2 cents worth!Stay healthy, stay happy and stay sailing,Jeff

 

[Tom Monroe]

Isn't there room ...

... for some grey area here? I agree with peggy ... you should be prepared for ANYTHING. The safety of yourself, crew, and boat are your non-transferrable responsibility. But I read the following quote somewhere years ago and it stuck with me. "What the sea wants, the sea gets. You can do everything right, exactly by the book, and the sea can still kill you."Isn't there room for rigorous preparedness AND a call for help? I'll never be as good as some of the great sailors who made mistakes ... sometimes fatal ones ... who called for help.Tom MonroeCarlyle Lake

 

[Dan McGuire]

Impossible to be Prepared for Everthing

I realize I am beating a dead horse. The first question states an absolute. You must be prepared for everthing that can occur, no matter how unlikely. No matter how prepared you are, I can pile another problem on the top of the previous ones which will defeat your plans. It is impossible to be prepared for everthing as the question states. Ultimately you will be required to tow a second very large boat to carry all of the spares, including a spare boat. And I can defeat that by sinking your spare boat. By the way your other crew members cannot apply a tourniquet. I have just decided that you are single handling. The only possible preparations is that you are carrying a surgical team and operating room, but the surgical team was so frightened that they jumped overboard. Now you need a second surgical team.It is possible to be prepared for all situations which are reasonably lilely to occur. My point is that at some point you must draw a line and say that the chances of that particular problem occuring are so unlikely as to not being worth planning for. I believe that most of you are unconsciously already doing that. The interesting part of the problem is the process. How do you determine what situations are likely enough to consider? How do you plan for the spares, skills, etc to meet that requirement? It ultimately comes down to very personal decisions. I have certain skills. I might need some parts to replace parts on the diesel engine. Someone else might have the skills to repair or figure out a way to get around the need for that particular part.

 

[Jon Bastien]

My thoughts...

I just thought I'd throw my $0.02 in regarding self-reliance. I think that it pays to be reasonably prepared for the type of outing you're planning. The hole in the "be prepared for anything and never ever call for help" argument is that there is a very real possibility that you could sail into a semi-submerged cargo container that fell off a ship. Now, you have a 2-foot hole below the waterline of your boat, and no way to close it up before the boat sinks... I'm thinking I'd call for some help (although, at this point, I'm also stepping UP into the liferaft). Conversely, if I'm out on my sunfish for an afternoon sail, I think it's a bit of overkill to carry much more in the way of supplies than a bag with some light line, a roll of duct tape, a good multi-tool, some sunscreen, and small cooler with sandwiches and water in it. If I'm going more than 1/2 mile from the sailing club where I picked up the boat, I'll carry a portable VHF and a (very) basic first aid kit. (PFD's and a paddle go without saying.) Coastal cruising, with occasional offshore work? Well, this is going to require some balance between the two... I think it is not unreasonable to avail yourself of services that are close to shorelines (Towboat/U.S. or the like, especially if you paid for them). You should be prepared to handle all but the most extreme emergencies with supplies you had the forethought to bring aboard (and maybe a little ingenuity- Like using Peggie's underwear for a filter ). If life, limb, or hull are at stake, then it's OK to call the Coast Guard- Search and Rescue is one of their primary missions, after all.Sail safe,Jon BastienCurrently boatless(!) in Germany

 

[Dan McGuire]

Finally

Thanks Jon. Finally a voice of reason.

 

[Chris Burti]

Semantic Debate

I really don't think the two sides of this debate are as far apart as they might seem. But, I do think it is likely to be very confusing to those less experienced souls who are trying to get a handle on how best to become a safe skipper. I am going to try to pass on this concept as it was taught to me over a lifetime and hope it proves useful.Be prepared for anything. That statement is gospel...Amen. But, what does it mean? As noted, one can't possibly know everything or have every conceivable spare and tool aboard. On the other hand (Shades of Tevia), we are too well aware of the hazards created by DPTK skippers (make the Down Payment, Turn the Key and voila, you are El Capitan).Being prepared is a philosophy and it is a combination of a mental and physical state of readiness. You have certain tools and spares on board that will permit you to address the situations you are most likely to encounter that could create risk or may hazard your vessel or crew. This inventory is obviously definitionaly determined by the extent of your voyaging...daysail or world cruise. You will have a working knowledge of all systems on your vessel and basic emergency procedures before you assume the sole responsibility of a Skipper.Intrinsic in this philosophy is that this state is not some constant like the minimum USCG safety requirements. You should develop a lifetime habit of contemplating worst case scenarios and alternative solutions for those scenarios. You should constantly strive to improve your skills and knowledge of all disciplines relevent to sailing. The greatest and most effective safety device aboard any vessel is a good mind. The ability to discern the cause of a problem and develop a solution or improvise a repair is the true essence of being prepared. Knowledge was the real tool that allowed McGyver to apply his Victorianox to solve every problem.So, being prepared, is best described as a state of mind. But, it is one that never stops developing. It is a state of mental readiness to address whatever comes up. This state is enhanced by experience and study. It can't be stuffed into a tool box, locker or ditch bag and checked off of a list. It must be excercised constantly. And finally, the more you share it with others, the more useful it will be to you.Regards,

 

[Tom]

Comment

This has been a great discussion. Very educational and for the most part well said.Threads like this are why I check this site frequently.Thank you---ALL.

 

[Brad Newell]

Well said..

You have expressed the situation as well is it is possible to do. Well said!

 

[Jim McKirdy]

Help is not sure

Seaking help is always a problem. I own a 1998 26X MacGregor and I have assisted and towed over 80 boats back to the dock since I have owned my boat. I have 20 years experience in the Coast Guard and now 5 years in the Coast Guard Aux. I also have gotten stuck and needed help with our other boat a Sea Doo Sportster in the St. Johns river. I used flairs, dot,dot,dot, dash,dash,dash, dot,dot,dot over 100 times on my boats horn without any response. Finally a small plane passed and I signaled them with a mirror. Help came within a hour and that is the end of that day. I feel that it is the duty of all boats to assist anyone in need. Would you help another boater? I recomend that you do because some day you may need help...