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  • Chamier Safety and Seamanship

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    from the seventies

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    from the seventies

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    15 visualizações226 páginas

    Chamier Safety and Seamanship

    Enviado por

    Stregovai
    from the seventies

    Direitos autorais:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Baixe no formato PDF ou leia online no Scribd
    Sinalizar o conteúdo como inadequado
    de 226
    John Chamier Safety and Seamanship Seamark Series editor Bruce Fraser Adlard Coles Limited London Granada Publishing Limited First published in Great Britain 1976 by Adlard Coles Limited Frogmore St Albans Hertfordshire AL2 2NF and 3 Upper James Street London WiR 4BP Copyright © 1976 by John Chamier All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or other- wise, without the prior permission of the publisher. ISBN 0 229 11501 2 Printed in Great Britain by Northumberland Press Ltd, Gateshead Contents Introduction 1 1 The Nature of the Beast 3 You have no brakes — how to stop — the lonely sea — know your boat — anticipation - acquiring the basics ~ sailing schools ~ respect the sea 2 Thinking clearly 12 Three foggy tales — the silly way — the sensible way — a sound way — avoiding anxiety — the tide’s going thataway — wind: friend or foe — racing in dinghies — runabouts at risk — water skiing — it’s your head that counts 3 What you face 2 Dangers to small craft - overloaded dinghies - small boat loadings — effect of cold — the offshore angler — compleating the angler — runabouts and skiboats — small sailing craft — the go-afloat check — keep a good lookout — righting after capsize — watch that tin mast — hooshing — don’t let her sail away — the capsized clumbungay - righting catamarans — don’t rely on the rescue boat 4 Looking disaster in the eye 33 The two faces of trouble — fog — gales ~ avoid shallow water — the panic ‘run for port’ ~ know where you are — surface drift — stowage — ready for anything — matching boat to wind —~ reducing sail — heaving-to — lying ahull — running in a gale - trailing warps or lines — sea-anchors — power craft in a blow ~ calms ~ progressive gear failure 5 There’s plenty you can do 52 Man overboard — harness drill - the hatch leap — picking up aman — boat handling for the pick-up — a better way - getting v him back aboard ~ fire — speed is vital — types of fire and what to use — smotherers — refuelling and explosions - collision or being run down ~ navigation lights — your responsibilities — hull damage - stemming a leak — hull openings-windows and hatches ~ keel-bolt failure — mast breakage — gear failure — rudder or steering-gear failure — jury steering — Danube rudder 6 Liferafts and helicopters 719 What makes a liferaft? — raft priorities — inflatables as rafts ~ defence from cold — when rescue is in sight — firing flares ~ being picked up ~ rescue from your own boat — rescuer’s aim — helicopter rescue ~ effect of limitations - problem of masts — get into a dinghy — taking to the water — transferring a casualty 7 On the putty and off again 92 Grounding: joke or disaster? — bumping - escape by gybe ~ crunching on rock - are you holed? — returning tide — deteriorating weather — instant damage control — polystyrene pad — polyurethane foam — emergency repairs to wood — grounding and getting off - with a runabout - with a power cruiser ~ under sail with auxiliary — the critical moment — off the wind — beating — with a kecled day-boat — drying out 8 About boats — design 107 Size and just right — regional types ~ the plastic takeover — slithery surface — strong points — good and bad practice — repaired GRP hulls — ballast keels — the see-through test — hull to deck joint — the maintenance bonus — windward ability — racing — make a list — the deep-keel sailing boat — stability — stiffness — changes in hull shape ~ the longer keel — fin and twin keels — cabin tops — self-draining cockpits — the motor sailer — Ware ‘greenhouses’! — multihulls — they cap- size — the upside-down multihull — masthead tanks — pitch- poling — automatic sheet release — the racing dinghy — local suitability — capsize and ‘rightability’ — dinghy potterer’s pack = keelboats and day sailers — keelboat buoyancy — mostly power — sportboats — the boat and the power — outboards — vi the enemy-salt — tools and equipment — inspection — in- boards — cabin cruisers — express powerboats — outboard drives — range trials — displacement motor cruisers — engine installation — hull characteristics — chines — sterns ~ stabilisers 9 Good gear is safety 146 Buying second-hand — masts—metal and spruce — targets for the beady eye — grab-rails — lifelines and pulpits — navigation lights — fog signals — telling the other man — navigational equipment — echo-sounders — radar reflectors — storm sails — deadlights — sea-anchors — towing arrangements — anchors 10 Engine and gas cooker installation 162 Who is to blame? — how engines put you at risk — the key to safety—installation — what to look for — fuel system — fuel cocks and filters — fuel pipes — carburettor rules — diesels — fuel system — injector pumps ~ exhaust systems — cooling systems — cooling failure — blocked inlets — water-pump failure — the stern gear — propeller shafts — stern tubes and glands — stern-tube greasers — ignition — alternative starting ~ electrics — marinisation and car engines — outboard versatility ~ outboard auxiliaries — gas cookers — it’s heavier than air — sources of leaks — installation — bilge ventilation pump — detector systems — dangers in use — other gas appliances — test- ing for leaks — general use — rules for bottled-gas cookers afloat 11 Safety equipment 191 The law for boat-owners — harnesses — lifejackets — lifebuoys ~ heaving line — observing the rules ~ inflatables — inflatable dinghies — rigid dinghies — fire-extinguishers — extinguisher types — dry powder - foam ~ carbon dioxide - BCF and BTM — siting and maintenance — automatic extinguishers — pyro- technics ~ first aid ~ safety gear stowage Appendix A: Offshore Rating Council special regulations for equipment 204 Appendix B: Distress signals 213 Appendix C: Advice to water-skiers and their drivers 215. vii Introduction Safety afloat is a growth industry. Headlines on rescues, even inquests, are always hitting you in the eye. Are we all nut- cases to fling ourselves to sea in small boats? Of course we aren’t. Taking a nibble, if not a bite, at the hand that often feeds me, I reckon large numbers of these ‘Lifeboat saves yacht’ headlines are a load of codswallop. ‘Yacht’ is often a fisher- man’s boat with a stalled outboard just offshore, or a capsized dinghy that the lifeboat snatched up just before the club rescue boat got there. There are real-life dramas and rescues of course. But you are much safer in deep water in a well-found small yacht, sail or power, than you are crossing a crowded city street at closing time, or in the Sunday night back-to-town main road ratrace. ‘There's the nub — that phrase ‘well-found’. It means that before the said small boat put to sea someone used his loaf. Umpteen books appear each year about safety at sea, most of them an endless recital of rules, lists of equipment that only the mightiest yacht could carry without glug-glug- glugging to the bottom, do-thises and don’t-do-that's enough to fill a supertanker, leaving an atmosphere of gloom that could put anyone off the water for life. No wonder somebody has said, ‘Safety is a bore.’ So when I got together with the editor of this series to think about a book on safety, we decided to approach things from a different angle: Safety isa State of Mind. To hell with it, Safety can even be Fun. Any fool can drown himself, it takes a man with something between the ears to face up to all the sea can hand out and bring self and crew, who may even be his nearest and dearest, home smiling An enormous amount of safety depends, not on vast stocks of equipment, but on having your mind equipped the right way ~ so that you are not taken by surprise. The condition of numbness that total surprise can cause is the best way of converting a mishap into disaster. Except for the Offshore Rating Council’s recommendations in Appendix A, you will find here no long lists of Civil Service regulations or equip- ment ~ I reckon there are quite enough places where you can find those. You will find no reprint of the International Regulations for Preventing Collision at Sea, although you will find here and there particular aspects of them underlined. I am giving you credit for having enough sense to have read the Regulations right through more than once, and to have memorised at least the principles, before you go to sea in your own boat. Mainly my aim is to make you think the right way, so that your responses to danger are the right ones. This does not require genius ~ only the realisation that a large slice of the safety scene is common sense. Nobody can tell you all the answers, certainly not I. But I hope a little bit of the old stream-of-consciousness stuff from someone who has done a fair bit of time in boats may stimu- late your own thinking in a way to suit your own boat and your own problems. I make no apology for approaching things in a less than deadly serious way. My experience has been that the man who tackles a fraught situation with dread anxiety solves it no better than one who takes a more relaxed approach — not a maniac giggler, but at least ready to see the lighter side. Finally, for those who are wedded to the idea of direct precepts, I am stiffening the mixture with plums by ending each chapter with either some do’s and don’ts or brief quizzes about situations that I hope will make you think a little before you look at the answers. Some of the points are pretty elementary but, if any of them stick in the mind of even the bookstall browser and contribute to his safety, then they have done some good. Put down that book, you landlubber, unless you mean to buy it! 1 The Nature of the Beast It's a different world out there on the water, with a whole new set of fascinating problems. It’s fresh-air living. It’s definitely one up on the landbound. It makes every moment twice as much worth living and it teaches self-reliance. These are a few of the reasons for going afloat, and others will soon be discovered by the newcomer. But you will find very soon that you need, urgently, the answers to some of the new problems. You have no brakes You have to start somewhere, and people on their first trip — or first fifty trips - may be very green. Until much more than ‘The nearest you can get to obtaining the instant halt is on lakes, rivers and broads ... ABC has been acquired, safety outlook is most likely to be based on experience of the Almighty Automobile. This is a minus point. Boats and cars have almost nothing in common except the internal combustion engine — and many small boats don’t even have that. In a car, if you feel windy or plain cautious, you can slow down or pull into the side and stop. You have handy gadgets like brakes. In the dark you have other aids like headlamps and tail- and brakelights. In a boat, once beyond the municipal boating-pool stage, you can seldom stop when you like. The nearest you can get to this is on lakes, rivers and broads; if you are close enough to the bank you can ram it without delay. Ramming is hardly a word one associates with safety but, in the circumstances mentioned, damage to anything except self-esteem is unlikely, and the manoeuvre affords spectators a horselaugh. Still, a dart at the friendly, muddy stuff will be far the safest course of action if the alternative is the gleaming topsides of a five- figure motor cruiser with a glossy, beak-nosed owner, mouth like a steel trap, standing in the wheelhouse. Ramming is also safer than going over a weir. Apart from this diverting - but sensible — action, the busi- ness of stopping, so simple in the case of the car, is curiously involved and slow to take effect with a boat. If you have one on board you can always throw out the anchor (preferably attached by chain or line to the ship), but this has something of pushing the panic button about it. Saint Paul’s lubberly crew, you may remember, were profligate in the use of the hook and chucked four over the stern in a dark and stormy night off Malta. They also, as countless others have, wished for daybreak — not half! But anchoring at every occasion when needing to stop is unnecessarily hard work. Not only that, anchors can get foul - get hooked up in mooring chains or in some rocky underwater crevice, or tangled up in their own warp or chain - rapidly producing their own diffi- culties. ¢ Y How to stop Excluding then the continuous tossing out and recovery of 4 7 the anchor, a motor craft is stopped or slowed by throttling back the engine or going into reverse. A craft without a lot of power will take a little time to respond; it also steers the wrong way round when going in reverse, which can be con- fusing. A single-screw boat or one having two screws revolving in the same direction will need helm to correct the tendency of the screws to turn the ship when you need it to go in a straight line. When stopped, power craft have no steerage way and — if not moored alongside ~ will swing with the force of the wind or tide and drift round in an altogether unhelpful manner. The same applies of course to a sailing yacht not under canvas and using her auxiliary. Whatever boat you are in, it is therefore important, when you want to stop, to point her into whichever natural force — current or wind — is acting on her most strongly. Under sail one slows down by turning into the wind or by letting the sheets fly so that the sails flap, or by getting the sails off. One may come to a momentary halt after a little while. But this will only be for a second or two, before the boat starts to move again in one direction or another under the pressure of wind and/or tidal stream or current. If it doesn’t, the boat is either safely moored (as you wanted) or aground, or tangled up with another (as you didn’t want). So you can see that even a simple manoeuvre like stopping is more tricky afloat than ashore. The lonely sea Not only is handling a boat quite different from handling a car, you don’t have the same means with which to get out of difficulty: afloat there are no wayside garages to help with fuel or adjustments, only marinas, which are always in port; no equivalent to the AA or RAC patrol to do a get-you-home job; no copper from whom to enquire the way; no telephone boxes; and no direction signs, except perhaps in harbour and these are usually of a ‘go away’ nature. The news for you, as a sailing man of no great experience, is that the safety and the well-being of yourself and the people with you depend on you ~ nobody else. or Know your boat That’s being pretty portentous, but it’s the nub of the matter. To load your boat down to the gunwales with safety equip- ment aimed at the total elimination of risk is to misread the problem. Over-preoccupation with safety can be as bad as none at all, especially if it ousts common sense. Judgment is the essential. You must familiarise yourself with the general behaviour of boats and with the particular eccentricities of the one that you are handling. You must understand why the boat per- forms as she does: why she turns to the left when going forward and the tiller is pushed to starboard or the wheel turned anticlockwise; why the opposite happens if you are going astern or making a sternboard; how she turns by pushing her stern the opposite way like a car in reverse; why a light sailing boat will pick up and lose speed quickly, while a heavy boat with more sail area is slower to do the same thing and to respond to the belmsman’s instructions. Anticipation Without familiarisation you cannot predict bow a situation may develop, what reactions will be needed to meet it - when to react, how and in what direction. When you go afloat you must always be thinking ahead, anticipating. You must always be aware of all that is going on around you and all that is likely to affect you — wind. tide and weather (past, present and future), other boats, your own and crew's competence, where you want to get to and when you ought to get there. Without this outlook you are inherently ‘non-safe’. Even experienced seamen are ‘non-safe’ from time to time. How- ever — and here’s the vital difference — they are seldom un- prepared. You must aim to follow suit. Take an everyday thing - making moorings after a sail. You note other boats nearby. other moorings, shallow water, the shore, and snags like posts or beacons. and you settle on a plan. You may. how- 6 ever, miss your mooring through miscalculation, sudden changes in wind, or being otherwise baulked. You must have already decided what you are going to do in such circum- stances. You must not get flustered, lose control of the boat or charge around like a mad billiard ball, cannoning off every- thing and everybody in sight before coming to an ignominious rest halfway up the beach. There are other facets to this wonderful sport than just steering a boat, which make it absorbingly worthwhile. Special skills and Olympian intelligence are not the passkeys to being a good (and therefore a safe) seaman. All that is required to start with is a moderate dexterity allied with common sense — gifts more widely distributed among the human race than some believe. These modest endowments will soon start developing and coming into flower as problems connected with going afloat are recognised and overcome. If anyone overcomes the problem of the expense, perhaps he might write a book of his wisdom for the benefit of the rest of us. Acquiring the basics ‘That's enough of walking round putting the point like a golfer aiming to sink a long putt. How, the newcomer will ask, do I acquire the basic familiarity with boats from which all else follows? Questioner One is a tycoon, a veritable bashaw of industry. We necdn’t waste much time on him. He'll get there anyway ~ such folk being by definition intelligent, quick-witted, self- reliant and in any case (if they have got where they are by mistake) able to pay for it. It is true that some of these princes do suddenly take to the sea without much knowledge of what they are in for, except often a curiously humble realisation that it will involve a lot of wristwork with the pen and cheque book. This man will gain his spurs by using the boat — as a boat and not as a chateau in a marina — as often as possible, taking full advantage of his situation which enables him to 7 command the attention of a paid crew and numerous well- chosen friends. Questioner Two is less poshly placed - now retiring from business with at any rate some money to call his own. If he goes for a boat, whether power or sail, it is a hundred oranges to one pip that he has already acquired a taste for the water. We shall not need to worry too much about him either, since he will already have a bit of experience. If he is springing into ownership for the first time I would advise him to latch on to a friend who has either a great deal more experience or who has himself owned boats (though now perhaps on some financial beach or other), and to learn his wisdom as quickly as possible. If going in for motor craft, it would also be practical to take instruction from the manufacturer of your engine(s) on the mysteries of his machinery. Perkins, the diesel manufacturer, for instance, is very good about this. If you have a power craft entirely dependent on mechanical urge for any sort of progress, or a sailing cruiser with an auxiliary which you may need to call on in either a flat calm or an emergency, it is sane to be acquainted with the way the works function and the basic first-aid drill should they fall ill. The same goes for tclecommunications equipment and elec- tronic navigational aids. At least get to know how to work them. Small use an expensive radio telephone if you have only the sketchiest of ideas of how to operate it and no knowledge at all of the laid-down procedures when you're in trouble — in bad visibility, with engine(s) on the hiccup, and close (but how close?) to known hazards. Questioner Three is a kid whose parents haven't got a boat but would like the child to sail. Obviously there are difficulties here, and opportunities with local sailing clubs for an i experienced youngster may be patchy. Those opportunities might come more quickly and regularly if the lad or lass had some recognised grounding in his business. The obvious answer is a sailing school. This may sound a dull way of spending some of the precious free time, implying as it does submission to a certain amount of discipline. conforming to 8 programme and doing what one’s told. However, a sailing- school course is very worthwhile and nobody need be put off by things scholastic. The instructor wears a sailing cap and not a mortar-board and gown. Sailing schools As regards sailing schools, I recommend those that are mem- bers of the Federation of Sailing and Power Boat Schools, which advertise in the yachting press. Time was when sailing schools varied widely, but the Federation requires certain standards of its members and these are often significantly exceeded. Time was also when sailing schools commanded comparatively few customers: nowadays the best get a sub- stantial number of bookings for a new season at the end of the one before. Many will give priority to schoolchildren during school holidays, and their scheduled courses get ‘house full’ signs up very quickly. So book in advance. A list of sailing schools can also be obtained from the Royal Yachting Associa- tion. Questioner Four is a chap (or a chap and his wife) of mature years who has done very little sailing or power boating and who decides to get his feet wet. He too would do well to take a spell with a sailing school, so the previous remarks still apply. Most schools concentrate on tuition in dinghies. For Number Four this would not necessarily be a bad thing, if his joints can still stand frequent flexing. However, some schools are able to lay on instruction and sailing in auxiliary cruisers as well. A limbering-up among say the heavier dinghies and then some ‘dual’ in a small keelboat would be an ideal pro- gramme. Better still would be to join the Island Cruising Club organisation of Salcombe in Devon. This is a remark- able set-up on which too much praise cannot be lavished. It specialises in teaching the skills of cruising and_passage- making, and its members learn skills at sea in the club’s fleet of real sea-going vessels. T here are other similar organisations 9 and clubs around the country and this is the obvious thing for our chap. If he gets his initial training with an organisation such as the ICC, he will have to be very stupid not to turn out to be a safe sailor. Questioner Five is a youngish chap with a wife and a couple of kids. He’s a town-dweller or at any rate an inlander. He hasn't a sailing club to turn to, and most clubs around con- urbations sail on reservoirs, stretches of river and such-like restricted waters, so their main interest is in racing and there- fore class-racing dinghies. Racing is not what our lad wants because it’s too hairy and hearty for the family. Racing boats can be a handful even for the moderately expert - and some of them would scare his everloving into uncompromising mutiny. Number Five wants time away from the urban scene: he can’t take the tribe out playing golf — at least I don’t think I'd like to see it done; camping /caravanning is a solu- tion, but it’s rather like playing ordinary house with self- added discomfort. The water seems to him the answer and he has got himself a real family boat which he proposes to car- top or trail around on day outings. Now he’s at a bit of a Joss as to what to do with it. Anyway he’s not too sure how it works; his family certainly don’t know and are waiting, with some apprehension, for the head of the household to pass the word. The sailing-school approach is also right for Number Five (you can see now why these schools are getting rather booked up); at least after a fortnight (preferably with his missus) he won't put the lot of them at immediate risk the first time out. Questioner Six is a youth or young man or woman with the ordinary share of muscle, mental mobility - and a bicycle, scooter or car. Be off to a convenient sailing dub and badger the secretary until he lets you in and introduces you to some- body looking for a crew. Don’t boast, jump in the deep end and learn fast. Respect the sea There are many more questioners, and as many more answers as to how to gain familiarisation with the sport. Don’t make the mistake of treating the sea with familiarity. This is the basis of competence afloat. Note too that safety is a component of competence. I think you will find getting interested in safety can be as much fun as taking a risk. * * * NEVER go afloat in a small boat, sailing or rowing, without checking: ‘That it has a bailer, and oars or paddles; Which way the current or tidal stream is running, and the wind is blowing; That buoyancy bags or tanks are properly attached; ‘That lifejackets are aboard and that children and anyone who cannot swim are wearing them. In an inboard engine power boat, as well as the points above, never go out without checking that you know where the fire extinguisher lives, and where the fuel cock to cut off the supply is. NEVER believe a naval officer when he tells you Plymouth gin and Enos is a good cure for a hangover. 2 Thinking clearly The man who can think clearly has a big edge afloat over the muddle-minded. Many people might think, for instance, that their greatest danger at sea would be to get caught out in a gale. If the boat were unsound, given to leaking badly under stress or developed serious hull damage there would be danger in a gale. If her sails and rigging were old and neglected she might be dismasted or disabled by blowing out her canvas. A power vessel with badly maintained or a faulty fuel supply could place herself and crew in jeopardy. There would also be danger in being caught close to shore, in shoal water or in an area of known hazards such as a tidal race. How can I relax and enjoy it? I's times like this things go wrong.’ Three foggy tales But it is clear thinking to realise that given a sound ship and a crew with steady nerves the whole package is safer out at sea than making a panic dash for a harbour or river mouth which may be dangerous in gales, and which in any case may be unidentifiable in prevailing conditions or just simply un- reachable. Obviously it is foolhardy to put out without being sure of your hull, machinery and gear. But gales don’t always arrive with the abruptness of a writ. Like a bad boxer, bad weather telegraphs the punch ahead of its arrival. Anyone finding himself in a position of peril when the crunch comes has been taking risks (even if unavoidable ones) for some time beforehand. He needs some more clear thinking at that point. He should also remember that in a well-found craft fog is often a greater danger than a gale. Take poor visibility and fog, in the case of an auxiliary sailing yacht and dying wind. The main hazard is crossing a shipping lane. The English Channel and southern North Sea are particularly dangerous spots. In the conditions mentioned I'm scared stiff — and I hope everybody else is as well; anybody who isn’t is a 24-carat idiot. Here are three foggy stories loosely based on fact. The silly way My friend Aloysius Amesbury has a modern eight-tonner, but sometimes I despair for him. He cut into the shipping lane and sailed through it at an acute angle. In the first place this meant he was in the lane a great deal longer than he needed to be. A.A. was always a jolly, press-on lad and, because his speed was dropping away with the wind, he had the auxiliary running. In the second place therefore he couldn’t hear any- thing of the shipping all around him. He was at the helm himself and had hoisted a radar reflector (which was some- thing), but the rest of the crew were below with their heads down as they had been a bit heavy on the glug-glug-glug in France in the not so distant past. For the third thing he had only the helmsman on lookout and no listenout at all. No 13 socking great tanker ran him down. He caught his tide and -the next thing was that I saw him twice as large as life and just as noisy at the club bar. ‘Have a drink, old boy. Record trip back from the other side.’ ‘Not in that visibility you didn’t,’ I said. ‘Straight up,’ he replied, ‘brought the old girl back on my own, as good as. The other b——rs were all flakers. Too much plonk.’ I reckon the duty guardian angel had a hair or two missing before seeing him in through the Spithead Forts. The sensible way By coincidence Beryl Bath came across more or less at the same time. Her father had had to fly back for business reasons. But B.B. is a sensible lass, has done the trip more than once, and Daddy had no particular qualms in handing Grampus over to the cook for a change. He was a man with a sly sense of humour and considered that this arrangement would be as good for the daughter as for crew. You may disagree with him, and one crewman (his offspring’s intended) would have liked to have taken strong exception, if he had dared, on the grounds that he had recently completed a ‘named’ ocean race. So it was B.B. who took the deck when the visibility closed in quickly. Aware of, but not alarmed by, the situation she too had a reflector hoisted. But she took Grampus across the shipping lanes under sail even though they were only gent- ling along at three knots. The entire crew was on deck to look and listen. All had been briefed on action in the event of a ship looming up from any direction. Moreover, B.B. set a course at right angles to the main axis of traffic so as to be among it for as short a time as possible. I have to admit it — they were a whole tide behind in making their berth just up- stream of A.A. and his bunch of hangovers. Nevertheless, when I met Number Two guardian angel later in the day he looked a younger aeronaut than his colleague. Now both Amesbury and Bath had been on one of those fixtures which take a man and his boat across to France for a change of diet, export-strength Scotch and gin, and wine spelt vin. Often these occasions attract power-cruiser owners who, 4 even if they can’t race, are frequently excellent elbows on the ‘aprés yachting’ scene and glad to help with escort and com- munications. Some sailors, who ought to know better, offer the long-nose-for-looking-down-along to those they are pleased to call marine motorists. They can be very wrong. A sound way Charlie Chelmsford is a motor-cruiser man who only got into the game a few years ago but he knows a lot more about the sea than many realise. He too was on his way back and got involved with the weather. Moreover, the yard hadn't finished installing his new radar so he was blind. He also set a right- angle course and a reflector, had his crew alert and throttled back so as to run as quietly as possible, with a man on the foredeck to get as far from engine noise as possible. Every so often he would shut down completely, letting the boat carry her way while everyone listened intently. It was during one of these periods of silence that they had heard the merchant- man long before they saw her, and they had already altered toa safer course when she went by. They never knew whether or not they had been spotted, but there is no doubt that if their drill hadn't been right and they had soldiered on, even at reduced revs, there would have been a very near miss ~ if there had been a miss at all. Avoiding anxiety Two of these three examples show clear thinking. Aloysius was plain lucky, and luck doesn’t last for ever; I wonder if he learnt anything. I don’t suppose he gave himself one moment of nail-biting. And that brings up another point: nothing destroys the pleasure of either sail-sailing or power- sailing more completely than anxiety. Conversely there is considerable satisfaction in the peace of mind which comes from the knowledge that all factors have been considered, necessary precautionary actions taken in good time, and adequate equipment provided to hand. I call this clear thinking. I would also call it seamanship. 15 alta Glear thinking applies no less to small sailing boats, dinghies and small motorboats. With dinghies the question of racing will have to be taken separately. Obviously racing implies pushing things to the limit and cutting things fine. Just as obviously, clear thinking is still very much an essen- tial part of the mental equipment of any participant. Equally, taking part in racing argues a certain measure of experience. So often inexperience leads to easily avoidable danger in going afloat in small boats. But the degree of hazard can be substan- tially reduced by carefully calculating what your aims in- volve. The tide’s going thataway If you plan to go from Y to Z, because Y is where you are and you've always heard of people going to Z and that Z is a nice place, ask yourself whether the trip is a practical one in the first place. If you are seafaring, there will be tidal streams to consider. Getting to Z, which is downwind and downtide, will be a slice of the old Dundee cake; everything will be very easy. But what about getting back, if both wind and tide are still against you? That's going to be far from easy. It would be better to get the difficult bits over first by going to X instead, and give yourself and your companions an easy return trip (and with it a sense of achievement instead of agony). That’s a simple example of ‘easing a trip’. ‘Take matters further. The tide doesn’t run the same way all the time. Find out when and where it starts running in the opposite direction. Apply that to your plan. Realise that the sea gets rougher when the wind blows against the tide. So if you went to Z, had a beer or two over the time of tide-change, then for the return trip you might have quite changed con- ditions. The wind would be against you, which would be tedious. The tide, however, would be helping you, which would be a good thing. But if the wind were fresh it would be distinctly choppier. Small motor craft may not be too much put out by an unfavourable wind. While the engine(s) keep running, they will continue to churn along - but they can 16 become wet and uncomfortable as the sea builds up. Wind: friend or foe The tide is one variable: it runs stronger at times during the diurnal cycle (as well as during springs compared with neaps) than at others. The wind is another: it is always changing direction, and large changes in a short time are often the mark of light weather. In the early stages of your maritime education you want the answer as to whether the wind is going to get weaker, thus slowing down or halting a sailing boat unless she can put on an auxiliary engine, or is going to strengthen to a point of unpleasantness in either power or sail. Clearly the trip to Z, which started that morn- ing with such a smiling face, will wear a grimmer visage if the return, with wind over tide giving it some unwelcome pepper, is transformed into a scramble of unforeseen stiffness. There is nothing wrong with a good hard beat, and indeed it is a great cleanser of liver and head, but we were speaking of the problems of inexperience. Even with a motorboat a fine start may tempt you further than you might otherwise venture, and the thump back may be less fun than everybody thought. These things therefore have to be added into the plan and clearly thought out ahead, so that safe and sensible decisions are made. Racing in dinghies Racing, and especially racing in modern high-performance dinghies, is a different matter. Some risks have to be taken — risks with the proximity of other boats, with sailing close to buoys or marks or the shore, with carrying too much sail in heavy weather. These risks must be taken with open eyes. You must know the boat, know the racing rules and know what to do about a capsize. Capsizing a racing dinghy is taken rather light-heartedly. However, I am of the opinion that any capsize in a dinghy 7 t i | | | } race should attract 2 penalty. | saggest disqualification. If this is deemed to drastx. thea ‘penalty poima’ er ‘time faults’ ought to be added to a danghv’s actual performance. To cap- size is to prove that the hall m mot up to the cunditions sailed in Runabosts at cisk Powcrtrat, partacmieis Ge omni epee tepe. have presenied a special probkess ap seummt vem. Wish auedierm csmtructional methods. deage amd shone olf auudere dewelapeecnts in ou'- boards and cusdi=e Garey fs bere 2 ermemdous increase in the number

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