Rob comes from a legacy of prudent seamanship; the “Carina” family. I liken the sentiments to the idea that there was an assumption that when we left the dock, we were on our own.<\/p>\n
His remarks have prompted responses on scuttlebutt, where his initial posting appeared.
\nBOATING ACCIDENTS – A SIGN OF THE TIMES
\nBy Rob Nye, nearly 50 years old
\nI believe that to understand the recent tragedies in California, we need to
\nlook at the entire sport of sailing and how the competitive side is managed
\nand promoted.<\/p>\n
As harsh as it may sound, both events are the result of a lack of good
\nseamanship. Webster’s defines Seamanship as: the art or skill of handling,
\nworking, and navigating a ship. In modern times it appears that it is
\npossible to be a professional sailor and not be a good seaman; it used to be
\nthat seamanship was a requirement to get invited in the first place. Now
\nit’s what do you weigh, or how hard you can you hike. To navigate, it is to
\nhave superior computer skills.<\/p>\n
Following these accidents, Gary Jobson, president of the U.S. Sailing, has
\nsaid “we need to take a step back and take a deep breath with what we’re
\ndoing. Something is going wrong here.”<\/p>\n
On one hand, I take offense at Gary’s use of “we” as if all sailors bear
\nsome responsibility for a boat being caught inside the breaking surf or
\nanother apparently running into an island while motoring at night. Yet on
\nthe other, speaking as President of the governing body of our sport, perhaps
\nUS Sailing does share some blame for the lack of basic seamanship exhibited
\ntoday. I hope the “what we’re doing” he refers to isn’t simply holding
\nraces; as if the event itself is to blame. It isn’t.<\/p>\n
When I was growing up, the summer calendar was full of short, medium and
\nlong distance races that included sailing to fixed marks. Even day races
\nused fixed marks, and once in a while, we’d put the kite up to get to the
\nwindward mark after drifting off the starting line. Once in a while, we even
\nanchored. Navigation was more than “putting the pin in the box” and entering
\na range and bearing to the windward mark. On any given leg we might drift,
\nbeat to windward, reach, change sails and if we were lucky, even broach or
\nat least enjoy a good knockdown.<\/p>\n
It was during this era we learned to use harnesses, sail in the fog, keep an
\neye on each other and stay sharp when drifting around at 3am on Long Island
\nSound. Day races were sometimes another opportunity to practice seamanship
\nas the decision to race was left with the skipper, not some government
\nagency.<\/p>\n
I remember leaving the dock for a fall series race with two reefs, the #4 Rob comes from a legacy of prudent seamanship; the “Carina” family. I liken the sentiments to the idea that there was an assumption that when we left the dock, we were on our own. His remarks have prompted responses on scuttlebutt, where his initial posting appeared. BOATING ACCIDENTS – A SIGN OF THE TIMES By … Continue reading ROB NYE TOUCHES A NERVE<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[898],"tags":[2401,1309,2413,2550],"class_list":["post-3337","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-seamanship","tag-carina","tag-rob-nye","tag-safety-at-sea","tag-seamanship"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3337","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3337"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3337\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3375,"href":"https:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3337\/revisions\/3375"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\njib and harnesses on for a “casual” race. Now race committees postpone if
\nthe line isn’t perfectly square, or the inflatable mark isn’t directly to
\nwindward, or they cancel the race if it’s blowing over 25 at the dock or
\nworse, forecast to blow later in the day. Why get a crew that’s seen heavy
\nweather when we don’t sail when it blows, and if we do all we’re going to do
\nis sausages? — Read on:
\nhttp:\/\/forum.sailingscuttlebutt.com\/cgi-bin\/gforum.cgi?post=13715<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"