Marine Heads Blog: Just How Hazardous is Complacency While Sailing?

Complacency is the Opponent of Safe Sailing

This summer 18 seafarers set out in the 50th Anniversary Golden Globe Race, a "vintage" race which sought to recreate the situations of the original singlehanded around-the-world race utilizing older production boats with dimensions similar to the ultimate winner, Suhaili, sailed by Robin Knox Johston.

At the moment, only seven of the original participants remain in the race. Two of them have rounded Cape Horn and are homeward bound to England. Five-time circumnavigator 73-year-old Jean-Luc Van Den Heede is in the lead. Mark Slats, a 41-year-old Dutchman who has actually already circled once and rowed solo across the Atlantic, is about 1,000 miles behind him.

When it comes to me, one of one of the most attractive things about offshore sailing is that our training is never finished. Even the absolute most skilled sailor discovers one thing new on every passage. Your marine heads experts talk about how that point was drilled home previously this particular month, when a brand-new Beneteau 55.1 sailed by an experienced delivery crew was dismasted off of Cape Hatteras. The U.S. Coast Guard saved all hands, but the boat, which was actually on the way between boat shows, had to be deserted.

In the last few years, it seems as if not a fall sailing season passes without having at least one presumably sound vessel and experienced crew encountering trouble off Hatteras. In 2015, I wrote about a the destiny of Rainmaker, new 55-foot Gunboat catamaran-- supposedly representing state-of-the-art construction, engineering, and technology-- which experienced a fate similar to that of the Beneteau.

As Naranjo points out in the January report, among the best dangers when planning for an enthusiastic voyage is the tendency to confuse luck with ability. Your marine heads specialists talk about how whenever you compare his suggested curriculum for offshore sailors and the backgrounds of the remaining skippers in the Golden Globe revival, anyone can easily observe how each of the racers have what it takes-- a healthy dose of constant experience, physical conditioning, and sea sense.

Whether you are getting started on your education and learning as a sailor or an old salt attempting to keep up with the latest trends, you'll discover a variety of articles in our archives that eschew the gadgetry and concentrate on the essentials.

A fitting friend to Ralph's seamanship report is his February 2018 article, "Fresh Trends in Sailing Safety Gear," that focuses on the important safety devices. And if your weather forecasting abilities need fine-tuning, our May 2017 report, "Marine Weather Forecasting," offers an update on the latest weather forecasting tools available to sailors. If you 'd like a chance to discover these abilities from Ralph first-hand, he'll be teaching two courses in March at the Annapolis School of Seamanship.

If you don't yet have the book, it will make a great gift to yourself. Filled with hard-won wisdom, it provides a clear-eyed reminder that the challenges dealt with by the first Golden Globe sailors are the same ones we deal with right now. It's the sort of book you want to keep by your bedside, close at hand whenever a sense of complacency starts to sneak in.

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