grumpygit
Well-known member
I was referring to sailplan really. How to set up the boat in a way that you get where you want to go without compromising safety.
I'm sure most of us do this kind of risk assessment and balancing all the time- whether it's not flying the kite at night, or maybe pushing for more boat speed to ensure arrival at an unlit harbour in daylight. Or the risk inherent in deck work to set up a pole and preventer vs safer sailing once they are in place.
So not a 'plan' that is dreamt up on a sofa months in advance, but decisions made to reflect all of the relevant factors in real time.
Our last cruiser was 16+mtrs, 28t and about 120 sqm of cutter rigged canvas and mostly just my wife and myself sailing the boat. I had made conscious decisions in very early days, No poles whatsoever and no kite flying with just the two of us. This wasn't any sort of fancy or conscious risk assessment for me it was just pragmatic common sense.
We, well especially me never had a clinical thought for what we did, such as how do you push a boat? You have the option of what to fly regarding the weather situations, and hopefully the ability to trim correctly for what you do had flying but as Vic say's #74 "we do in 1000 different situation when the shit hit the fans is something else." so pray tell me how do you make a 1000 plans?
This is why I have great empathy and sympathy for the captain and crew of this tragedy, as I said earlier, we weren't there and it must have been horrific in the unprecedented conditions, I'm sure everyone of us has been caught in conditions that were not forecast, we have many a time. We are captains of little ships not hindsight. May the grace of God . . . . .
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