Slow learner

I fear I may have clouded your judgement.  From your first posts, I did offer a cautious response for fear of being 'branded troublesome', however your very recent experience is plain dangerous and changes the game some what.

Edited by pondmonkey - 30 May 13 at 11:17am

Yes I could do that but as Pondmonkey said in an earlier post, I run the risk of being considered a trouble maker (I suspect I already am). It's a tiny country, well the physical size is the same as the UK but there are only 4 million people and you want to be sure that you have a good case before doing anything that might mean no one will sail with you. The instructor said that while the winds were strong they were acting within their operating parameters, so presumably there is an agreement with someone, maritime safety perhaps, that sets the limits of what they do. You see I don't know - most of the other students, who had had much more sailing experience than me - it was a cruising course - were ok in the rough conditions, and all were certainly better than me at handling it. And this is a nation of pretty amazing sailors (just about every Am Cup team has NZers in it) so maybe they do push the boundaries here. I'm getting over the awfulness of being dunked in cold water and then the heavy winds last weekend, and wondering still what to do about it, if anything. But I will think about writing a letter, once I have sorted out to whom . I could also talk to the director of the school and ask what the "parameters" are. The instructor said that it was important to put people in the kind of conditions that cruising could put them in, which I agree with. My argument is just that it was far too soon for me to be in those conditions. Oh and I lost a woolly hat and one shoe when I went overboard!

Yeah. Please stick with sailing, but go nowhere near a company with such dangerous practices again!

Yes I'm allowing for a bit of that - but in my view (and experience) if you have someone in the water on the end of a harness then you simply look - are there any immediate hazards to windward.  If not you tack leaving the jib where it is and letting the mainsheet go during the manoeuvere.  If the MOB is not harnessed but held then you have a different problem - if the boat comes upright you will probably lose contact.  But you do have to slow the boat - otherwise, lifejacket or not, there is a good chance they will drown in the wash.  So let both sails go and get the jib aback pretty much immediately.

Thanks for the advice. We were actually in F 9 winds gusting to F10. There are other clubs and other instructors. I think I'll take your advice.