Foiling Moth sailor rescued

Originally posted by sargesail 4 states of man: Risk ignorant Risk cavalier Risk averse Risk sensible Sometimes it takes a personal or third party experience to make us realise where we lie. To some this seems risk cavalier, to others risk ignorant. The response of some has a risk averse tone. For me let's just take the lessons and become more risk sensible.

Originally posted by CharlieW505 We can all get caught out - no matter how well you prepare.  Really glad noone was hurt - tks to the RNLI.   My question really is what the moth sailor reckons he'd do differently....that's going to be different for each class, and is probably important info for the "mothies".   We got dismasted about 6 yrs ago in 30kts.  We were about 3 miles off the coast.  The boat was totally un-paddlable, as the rig needed to be cut away before we could be towed in. Our learning was that we now carry a rigging "unfriendly" knife inside the boat for such eventualities.   In 2006, our training group were prepping for the Hayling Worlds - training halfway to Bembridge, in a 20 knot Northerly (January) when a snow storm blanked out Hayling Island...!!  Going home, upwind through the snow we laughed that we wouldn't have liked to be in anything less seaworthy than the 505.    Again, learning is that we'd never go off the coast without another boat who can go and get help, and we take a warm drink out when sailing offshore - buy ourselves an extra hour or two.   Let's not judge the sailor.  The important thing is to know what he thinks he should do differently next time.  no blame here, merely thanks for the RNLI.

+1

Originally posted by Mark Jardine Originally posted by Sheetpuller Some years ago a french superstar yachracer died when he fell overboard from his boat without a lifejacket - can't remember his name.  Sailing, class 101; always wear your personal buoyancy.  I rest my case. I think you might be referring to Eric Tabarly - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89ric_Tabarly

Yes, the memory's going, it must be an age thing!  It was Eric Tabarly I was thinking of, thanks.

thank god for the RNLI !!

Originally posted by Sheetpuller I rest my case.

Can we assume for the defence of the sailor / prosecution of the forumites for having a disapproving opinion?

Actually the point is we are all individually responsible for assessing our risk, with this incident the sailor got it wrong. Having owned high performance boats there's no way I'd set out to sea in one without recuse cover, irrespective of the time of year and lack of comms equipment. It's the same reason I wouldn't do a horizon dash on my board at the coast either - paddle distance from shore only and a waterproof phone if I get sharked by the tide.

As for PFD- b**locks, I never wear one on a board and very rarely on my yacht. They're available if it blows up and if we were to bother venturing too far offshore, but I'd consider it a very bad call to be out there if that were the situation considering i have a young family onboard.

Maybe the message is being a good sailor does not equal good seamanship? what rule is that says it is the helm's decision to race? I'm sure this is based on fundamental seamanship good practice and perhaps it's the most important one racing sailors should take note of before leaving the shore- whether or not there is race, rescue cover, buddy, life jacket and VHF to hand.