Foiling Moth sailor rescued

Nope, no way out I'm afraid, equipment failure = DNF not finishing last, finishing last, requires strength of character, an admirable strength of character at that.

Edited by G.R.F. - 03 Feb 12 at 12:14pm

Good grief people. look at the context.
Its not so very hard to design a boat that is utterly bulletproof, virtually sails itself, never capsizes and is virtually impossible not to finish a race with - eventually. But having a boat that is guaranteed to finish last isn't really much fun - even on the day when it blows up F12 and you finish both first and last.

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

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.

thank god for the RNLI !!