Judgement calls

[Frogwatch]

I've never been in too much trouble at sea although I have been scared. This past weekend is an example. I had my 20' Tolman Standard powerboat at St George Island, Fl and some of my extended family wanted to go out on her. The Tolman is well built (I built her) and has a 90 hp Yamaha OB and a 9.9 OB kicker as backup and is generally a dry boat due to her high sides. However, 8 people.............hmmm, overcrowded for anything but a simple cruise. Still, she is big for a 20' boat so off we went. Wind was about 20 mph and the island sheltered the sound from the seas so the chop was not huge. Mentally made sure I had all my safety gear but felt very uncomfy about the whole thing so decided to not go too far. Instead decided to cross the bay to get fuel.
Turns out the bay is wider than I realized but going downwind was easy.
Got fuel and started back. Yikes, going into the chop really pounds at anything over 11 kts and we get soaked. I was doubting my wisdom although nothing happened. It seemed like forever to get back across. Nobody got seasick and nothing happened but still, somehow I feel as if I screwed up in doing it.

Later, talking to my daughter about our crossing to West End from West Palm last yr on my 28' S2 sailboat, we discussed how rough it was although the conditions were supposedly ideal, SE wind about 15 kts but dang it seemed rough. We talked about whether it actually had been rough or if we had simply been scared and I really don't know. While doing it I was certainly doubting my judgement and none of the others who said they would leave that morning went (at 4:00 am nobody answers VHF calls to answer fi they are going).

I always tend to think that if I have done something then it must be easy but in these two incidents, that attitude rings false but I cannot say why. It'd sure be nice to have a sure standard to measure advisability of doing something but such does not exist. I suspect that many people ignore that nagging feeling and mostly do ok, sometimes they don't do ok. Ignore that feeling or not if you cannot ascribe it to anything specific?

[DRFerron]

Part of practicing good seamanship is having a realistic view of your own abilities not only in getting your boat back safely but your passengers as well. You tested yourself, you now know in what conditions you feel uncomfortable.
Poor judgement includes not learning from the last time you went out. My ideal may not be your ideal. Judge your ability against yourself, not others.

[Barquito]

I would think you should work toward some objective evaluation of the situation to come to a conclusion about go/no-go. Your gut might be telling you there is something you should be considering. If after considering everything, there is no good argument not to go, then GO. Consider, weather, crew, condition of the boat, time available, daylight available, water temp... Whatever will impact safety first, and enjoyment second. On some days where I was expecting moderate conditions, and find it more frisky, I just don't feel like going to battle and stay on the mooring.

[peterchech]

I find that I am almost always more nervous than my crew. They are having a blast as gusts heel the boat's rail under. They know very little about sailing but have little fear. I have considerably more sailing knowledge and experience (though I'm no old salt myself), and I am much more cautious/fearful. Even though I am pretty sure that in a kite-less knockdown, the boat will just round up, the nervousness is still there. I think the more you know, the more you know can go wrong so you just tend to be more cautious. In the end, you are probably a better sailor for your caution.

That said, when it's blowing 25 knots I see those j-24's racing under full sail and sometimes even kite. Racing probably teaches you the true limits of a boat, rather than fretting about just where they may be. But those guys are far better sailors than I.

I have heard of people doing controlled knockdowns in their boat, just to see what happens and hopefully gain confidence in their boats.

[Barquito]

I have heard of people doing controlled knockdowns in their boat, just to see what happens and hopefully gain confidence in their boats.

For a dinghy lesson we were supposed to capsize our boat, then bring it back up again. It was really suprising how difficult it was to make the boat capsize when you want to, and really easy when you don't want to!

[dhays]

For recreational boating I think the key is whether all concerned will be enjoying themselves. I used to have the attitude that if it is possible to go out in the conditions, then you should go out in those conditions. (Yeah, I was pretty stupid). In the OPs situation, he didn't enjoy the ride for a variety of reasons, so it probably would have been better to not go.

I've gone out for exhilarating sails that I thought were a ton of fun, but my crew didn't enjoy it. I've gone out for sails where the crew was having a blast, but I was concerned so I didn't really enjoy it. If all parties are happy and the boat and crew are equal to the conditions, then all is good.

Now that I'm older, I'm a lot more sensitive to how my crew is doing. If my wife is tired of beating against wind and tied, then I'll power up the engine and drop the sails (OK, furl not drop). It makes us all happier in the long run.