Coastal v. Bluewater cruiser, your thoughts

[Sailormann]

Most accidents with blue water sailors happends when approaching land/anchorages or in coastal sailing.

Land is a navigational hazard. Avoid it as much as possible...

[Zanshin]

Originally Posted by haffiman37

...Most accidents with blue water sailors happends when approaching land/anchorages or in coastal sailing...

Just as valid a statement as "Most airplane accidents happen while taking off or landing". It is a valid statement, but doesn't really tell the complete truth. As far as this thread is concerned, all CSIT (controlled sailing into terrain) incidents should be ignored. Any non-trivial contact between boat and ground is going to be an accident regardless of the boat or crew types.

So if we take out land as an accident factor in comparing bluewater with non-bluewater what remains? I would put Captain, Crew, Weather, Equipment, and Navigation at the top of my list and look for differentiators in those categories.

[sailingdog]

Basically, land and boats don't mix well.

[haffiman37]

Originally Posted by Zanshin

Just as valid a statement as "Most airplane accidents happen while taking off or landing". It is a valid statement, but doesn't really tell the complete truth. As far as this thread is concerned, all CSIT (controlled sailing into terrain) incidents should be ignored. Any non-trivial contact between boat and ground is going to be an accident regardless of the boat or crew types.

So if we take out land as an accident factor in comparing bluewater with non-bluewater what remains? I would put Captain, Crew, Weather, Equipment, and Navigation at the top of my list and look for differentiators in those categories.

I would say You 'hit' off target.
The reson for the 'accidents' are mainly caused by handling/captain/crew errors and not related to if the boat was a 'Blue water' boat or 'Coastal' sailing boat.

As to follow Your logic of safety - sailing versus flying: Flying is by far the safest as no one have ever been left 'up there' -they all come down! However quite some sailors have been lost 'out there'.

[EveningStar]

Thanks for all the great advise!! It's been a wonderful education in common sense. I had wrapped my mind around so much yacht design ideas (some valid and some just marketing driven) that I forgot to look at the most important aspect here...the captain and crew!

[Zanshin]

Haffiman37 - Umm, what do you think this means:

...I would put Captain, Crew, Weather, Equipment, and Navigation at the top of my list and look for differentiators in those categories...

The reason that lots of aircraft have not arrived is identical to the cause that many boats have not arrived. Both hit the ground in manners (and angles) that the designers didn't cater for. In the case of boats, that ground is usually very wet and deep.

[sailingdog]

Zanshin-

If the ground is deep..then you probably won't hit it.

Originally Posted by Zanshin

Haffiman37 - Umm, what do you think this means:


The reason that lots of aircraft have not arrived is identical to the cause that many boats have not arrived. Both hit the ground in manners (and angles) that the designers didn't cater for. In the case of boats, that ground is usually very wet and deep.

[Zanshin]

Sailingdog - sure you can hit the deep ground by boat, after some incident causes your boat to descend (such as an encounter with a container).