Years of salty experience alone don’t make the sailor; it takes competence and safe practices
Issue 3 : Nov/Dec 1998
The term seamanship conjures up mental images of a professional sea captain rounding one of the great capes in a mighty storm, barking orders through his speaking trumpet at fearless sailors in the rigging of a tall ship. There may the impression that only vast years of experience will allow for good seamanship.
In his Illustrated Dictionary of Boating Terms, John Rousmaniere defines seamanship as: The art and science of handling a boat competently and safely in all conditions.
There is no mention of years of salty experience here, just competence and safety. Working from this definition, could a newcomer to sailing practice good seamanship? Let’s consider a new boatowner, perhaps with only a few hours of real experience. Can this person practice good seamanship? I think so.
After you’ve been around the water a while, you will have met both types: the ones who are or will be good seamen and the ones who won’t. Everybody has trouble once in a while, but some sailors seem to go from one crisis to the next without a rest.
To me, good seamanship means sailing within the limitations of the characteristics of the boat, the skill of the skipper, and the capabilities of the crew. This definition allows the novice to choose appropriate conditions for sailing and, in so doing, to practice good seamanship in the choice and the activity. So yes, a novice can be a good seaman or seawoman. Using good judgment and matching skills and capabilities against the expected demands of the water are what is required.
As for experience, the water has a way of surprising us no matter how much experience we have. Perhaps sailors with more experience are surprised less often, but the richness of our sea stories tells us we can all be taken aback from time to time. The ones who will be the better sailors are preparing themselves and their vessels to be safe and competent in an ever-wider range of conditions. They have trouble now and then, but they handle it. Most days they come and go without notice. Their guests wish to sail with them again, and they seem to have “regular” crew. They are gaining experience. Their boats are becoming more reliable and better suited to their use.
These sailors, who are navigating the journey between novice and old salt, are in the vast majority. This must be so, since sailing has an excellent safety record. The minority who do not understand good seamanship give little thought to preparing themselves or their vessels, and it shows. When you have their attention, gently, ever so gently (because they are good people, too, and everyone is important in the grand scheme of things) try to convince them to respect the water.
You asked for it, you got it!
We have received a lot of feedback from our readers about whether we should carry advertising or not. To our surprise, the overwhelming consensus is that we should, but that it should in no way compromise the editorial content. We have thought long and hard about how to do that. We started this magazine with the focus on our readers, and that is where the focus will continue to be. We are in the process of developing an advertising policy that will allow our readers to be informed without being overwhelmed or manipulated. Our first display ad is in this issue (from Sailrite on Page 55). We invite your comments.
We appreciate the support we’ve received from Sailrite for this new magazine. Over the years Matt, Jim, and Connie Grant have become respected friends of ours as vendors. They’ve sold us kits for making our own jib bags and mainsail cover and also built a new main, jib, and storm trysail for us. They’ve always added thoughtful suggestions and given us exactly what we were looking for. It was for this reason that we featured them as our first good old boat vendor in the last issue of Good Old Boat. Their purchase of a full-page ad to help us get started in the advertising side of publishing is further evidence of their support.
Thank you to Sailrite Enterprises, Inc., for providing free access to back issues of Good Old Boat through intellectual property rights. Sailrite.com
