40ft yacht vs oil tanker

[madcampbell]

Judging by the sails on the other boats and the fact he had his spinnaker up, there's no reason why he couldn't have pointed a little higher and made it around the front of that ship. That, however, would have needed to be planned a few minutes in advance and there's no way he could have seen a 250+m ship until the very last minute....

LOL point higher with a spinaker!!.....(thats a down wind sail) IMHO he was trying to get around the front so he didn't end up in the wind shadow of the tanker and lose the race.....which he lost anyway!!

When he turned up wind with the spinnaker (a bad move as the sail is designed to drag you down wind quickly...which it did!!) to cut across the bow he will have been forced down wind by the spinnaker on every gust...what a muppet

[mattisaLN130]

some basic seamanship, navigation and chart understanding tuition should be complusory before anyone skippers a boat, you cant just jump in a car and drive it or a plane and fly it, so should it be with boats, even those sodding jet ski things,
lack of training (and even common sence) is the reason so many weekend sailors come un stuck and sometime die as a result,

Agreed! Even more scary is the amount of people who are drunk and in charge of vessels, sailing and drinking goes hand in hand really but it is very difficult to police the problem. A few years ago during Cowes Weeks when I was still living there, a RIB hit the break water, all of the four people on board were seriously injured, I think one of them did not come out of the coma. It was said that the helmsman (who had no local knowledge) was under the influence and doing 25 knots.

[oneidadan]

If only he'd read:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Avoid-Huge-S...2838168&sr=1-2

The reviews are brilliant