It’s that time of year and about time to add a little juice to Rule69, the kind of juice that Scot likes and the kind of juice that gets people talking. Before I start I might add that the last time I wrote on this subject I got a death threat. My first and only one and I wear it proudly especially since I’m still alive.
It about lifejackets; and life harnesses. I am mostly against them. Earlier this summer I saw a crew on a nice, well appointed yacht tied to the dock, blue skies above and not a breath of air. All the crew were wearing lifejackets and life harnesses. I was tempted to tell them that they looked ridiculous, but I bit my tongue. These all seemed to be well educated people, some obviously captains of industry yet they were without questioning going along with what they thought was required.
Okay each to their own and who am I to criticize, but having done a quarter million miles offshore I feel somewhat qualified to give my input. One of the things that makes you a good sailor is intuition, in fact for an offshore sailor I would say that it’s absolutely necessary. Good intuition will help you decide when to throw that reef in or take it out. Intuition will help you plan your route to take the best advantage of an approaching front. Let’s just say that it’s an important ingredient and those sailor who have developed a strong intuition about what’s going on in his (or her) watery world are the ones that come out on top.
Let’s get back to lifejackets and life harnesses. I am not saying that there is no time and place for them. As the breeze builds and the forecast is for gnarly weather put on your life jacket and clip in when you leave the cockpit. Heck clip in when you are in the cockpit but don’t rely and put all your faith in the life harness. Use your intuition foremost. If it tells you that going forward to lash a sail in 50 knots when the foredeck is awash, then don’t go. Wait a while.
I have been following an old chap (Old Man Sailing). At 68 he chucked it all in and went sailing. He’s 76 now and just crossed the Atlantic from St Maarten to Southern Ireland. He posts a video a day and they are excellent. It’s an intimate look into life at sea. What prompted me to write this, is a post that he put up this morning bemoaning the fact that most of the questions/comments that he gets are about wearing a harness. (Spoiler alert – he doesn’t). Very few people congratulated him on crossing an ocean at 76 when most people are just parked off on the couch watching Frasier re-runs. They were dated obsessed about his harness. I have added a link to his Instagram. You decide.
One more thing about Old Man Sailing. He’s leaving in August to follow in Sir Francis Chichester’s wake sailing nonstop from Plymouth, England to Sydney, Australia. I guess that age really is just a number.
To wrap up. If you feel more comfortable being fully kitted out go for it. In the attached photo I am racing down the Atlantic surfing well over 20 knots; no a lifejackets in sight. That’s a younger version on me in the blue pants. It was the Soviet Union boat in the 89/90 Whitbread and I am not even sure that there were harnesses on board, although there must have been but I doubt that they were dug out on a 28-day passage. I doubt that they could find them in a hurry.
Okay – no death threats please…:) – Brian Hancock
