‘Seamanship isn’t about sailing slowly’ – Nikki Henderson

One-size-fits-all rules are not particularly seamanlike – but switching up your seamanship strategy for a given situation certainly is.

The sailing world is small. But of the 350 or so passengers on board the Boeing 777 I took recently from Heathrow to Seattle, my seat neighbour turned out to be a French cruiser. How do you spot a sailor on a plane? Very tanned hands and feet; eats dinner with a spoon; reads Yachting World. Six hours in, one of us broke the ice: “You’re a good sleeper in uncomfortable positions!”

That launched us down all sorts of meandering seamanship conversation topics. “Can you home school and liveaboard with teenagers?” (Conclusion: it’s more fun for the parents to cruise with teenagers, and more fun for the teenagers to cruise before they are teenagers.) Or: “Why don’t many pro sailors own cruising boats over 50ft? Because we know better than to buy too big a boat – or because we can’t afford one?” (We agreed on the latter – sailors are romantics and would buy something ‘big and stupid’, or classic and even sillier if they could.)

My neighbour had a racing background in sailing. His trip to Seattle was his last before heading out to Tahiti, to work and liveaboard with his family. Sharing this dream, I asked him about his transition from racing to cruising.

He said that for him it had required a whole different mindset – he had to ‘learn to chill out’ and reorientate his passagemaking strategy. His conservative approach to night sailing could now be summed up as: “At dusk, not just the crew, but also the boat gets into her pyjamas.”

I’ve always struggled with the concept of reefing down for the night as an oversimplified preventative measure. And it’s not always the right choice: boats feel as uncomfortable when underpowered as they do when overpowered. Experienced crew get irritable when they have to sail a boat with her handbrake on.

I’ve often wondered, does this ‘rule’ just exist because people haven’t set their boats up for quick solo reefing? Because the crew aren’t trained properly? Because the skippers are nervous? Or too lazy to get out of bed?!

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Seamanship and making appropriate decisions

Seamanship isn’t about sailing boats slowly. It’s about sailing boats safely. It’s about making appropriate decisions for the conditions you’re in. Sometimes this means reefing down, but sometimes it doesn’t. The best sailors understand how to make this call, when to throttle back and when to power up.

Always reefing before dark just because ‘that’s the rule’ is inherently risky. Following any blanket rules blindly is not seamanlike. To make good decisions you need to be connected with the variables: people, boats, weather.

The requirement for ‘one way to do something’ is a disconnect from the reality that things don’t always go to plan. It’s as if we’re trying to sanitise sailing. Being a crew member is not like being a passenger on a plane. As much as we might want the [auto]pilot to be in control, to not have to touch the lines or the sails, and sleep all night – it’s not always possible at sea.

Having said all that, ‘putting the boat in her pyjamas’ is something I can get on board with. So, what’s the difference? ‘Reef for the night’ and ‘getting into pyjamas’ imply the same seamanlike message that everything is harder and riskier at night, so take it a bit easier while it’s dark.

The important nuance is that ‘wearing pyjamas’ is a strategic guideline while ‘reef at night’ is an operational rule. The beauty of strategy is that when applied it can result in different actions depending on the circumstance. If you have an evening ‘pyjamas’ routine, you take actions to keep within a safe limit according to the situation. But you stay flexible, and in touch with reality.

So for some nights this might mean taking a reef. For others it could mean taking down the spinnaker. For a competent crew flying an asymmetric, they might hoist a wrap net. An amateur crew sailing deep might drop the main altogether to mitigate the risk of crash gybing. Or maybe they add a preventer. And some combination of navigation lights, compass light, putting the dishes away and other bedtime habits would feature.

Since my chat with my plane neighbour I’ve been thinking of the power of these human phrases. While I don’t believe in one-size-fits-all rules, I do want to make sailing accessible. So strategic sayings might just help. Bite-sized and digestible, they’re a perfect tool for keeping you in the right lane. Some include ‘light the stage’ for manoeuvres at night; ‘one hand for you and one for the boat’ when moving around. Do you have any others?

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