OK Marmot, I wont' give up on you.
Quote:
| Originally Posted by Marmot This really is becoming a case study.
"The captain had all the papers and claimed 10 years of yachting experience"
You have now learned first hand the difference between certification and qualification.
Right.
"I also had a very qualified and experienced first mate."
Who did not regard the absence of an anchor and its chain as unusual enough to warrant further investigation or to report it to the captain. His enquiry to you rather than the captain says something about the chain of command on the vessel and your response ...
??? The 1st mate joined the vessel the day before departure. We obviously left port with an anchor and chain. It was not until after the storm he checked the anchor winch room and wondered where the anchorchain was. He mentioned it to me during lunch and that got the ball rolling.
"I said, just look, it goes up there and there and then down again."
followed by his meek response of "'mm, well I didnt see it." hints at his not having experience enough to recognize that an empty hawse is a good indication that something may be amiss with the ground tackle, and or his unwillingness to say anything that might incur your wrath. I wonder why he didn't just say the anchor is gone. Was everyone afraid to speak out on that boat?
I'm not quite sure what kind of messy crew-owner relationships you've been involved in but the kind of atmosphere you are trying sugggest was simply not there. Quite the contrary.
So, you knew you were in for bad weather and did not make any provision for securing the vessel for the voyage? You recognized a problem existed but did not take time to address the issue? It wouldn't matter if you were onboard a Russian icebreaker, a vessel with an inexperienced crew who were for some reason unable to communicate their concerns and observations rendered that vessel unseaworthy. That is where you said the vessel was unseaworthy. The hull might be just fine but the crew was unfit, I didn't make up anything. You were very lucky nothing worse happened.
As I said in my earlier post, the captain obviously considered that the anchor was sufficiently secure and I didn't question his judgement, partly because had not been at sea for the last 20 years with 6 meter waves on a 40 m. vessel. Anyway, make whatever you want to make of it.
The failure of the three people onboard who were charged with the safety of that vessel and its crew did nothing to prevent a (fortunately) silly and unneccessary incident. If you had tied the anchor in place with a shoelace at least that would have indicated that someone onboard was competent enough to recognize a problem existed. The fact than no one did anything is really scary.
If this, if that.... everything is so easy in hinesight, isn't it?
Since you seem to like little platitudes
The price of a charter should include a competent crew.
If you manage to pull off this project just remember that your charter guests deserve a much higher standard than has been presented in this thread. |
I'm just converting a very fine trawler into an expedition yacht. I hope you will one day have the pleasure to work on such a nice vessel. Or as a guest. So you can chill out a little bit.