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Originally Posted by sgawiser This thread reminds some of us how important it is to have additional qualified crew, paid or unpaid. It is amazing to me to watch how understaffed some very large vessels are in our local waters.
And of course all those who truly believe they can single hand their own boats without risk! |
A wise and experienced Captain has seen too much "could be fatal" issues arise to know better then single hand a boat or yacht. I've lost steering, had an engine fire, had a generator melt the wiring on the gennie end and cloud the entire generator room with smoke, to losing the controls, you name it. In those situations the mate was worth 100x his pay for the day. Yet, I see Captains load a 65' yacht on a freightor single handed, or run across an ocean by themselves, and all sorts of crazy things. I'm very good as a Captain, but I'm also being hired for my knowledge and judgement and know that anything can and eventually will happen.
My grandfather's neighbor used to take his 25' Mako center console out all of the time by himself fishing on good days. One day he went out on a calm day, never came home, they found the boat 2 days later off of North Carolina. The life insurance company took 7 years to pay the wife because they didn't have a body, the wife in the meantime lost the house and everything they owned because she was a housewife and didn't have any job skills to get a good paying job.