Skip to main content
A Perspective on Seamanship
Good seamanship should include the ability to assess, address, and anticipate. The best offshore sailors use sight, smell, hearing, and feel to monitor what is going on below, on deck and in the wider environment for whatever may come next. Experience lets the crew member distinguish the significant concerns from normal variations. In a perfect world, every issue would be caught before it becomes a problem or emergency. Let’s snap back to reality—it’s not going to happen that way. Good sailors train themselves by running through “what-ifs” as an exercise on watch:
Formula for Disaster

From The Annapolis Book of Seamanship

The Vestas Wind Grounding on Cargados Carajos Shoal

On the night of November 29, 2014, while competing in the second leg of the Volvo Ocean Race, Vestas Wind ran aground