Posted by Laurence Monkhouse on May 22, 2003 at 21:58:52 from 62.252.128.7 user Laurence_.
In Reply to: Re: Young People and Boats posted by Mike Dennis on May 22, 2003 at 13:40:13:
I assure you that in those Southampton days, if grown-ups did watch and question our every move we neither heard nor took any notice of them, except to ensure that we beat them in every race. We actually taught one or two of the teachers at our school how to sail - and we certainly didn't start by insisting that they wore lifejackets! And we went where we wanted to - the record was to Cherbourg - navigation in that direction was easy in those days because there were air ferries floowing the same route every hour or so and you just steered towards their course.
I, too, started using AR as my only text and learned all that is important from him. I have no regrets about going on to race after that beginning, although in more mature years I now prefer to just go where I want to. And I share Ian's hatred of Marinas - rowing half a mile out to the mooring is a key part of the fun.
The fact remains that young people today don't seem to have the opportunities that we and the AR young people had to just go and sail without loads of formality and expense. It is all too organised, too safety conscious, too bound by rules and regulations, and worst of all they are now expected to go sailing as a duty, to build their characters! No wonder many of them come to hate it and fail to realise that it is really the only justification for us being placed upon this planet!
Today the Death and Glory would not have been given a Boat Safety Certificate and so would soon have been banned from the Broads - for starters no alternative means of escape from the cabin and no fire extinguishers (the unlimited volume of water on which we float is not considered to be a fire extinguisher, forsooth1)
Even TARS now says 'Don't take chances' rather than the Master's 'Grab a chance and you won't be sorry for a might have been'