Poppa Pat's question

From the Log . . .



Then came a search for a new casting for the end of the motor, which carried us all over the Pacific Coast by phone and by telegraph and finally to Detroit. It was determined that there were no new castings anyplace in the United States, so that the casting that we had, had to be welded and then re-machined.

The motor was finally put together and when it ran, after this overhaul, it really ran beautifully. It has used practically no oil at all since the date of its last repair. Another thing that happened in our last overhaul, was that they left one hose plugged with rubber, and that was repaired. Now the motor runs about 40 degrees cooler thank it did before an we do not use any oil. It is the first time that the motor has run decently since 1949.

It took us 10 days to get our motor fixed in Santa Barbara, but it was one of the most delightful times that we have had. We went to see Dr. and Mrs. Richard McGoveney of Santa Barbara on first day there, and they were our constant companions and hosts, during our Santa Barbara stay.






This post is dedicated to 'Poppa Pat', a fellow sailor I had the great honor to sail with. This kindly gentleman of a grandfather signed up to sail with a woman who had traveled to OCSC from Alabama to obtain her BBC certification earlier this year. The three of us went out with Bruce Powell on the second day of her BBC private lesson (she passed).

Poppa Pat does deliveries, sailing yachts from one place to another for their owners.

I'm hoping that he'll send me some pictures from his life at sea, or his constant repairs and improvements on his boats up in Bodega Bay, if he does, I'll add them to this post later. I think he can relate to the above section from my grandfather's log.

He wrote me with a question:

"Next trip is this weekend bringing a Hunter 38 from Dana Point to San Rafael, my buddy bought it a couple months ago and we just now have had time to get crew available for the passage. They are all friends of his that have a bunch of 'Delta' and some Bay sailing but no off shore experience, for their initiation and the boat's he wanted to have them all together at once under his and my mentoring, since they will each be sailing with him offshore at various times and I may not be around to help he figured a common learning experience would be good. Along that line, have any suggestions for me and how I approach being coach/mentor/advisor or should I not bother and just go along as crew/navigator for the most part? I know I have a good feel for the boats but am never sure how I interact with people. Probably comes from years of damage&crisis control without time to consider the feelings of the folks involved until after whatever action had been taken and by then it was already a fact accomplished. "

My friend, I'm not sure I would have been able to answer that were it not for an experience I had earlier this year.

I was doing a Wednesday Night Sail in June, I think. We sailed over to the area of South Hampton Shoal, and set the spinnaker. There were a number of people on board with only a small amount of experience to guide them. There were no 'race crew' types with the experience to understand the implications of say . . . a broach with the Asymmetrical chute up.

When I learned the finer points of rocketing through the waves with this huge sail pulling us along, I did so with a couple of 'old hands' on board. So as we encountered the inevitable broach, we were whooping and hollering and thoroughly enjoying ourselves. There was much screaming and yelling and FUN.

But I found myself with a group of people who might not react well to the deck going from horizontal to vertical, and water rushing into the cockpit under true knock down conditions.

"Damage and Crisis Control" might be how you'd naturally handle it if by yourself, but with less experienced crew that you are mentoring, a sensitivity to how you naturally react might get in their way and cause alarm and fear - not something that will help them learn to meet the challenge calmly and head on.

On top of that, it was my first time on the helm without really experienced crew to back me up in the 'normal' conditions on the Circle in June.

So I took some time before the hoist to explain what was about to happen, and what might happen. I explained that if we lose control, it's no big deal, the boat will find a safe place on it's own. I told them what I would say, and how I would say it.

When the inevitable came, I suppressed my own feelings, I refrained from raising my voice and hollering. I fought to control my emotions, even though that wasn't FUN. Instead of getting excited and having fun with it, I calmly said:

"I've lost it, we are going to round up".

Many years ago, while training for a St. Francis Big Boat Series, I was on 'Wild Turkey' with Bruce Powell and George Pedric. George was on the helm when we lost it.

I will never forget his reaction.

He simply said:

"Oops"

and as we went sideways with the rudder out of the water, I think it was Bruce Powell who laughed quietly, and remarked,

"Ah, somebody's going to have to go down there and uncleat the spinnaker sheet"

It seemed like the cleat was 3 feet under rushing water at the time. It was more like 6 inches.

The calmness of George and Bruce's reactions really broke the ice. It taught me a lesson that I was able to apply earlier this summer. I suppressed my own 'FUN' for the sake of the less experienced crew, and in so doing, gave them the confidence in me and themselves that they needed so they wouldn't freak out.

So we broached for the first time (it wasn't the last), the boom went into the water, the boat rounded up, and I just waited for that moment where the rudder had an effect on the boat's course, and we regained control.

"Ease the sheet when we do that next time"

Was a simple quiet request.

On the third or forth one, the crew started to laugh and I was able to join in and really enjoy myself.

Let me know how it turns out Pappa Pat,

Captain John

cptnjhn@gmail.com

Latter on, I'll add an installment from the log, and some pictures, so check back. For now, it will just be the post.