The main gets stuck halfway up when setting because the halyard is not clear. A forgotten fender gets stuck on the stern post when casting off, and the yacht promptly heels over. A crew member clings anxiously to the winch as the boat lays on its side in a sudden squall. Situations like this happen again and again. They are not unpredictable.
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If you get into the habit of always keeping an eye on your boat and crew, the wind and clouds and the sea, you will rarely experience really surprising situations when you're out and about. Admittedly, this is not easy at the beginning. "When you start sailing, you often have blinkers on in a figurative sense and don't immediately see everything. On the contrary. Many only pay attention to what they are doing at the time," explains sailing instructor Constantin Claviez.
Even experienced sailors sometimes need a while at the beginning of the season before the helicopter view of everything happening on and around the boat becomes routine again and orientation at sea is possible without constantly looking at the plotter.
Claviez describes this development with a maritime image. He says: "You have to go from being a sector light to an all-round light!" If you internalise this, you create a basis for relaxed sailing days. Initial nervous tension or even anxious insecurity then no longer have any place.
But what exactly do you need to focus on? Professionals reveal the most important aspects that skippers should habitually pay attention to.
The boat
Many sailors find the start of the trip to be the most stressful moment of the journey. Good preparation helps against this. This includes checking the engine compartment, oil level, filters and V-belts below deck. Sea valves - apart from the one for the cooling water - and the hatches need to be closed and any loose objects lying around secured. On deck, check that halyards, sheets and mooring lines are clear, the rigging is in order and the navigation electronics are switched on. Are there any objects flying around in the cockpit or is something in the way during manoeuvres? Especially at the beginning, it helps many people to make a list of the points they should go through before setting off and after mooring.
During the journey, the inspection continues, including checking the cooling water and exhaust gases while the engine is running. You should also regularly look over the deck and cockpit. Are there lines hanging overboard, are they twisted or have they formed kinks? Has the winch been rigged the right way round? Are there any ropes lying around that could cause you to slip when stepping on them?
"I always look at my boat from top to bottom, from bow to stern. When I'm out and about, I look into the engine compartment when I'm running the engines and at the mast and rigging and above deck when I'm sailing," reports sailing instructor Leon Schulz. In this way, he immediately recognises whether something has changed. "It's like these comparison pictures: You know something is different in one picture than in the other, but you still have to look for what it is," he says and adds: "Incidentally, this works best on a tidy ship."
The crew
"Especially for the skipper, but actually for everyone: always keep an eye on each other," says Schulz, describing optimal operation on board. First of all, it's about what is clearly visible: is everyone dressed appropriately for the weather and have they put on their lifejackets correctly? How individuals move on board and during manoeuvres gives an indication of how safe they are - or whether they feel overwhelmed by their task. "It's important to pay the most attention to the least experienced. Only then is it fun for everyone," explains Leon Schulz. On the other hand, anyone who repeatedly feels unable to cope with the demands placed on them will sooner or later lose interest in sailing.
Ideally, it's not just the skipper who checks that all the crew's procedures and manoeuvres are correct. During manoeuvres, it helps if the other sailors also keep an eye on each other. Then it is possible to react together in good time if, for example, a mooring line gets jammed during a harbour manoeuvre or a snag forms on the winch when jibing.
The feeling is not always good
It becomes more difficult to see and recognise when it comes to personal sensitivities. Sailing is also a matter of emotion, but the feeling is not always good. However, fellow sailors often cover up their fears or worries. "When someone asks a cautious question, I hear that there is
something is coming up inside that might be causing anxiety. When I then ask the crew about any worries or concerns, I usually get insightful answers. Like the fear that the weather will get worse or the ship will tip over," says Schulz, describing how he deals with such uncertainties. These can be dispelled with a good explanation of the situation. "Worried faces then quickly turn into happy faces."
If a crew member remains silent and pale, sits shivering and yawning in the corner, these are signs of incipient seasickness. If you notice this in time, you can take countermeasures. "If I see this in a fellow sailor, I recommend that they lie down in their bunk and sleep their way back to well-being," reports André Freibote, who organises ocean cruises on the sometimes quite rough North Sea from Bremerhaven. He continues: "Most of them are blissfully asleep after a quarter of an hour and arrive on Heligoland feeling refreshed."
The sea
A lot can be recognised from the sea surface: The wave pattern indicates wind strength and direction. If white whitecaps form on an otherwise smooth sea, this indicates surf zones, shallows or rocks, while water that suddenly becomes lighter in colour indicates a shallow area.
In tidal waters, but also in supposedly calm areas such as the Baltic Sea, currents can occur when, for example, the sea narrows between islands or in sounds. When entering buoyed fairways, dancing and leaning buoys are a clear indication of current. Their head then points in the direction in which the water is flowing. The strength of the current can be seen at the foot of the buoy, where a kind of wake forms.
Currents can also be seen in eddies, circular smooth surfaces or changes on the surface of the water that are drawn as if with a ruler. The colour of the water often changes beyond this line. These are usually new currents that arise as a result of changes in depth, such as on sandbanks or in the area of fixed objects in the water such as piers. They diverge from the main current; anyone crossing them must be prepared for a sudden change in the colour of the current.
Distances
Electronic navigation is convenient, but can be deceptive. This is because it does not show everything that is happening around the boat: By no means all boats have AIS, and objects floating in the water can only be detected if you keep a lookout. Plotters and the like can also change your perception. If you only look at two out of three possible dimensions, you gain a different awareness of the space and the situation.
This can be dangerous, for example if the on-board instruments fail, as neither the quick switch to classic navigation with paper charts nor spatial orientation may be possible straight away. Constantin Claviez has also noticed during his training cruises: "People look at their mobile phones too much, even on board, and no longer pay attention to what is happening around them. This is becoming more and more common. You get lost in the small display with the navigation programme. However, paying too much attention to detail can damage the global overview."
Practice creates safety
This can be counteracted by repeatedly training people to determine distances, course and speed with the naked eye. "Simply estimating - that has become a kind of sport for us," says André Freibote. "Thinking about how far away a sea mark could be and then comparing the value with the radar. Initially, the differences are still large, but over time the estimates become more and more accurate, especially in the close range up to three miles."
Like distance, a lot of information on the screen can be compared with that in the real environment. If you do this frequently, you will eventually recognise at a glance whether there is a risk of collision with an approaching container giant, for example. This makes looking at the plotter increasingly superfluous.
Ships with high superstructures can be spotted from a distance of 15 to 20 miles. Seen from a sailing yacht, they are then still far behind the chine. How far the view extends before it reaches the horizon depends on the height of your eyes and therefore your position on board. It can be worthwhile to determine the range on your own boat at various locations such as the cockpit, freeboard and superstructure. For example, the horizon is 2.9 nautical miles away at an eye level of two metres above the sea surface and 3.6 nautical miles at three metres.
Bearing - and then decide quickly
Once the wake or waterline of another ship can be recognised, it is about three nautical miles away. It is then necessary to check whether there is a stationary bearing. This can be done - provided the course is steered correctly - by selecting a fixed object on board, such as a railing support or a shroud, and looking over it at the other ship. If its position does not change for a while, you are on a collision course. Then you have to react quickly. At a distance of three miles, a freighter travelling at 18 knots only needs ten minutes to reach your own position if you keep your bearing!
The distance to the land can be determined using the thumb jump method - provided you can make out an object there whose length can be estimated. To do this, aim for this object with your thumb stretched up your outstretched arm. Close your left eye and move your thumb to the left end of the object. Then open your eye and close your right eye. The thumb visually jumps to the right. The distance that the jump makes to land is multiplied by ten to give the distance to land.
The course
The course to the wind is not only shown by the clicker. If the wave pattern is reasonably clear, the angle at which the boat is travelling in relation to the wave also gives it away. For example, the wave, driven by the wind, hits the bow at an acute angle on a course high upwind, while on a downwind course it rolls in from astern. This different focus can be a welcome change from constantly looking at the masthead, especially on longer strokes.
A straight course through the water is easy to maintain near the coast if you can steer towards an object on land. If you only look at the compass needle, you can draw a remarkably wavy wake. "Compass sailing on the open sea is even more difficult. Many people only pay attention to the needle," says André Freibote. "The clouds out there, for example, offer a very good means of orientation. If the cloud cover flies away in front of you like a picture in a mould, then you're not sailing a clear course." If they are not moving in the jet stream, you can also orientate yourself by individual clouds for a while and steer yourself onto a clear course this way. "When I close the compass lid, my students sail an amazingly straight line," says Freibote.
From time to time, you should also look aft. The wake also reveals whether the boat is travelling on a straight course - and with a little experience, how fast it is travelling through the water. In addition, only the view over the stern shows a possible transverse offset, for example on a buoy line.
Conversely, the same applies to reversing: here, attention must always be focussed on the bow, which can swing back and forth when the vehicle is supposedly travelling straight ahead.
Clouds, wind and weather
No weather forecast can replace looking at the sky. Showers, thunderstorms and gusts of wind cannot always be reliably predicted. The clouds, on the other hand, reveal a lot about the weather over the next few hours - especially whether rain or thunderstorms are on the way.
If the clouds are wider than they are high and less high overall than their distance from the sea, they are usually heralds of good weather. However, if they are higher than they are wide and higher than the distance between their lower edge and the water surface, they often herald bad weather. If very high cumulus clouds even form an anvil-shaped umbrella, thunderstorms are imminent.
Showers move across the sea like grey curtains and can be seen from afar. Cirrus clouds, strong morning red or a halo around the sun or moon are also harbingers of bad weather.
If the boat suddenly heels and the rudder can hardly be held because of the windward yaw, a gust has it firmly in its grip. It can also be recognised early. Gusts must always be expected when there are cumulus clouds in the sky, showers or thunderstorms in sight. They can be recognised by the darkening of the water upwind and the possible formation of whitecaps. They are also signalled by the sudden heeling of other boats in the distance. Enough time to adjust your own sail trim.
One weather phenomenon, on the other hand, is almost impossible to predict: sea fog. "The only warning is perhaps that you can see clouds forming on the horizon from the surface of the water. However, this is a very short-term warning, as the banks move quite quickly," explains Kiel meteorologist Dr Meeno Schrader. Within minutes, visibility can only be half a cable length or less. Then the focus is on the plotter and the AIS, the radar and the echo sounder - and hearing is required. After all, the eye is an important organ, but sailing is always done with all the senses.
Interview with author and sailing instructor Leon Schulz
Before setting off, you should not only pay attention to the ship and crew, but also to your own state of mind. Anxiety, stress or uncertainty can spoil the fun of sailing. Leon Schulz explains how to deal with them.
YACHT: Leon, what does "looking inside yourself" mean?
Leon Schulz: Everyone looks inside themselves. Emotions are very present when sailing because you get into situations that you are not familiar with on land. This can also trigger fear. Fear of getting into an unknown situation, of something unforeseen happening.
How can we deal with such fears?
It's about recognising your fear, facing up to it and talking about it with others. Everyone feels differently. If you can cope with a situation, you're not afraid. You just need to avoid being overwhelmed - and you can't recognise that if you don't look inside yourself. Because then you don't know where your own benchmark is. It gets higher and higher over time as the challenges increase.
"Looking inwards is important"
Do you have an example of this?
When I tell people that I've never sailed in heavy weather before, they're surprised. But that's true: Over the years, I have perhaps found myself in more wind and waves and have also had to weather storms. But I have also learnt to distinguish whether a situation is uncomfortable or dangerous. As a result, I've always raised the bar for myself.
Does that mean that when you look inside yourself before you put it down, there is no fear?
I'm scared too, and that's very healthy! You have to be humble towards nature and the sea. Especially if you haven't sailed for a long time. It also makes me feel insecure.
I'm sure many sailors are familiar with this uncertainty. Do you have any tips to help with this?
First of all, of course, good preparation. The better prepared you are, the fewer surprises you can expect. However, uncertainty often arises because you feel less good or less experienced than others. It helps to know that others only boil with water. Even those who tell great adventure stories are sometimes afraid and make mistakes. You have to realise that: You're no different from anyone else, it's just the experience that's missing. You have to allow yourself time to gain this experience.
Ursula Meer
Redakteurin Panorama und Reise
