Yachting has experienced, over the past decade or so, what amounts to a technical revolution. The advance of technology with its ‘smaller, faster and ever more efficient systems has given us everything from black box navigation gear to high speed internet, global communications and even stabilization. A good friend of mine recently took out his I-phone and showed me the alarm monitoring status of everything in his engine room as we sat at dinner several miles away. Even the yachts that are getting greener are mostly reliant on technology and not common sense to achieve a reduced carbon ‘keel print’.
In the context of all these changes there is inevitably a chorus of ‘old school’ voices, several here on “Dockwalk.com” forums, that would seem to be saying that the new crew just ‘aint what they used to be’. However in many respects, and writing as someone who can only text with two fingers and at a rate slower that an arthritic farmer, I have to say that these new yachties might well have a natural ability that can be exploited.
I suspect that many of the skills common to the newer generation of yacht crew could be quite useful. After all there is surely greater and greater emphasis on computerized control of even rather modest functions aboard modern yachts. Climate control, Audio Visual, Computer Networking, and Alarm monitoring, are systems that these days have a lot more silicone trickery invested in them than a car dealer’s wife. Gone for good are the days of simple switches flashing lights and audio alarms.
But does this mean then, that the emphasis on technology will cause or is causing the focus on traditional skills both on deck and in the engine room to be left behind? It is a reasonable concern and many these days seem to suggesting that it is indeed evident to the knowledgeable eye. Many of the ‘accidents’ of the recent past suggest a failure to observe some of the very basic principles of Seamanship. And seamanship is one of those things which is better passed on working environment than in a classroom. Quite telling is the fact that even with the benefit of hindsight several people posting in the forums have seemed to suggest that there was a piece of technology that could have prevented some of 2009’s accidents in the first place.
So is there a skills gap developing for real? Or is it more of a cultural gap where the modern techie culture is not accepting or interested in learning the basic concepts that keep things like the art of seamanship and hands on engineering alive. Perhaps a bit of both.
I would imagine that for your average techie engineer who is most interested in interfaces and programming, it must be quite frustrating to have to learn the ‘Suck, Squeeze, Bang, Blow’ principles of Diesel’s cycle. And, equally so for a captain to have crew that want to use the AIS interface on the radar overlay of the ECDIS plotter but who cannot tie anything other than a bowline.
Some time ago I watched in horror as a reasonable sized vessel tried to moor stern-to in Nassau on one of the outer docks of the Hurricane Hole marina. The boat was berthing ‘down tide’ and the tide was moving at perhaps, half a knot. The boat barged and scraped its way into the dock causing, rather fortunately, only a few thousand dollars worth of paint repair work but leaving fingers mostly intact. In fact the largest dent was done to the captain’s ego. Sitting in the bar a week later and discussing the incident the captain and crew all had suggestions and solutions that may have prevented the problem: Less delay in the throttle system, more powerful bow thruster, different props, different steering gear etc. Etc. Etc. When someone suggested that they should simply have waited for the tide to turn or arrived earlier they totally discounted the notion. Instead citing other priorities as “…far more important to consider than getting into the dock with a favourable tide.”
There is undoubtedly less emphasis of some of the traditional ways of operating yachts which may simply be a skills gap. What concerns me is that there is a lack of respect for the traditional ways of operating yachts. From sound engineering practices to seamanship and ship husbandry there must be a commitment to keeping the past alive, we will certainly be safer for it.