Reply With QuoteI always do preventative maintenance, but, as in the aircraft industry no matter how much of it you do, things still break. If you do maintenance they break less often in my experience but they still break.
G'day all, I was just reading an article in a magazine about some mates who took out a Shark Cat for a fish including one young lad. Apparently conditions were pretty rough so they up anchored and shifted to a more sheltered location. On the way there the inboard made a loud bang and then proceeded to come to a halt. The owner of the boat got on the mobile phone and spoke to his wife and instructed her to call for help and gave her the location. Knowing that help was at least a few hours away there was nothing more that could be done except catch up on some rest. Not long after one of his mates alarmed all on board to get on a life jacket as the boat was taking water fast and he wasn't kidding. In no time flat all on board had to brave the water and knew there were sharks there because one was caught on a line and cut free prior to the mishap. All made it to a remote island which is where they stayed until a helicopter rescued them the following day.
After reading the story a lot of questions went through my mind regarding just how safe we are when out there on the water. I can't imagine what actually happened to the Shark Cat that made it sink but do we all adopt the same attitude that this would never happen to us or does it play in the back of all our minds when we go out? Do we take enough safety precautions as far as making sure the boat is sea worthy? If not why not? Do we check the fuel lines often enough? Is preventative maintainence carried out often enough or do we wait until things go wrong before we fix them?
Regards,
Poodroo
He who aims at nothing is sure to hit it.
I always do preventative maintenance, but, as in the aircraft industry no matter how much of it you do, things still break. If you do maintenance they break less often in my experience but they still break.
You will never be able to do anything without a degree of risk. Do you cross the road?
I keep my boat and safety gear well maintained (I think I do) and I believe that going out in the boat is an acceptable risk.
Jeremy
"The underlying spirit of angling is that the skill of the angler is pitted against the instinct and strength of the fish and the latter is entitled to an even chance for it's life."
(Quotation from the rules of the Tuna Club Avalon, Santa Catalina, U.S.A.)
Apathy is the enemy
I always think about the V8's racing at Bathurst, out of all the cars that start how many fail in just 1000 km's? Now they go over every nut and bolt before the race and things still just fail for no reason. Now these are extreeme conditions but often when out in a boat and the sea comes up it can get pretty full on what a boat has to do. So I try to fix and maintain everything to the best I can but I am aware of the fact that things can and do go wrong for no particular reason. So I always spend a little extra on safety gear because that may be the thing that saves my life one day.
Posting Permissions
