Meeting the maestro
I enjoyed your video on Facebook of sailing the new Swan 78 with Germán Frers.
I once sailed the Frers-designed maxi
Flyer across the Atlantic and around the Mediterranean, after a major refit in New York. By coincidence, we actually met him on a beach in Sardinia. He recognised his design when we anchored offshore!
Jon Carter
Murmurs of mutiny
I read your article online by Skip Novak about who should be in charge when a professional skipper is employed – should the owner ever expect to be overruled? The answer is: who’s got the balls to make who walk the plank?
Me? Ye be seeing my service pistol if yer words be sounding like mutiny. ‘Tis my ship stem to stern, you’ll run her as I see fit or take the long walk to the drink.
No, seriously. In reality if I had a boat worthy of hiring a skipper and crew, they would have command of essential safety operations and crew management. But it’s my boat, I own it, so if any dude acts like it’s ‘his’, he’ll be dropped off at the closest port. So long as they are respectful of whose boat it really is, I’d listen to them and consider their points.
But boat owners who don’t really know anything about their boats to begin with should probably listen.
Though I’m still novice I have taken much time to carefully study and learn as much as I can, and feel my ability to manage my boat is pretty good. When I have an experienced friend sailing with me, I listen carefully and absorb as much nautical wisdom as I can. But I can and do sail my little 30-footer just my wife and I, and I also know there are many out there who don’t/cant/wont.
Shannon Batousaii
Genuine article
A note here from Bergen in Norway regarding your article in the June issue about plastic in the oceans – the plastic whale is real. Magnus Valland