Another take on Gadgets vs KISS

[Captain Smollett]

In his cool webinar "Offshore to the Bahamas" last Fall, our Dave (Auspicious) presented a really cool point about watch standing on passage.  The idea was to utilize snack foods that require some work to keep the person on watch occupied for a bit to help 'pass the time.'

For example, oranges and boiled eggs make good snacks for the watch stander since they give something to do.

Among Dave's other good points, this really struck me.  In this era of self steering, the watch standing is reduced to just that....watching.

From this basic point, I think we can extend that to 'gadgets' in general.  A GPS/Chartplotter requires almost no work (and worse, almost no thinking) to fix a position.  In contrast, working a site, computing a DR plot, plotting on a paper chart all require DOING something other than just sitting, and thus gives the crew tasks to keep occupied.

An ocean passage should not be boring...I think that can easily cross into 'dangerous' territory.  Complacency on the sea can't be good.

Another way to look at this, I think, is that it keeps them focused ON THE BOAT...what she's doing, where she is, etc.  When we relegate ourselves, as "sailors," to just simply passengers, I think we lose that connectivity.

When something goes wrong, then, do we want a crew who is mentally "up" and aware with what is going on around him, or a half asleep, bored watch stander who takes a moment to get his mind back in the boat?

Just something I though about, kicked off the other day from another forum where people were talking about how "easy" things are/"should be" nowadays with "modern tools."

[Bubba the Pirate]

I recently came across "Thoughts, Tips, Techniques and Tactics for Singlehanded Sailing" a free download from the San Francisco Singlehanded Sailing Society at http://www.sfbaysss.org. 

I haven't read the whole thing yet, but I was shocked to come across a hole section on boredom in the psychology of singlehanding.  Perhaps not all because of 'gadgets' but more good reason to make sure that you keep your mind active. 

Of course, the ubiquity of gadgets is making it hard for some of us oldskoolers to be able to continue to find things like paper charts, etc. 

Nice post, grog. 

Cheers,
Todd